CHANNEL CHIEF
Blending technology,
business acumen,
empowerment
Abed Shaheen is a unique blend of passion for technology,
innovation, people empowerment and global understanding of
business, and continues to use his natural talents at InfoFort
and, more recently, at Skillpowerment.com. By Arun Shankar.
Abed Shaheen,
CEO InfoFort.
I
n his capacity as the CEO of InfoFort,
Abed Shaheen is responsible for
positioning the company, developing
and driving its global strategy and leading
its expansion and growth. He has grown
the company in 20+ countries, and is
currently driving its acquisition strategy
into key growth markets, as well as leading
its digital transformation.
“I have the pleasure and responsibility
of leading a highly dynamic and
continuously evolving enterprise that is
at the forefront of data and information
management solutions. What really drives
me and motivates me most is the impact
that InfoFort has created and continues to
create every day,” says Shaeen.
“The fact that we grew from a startup
in Dubai to a leader in 25 cities in the
Middle East, Africa and Asia means that
we created much more jobs and positively
impacted thousands as a result of it. This
is also the responsibility that comes with
this realisation. How can we continue to
grow, create more jobs, have more impact
and directly or indirectly improve the lives
of the many people we touch?”
60
I am passionate
about strategy,
leadership,
innovation
ecosystems,
startups,
technology, and
empowering
information
driven
sustainability
initiatives.
During his 15 years in the UAE, Shaheen
spent the first six years at Aramex where
he helped build and grow the GCC supply
chain solutions offering. These were
exciting times for him, because he was
given the opportunity to build something
virtually from scratch, and had the ability to
compete with traditional players that were
well-established at the time.
“We were the new players in town
and through a lot of hard work, curiosity,
dedication, extensive technology
enablement, competitive strategies, and
the enhancement of human capital and
capabilities, we were able to grow the
supply chain solutions from its infancy
stage into a reputable market leader. The
greatest joy was when we landed one of
the biggest contracts in the UAE because
of our technological advancements. This
was a testament to our hard work and
efforts and filled me with pride,” reflects
Shaheen. In 2009, Shaheen was given the
opportunity to join InfoFort, a company
that was previously acquired by Aramex
in 2005, and that solely did document
storage at the time. Again, technology
played a significant role in this part of his
career. “I saw an immediate opportunity
for transforming this high-potential
enterprise from a document storage
company into one that specialises in data
and information management.”
When the document storage facilities
were filled with vast amounts of documents,
it occurred to Shaheen that InfoFort was
housing content and data that was of
utmost importance to their clients. “I saw
the need for this data to be organised,
properly managed and digitised. This was
another period of great excitement, but also
one that was accompanied by substantial
challenges, complexities, and lessons to be
learned, he points out.
Issue 14
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS