My career started as a Graphic Designer at ITWorx in 2000. ITWorx is a large software services firm jointly owned by UK’s Capital Trust Group, Proparco of France, and VC Bank. I was still in the last year of university back then and accordingly the job offer was on a part-time basis. In exactly two weeks, my supervisor changed my employment status to fulltime since I was putting in the required hours and sometimes more. My primary responsibilities at the time were designing the software projects’ Graphical User Interface and designing any marketing collateral and promotional material.

In my second year at ITWorx, after obtaining my Bachelors of Science degree in Computer Science, I designed the current corporate logo and brand identity in addition to all stationary and document templates. In 2002, I was promoted to Senior Graphic Designer and my responsibilities grew to acquiring more ownership of projects’ look and feel in addition to recruiting a junior graphic designer and expand my team.

I was promoted to Creative Head in 2003 primarily to manage all marketing and communications aspects of our feature product at the time, NetCelera. NetCelera is a WAN bandwidth optimization appliance that was spun-off to Silicon Valley based SwanLabs, and later acquired by F5 Networks for $43M and renamed to WanJet. In addition to creating the product’s brand, website, and collateral, I was also responsible for all software user interface aspects. During the product launch, I created and released several press releases and organized a successful press conference.

In 2004 I was once again promoted. As Communications Coordinator, I played a variety of roles spanning Marketing, Internal and External Communications to Media Relations and Event Management. In this role, I was solely responsible for managing all aspects of the corporate website including keyword selection and evaluation, managing online campaigns, search engine optimization, traffic analysis, and lead management. In that same year, I hired a fulltime Webmaster and an intern software engineer to handle all website development enhancements and tweaks.

In 2005 I was promoted to Communications Manager and hired a team of Corporate Affairs Specialists, expanding my team and structuring the Communications Department to an independent entity complete with its own budget, resources, and objectives. I assumed even more responsibilities like Corporate Social Responsibility and Safety Health, and Environment. My team and I created dozens of public and companywide motivational, educational, and promotional events from ideation to execution. We also developed and launched several programs and initiatives. The strategic intent of the Communications Manager role was to constantly provide senior management with strategic communications advice in addition to leading all internal and external communication programs, projects, and initiatives.

In 2008 I was accepted in the MA Communication program at the University of Ottawa specializing in Organizational Communication and accordingly moved to Ottawa. I am currently doing consultancy work for San Francisco based IdealRatings, a Sharia compliant fund management solution and XTEAMS, a Canadian private company specializing in offshore and consultancy services. I am planning to study on a part-time basis.