Executive Vice President, Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), Egypt

Sherif Hashem is the executive vice president of Egypt’s Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA), responsible for e-signature, cyber security, and intellectual property rights protection for software and databases. He is also an associate professor at Cairo University’s Faculty of Engineering; chairman of the national committee drafting Egypt’s cyber security, data protection and privacy law; deputy chairman of the national committee on cooperation between IT companies and R&D institutions; a member of the high level committee on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and the technical committee charged with enhancing the national ID card; and a founding member of the Internet Society of Egypt and the Egyptian Smart Cards Association.

Prior to joining ITIDA in December 2004, Dr. Hashem’s numerous appointments include director of the Information Society Development Office, manager of the e-Business Program at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, head of the national committee preparing Egypt’s e-signature law, and director of the Egyptian Focal Point for the EuroMed Information Society (EUMEDIS) initiative of 2000-03. He has authored or co-authored more than 40 articles and book chapters in the areas of information technology, e-commerce, computational intelligence and operations research, and has also carried out consultation assignments for various international organizations.