Board of Directors
Leith M. Masri - Chairman
Mr. L. Masri is a Founder and Partner of Foursan Group. Previously, Mr. L. Masri was with the Blackstone Group in New York, a leading US private equity house with $150 billion in assets raised for alternative asset investing. At Blackstone, he focused on Private Equity/Leveraged Buyouts as well as on Mergers and Acquisitions.
Mr. L. Masri is the Chairman of Estarta Solutions and is a Director of Foursan Capital Partners I, Arab Wings, Edgo Group, Palestine Telecom, Royal Jordanian Air Academy and XPress Telecom, as well as being a Trustee of Medical Aid for Palestinians. Mr. L. Masri is also an attorney admitted to the New York Bar.
Mr. L. Masri received his Juris Doctorate in Law as well as his Masters of Business Administration from Stanford University, and a Bachelors of Arts in Economics from Harvard University.
Nashat T. Masri - Vice Chairman
Mr. N. Masri is a Founder and Partner of Foursan Group. He joined Foursan from J.P. Morgan, where he was a Vice President in the Investment Banking Group, with a focus on financial institutions. His experience includes mergers, acquisitions and advisory assignments in the US, Europe and Latin America.
Mr. N. Masri is a Director of Foursan Capital Partners I, the Jordan Fund, Al-Isra Education & Investment Plc, the Aqaba Development Corporation, Cairo Amman Bank, Estarta Solutions, and XPress Telecom. He is a trustee of Al-Isra Private University and a director of Shabakat Al Urdon.
Mr. N. Masri received a Masters of Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a Bachelors of Arts in Economics from Harvard University.
Hashim M.S. Alawadi - Member
Mr. Alawadi is Technology Investments Company’s General Manager, a Saudi private equity company. Mr. Alawadi has 20 years of experience in engineering, operations and capital management in the high-tech industry gained through various engineering and management positions at Fortune 500 companies such as Applied Materials. He founded and managed a US based consulting business providing services to high-tech companies world-wide such as Applied Materials, Philips and Daewoo in design, production, test, automation, systems integration and networked communication.
Mr. Alawadi received his BS in 1988, and MSE degree in Controls and Systems Engineering in 1992, both from the University of Texas at Austin in addition to extensive professional education in management, financial planning and budgeting, accounting, legal and financial due diligence.
Mr. Alawadi is the recipient of numerous honors such as the Instrument Society of America Best Conference Paper and The University of Texas Bureau of Engineering Research Fellowship.
Microsoft Corporation - Member
Ennis Rimawi - Member
Mr. Rimawi is the Founder and Managing Partner of Catalyst Private Equity (Catalyst,) launched in late 2006. Catalyst is the Arab region’s first specialized Energy and Water Technology (Cleantech) Fund. Over the past 20 years Mr. Rimawi’s focus has been on technology business building, turnarounds, manufacturing, and investment structuring in the US and Arab region. He is the founder of ONEWORLD Software Solutions and led the turnaround of Estarta Solutions 2002-2005.
Mr. Rimawi is the Executive Chairman of Millennium Energy Industries (Jordan/KSA/UAE/PAL), Chairman of X3M International (UAE/Norway/KSA), and a Director of Omni Oil Technologies (UAE). Additionally he is a founder of NetCorps (NGO) and the MIT Arab Alumni Association, and a member of the YPO, YAL, and Young Global Leaders (WEF).
Mr. Rimawi is a graduate of MIT’s Leaders for Manufacturing Fellows Program. BS in Eng. Systems (’91) MIT, a MS in Environmental Engineering (’96) MIT, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management (’96).
Brahim Sbai - Observer
Mr. Sbai is an accomplished Executive with special expertise in Technical Support, Technical Marketing, Technology incubation, business strategy and planning, sales growth, and IT Architecture for multi-billion dollar, global-technology company.
Mr. Sbai achieved consistent record of contribution, success, and fast-track promotions during 10 years with Cisco (currently a Senior Director). Exceptionally strong technical and business background, including Parallel Computing University degree and Enterprise Management high degree.
Mr. Sbai is currently a Senior Director at Cisco Systems part of the Global Enterprise Theater service sales organization where he is leading the complex solutions sales for Cisco global customers. Mr. Sbai is also on the Cisco Belux Cisco Board.
Prior to joining Cisco in 2000, Mr. Sbai made his career with a French Hyper-Market company. So far, he looks back on a blue-chip track record of professional achievements.
Shahm M. Al-Wir - Member
Mr. Al-Wir is a Director at Foursan Group, a leading Middle Eastern Private Equity firm. Prior to joining Foursan, Mr. Al-Wir was with Debevoise & Plimpton in New York, one of the world’s leading international law firms, having spent over six years focusing on US and Middle Eastern mergers and acquisitions and capital markets transactional and advisory work.
Mr. Al-Wir is a Director of Foursan Capital Partners I and Estarta Solutions. He is also the President of the Harvard Arab Alumni Association. Mr. Al-Wir is an attorney admitted to the New York Bar.
Mr. Al-wir received a Juris Doctorate in Law from the University of Virginia School of Law, and a Bachelors of Arts in Government, magna cum laude, from Harvard University. Shahm is fluent in Arabic, English and French.
Hatem Zeine - Member
Mr. Zeine is a technology innovator and entrepreneur in computer software and hardware. Mr. Zeine has built several successful technology businesses in the past 20 years, with emphasis on creative solutions, longevity and social responsibility.
Mr. Zeine has brought to the market several successful products for the Apple Macintosh like Alef word processor and Seen spreadsheet. Currently, Mr. Zeine is building his next start-up in the electronics industry bringing new innovation to powering small consumer electronic devices in Washington USA.
Mr. Zeine has degrees in Physics and Computational Linguistics from Manchester University, and has contributed to computer publications such as BYTE magazine and others. As a founding member of INT@J, the Information Technology Association of Jordan, Mr. Zeine served as head of several committees as well as its vice chairman.