Ahmed Khaled AL Bikawi, Strategic Country & Business Leader

Philosophy

How I see service and how I lead

On service

Service is a main driver of business continuity. When support runs on a clear process, a real understanding of the business and the customer, with disciplined SOPs behind every service, support stops being a cost and becomes a guarantee: tangible, measurable value the customer can feel. That is what customers renew, and that is what wins tenders.

On leadership

I lead from the front: by example, through coaching and mentoring, and by being there when it matters. My management is target-oriented, close to the people, and built on proactive planning, set the direction, prepare the ground, then trust the team and stay within reach.

Global technology giant

Controlled, measured, disciplined

Local Gulf organization

Culture and relationships

European multinational

Trust and flexibility

Born in Saudi Arabia, worked across most of the Gulf. There is no "right or wrong" style in management, only the discipline of adapting to the culture and the people. The result is a hybrid approach: knowing when to be bold, when to be strict, and when to be flexible.

DISCIPLINE · structured, measured delivery CULTURE · people and relationship intelligence TRUST · flexibility and empowerment

“

Every battle is won before it is ever fought.

Sun Tzu · The Art of War

One of the books that shaped my leadership. I read it as a manual for proactive planning: know the terrain, prepare the ground, and win before the moment arrives. It is the same thinking behind predictive maintenance, crisis readiness, and walking into every negotiation prepared.

Executive profile

From national networks to national healthcare

My career runs through the systems a country cannot afford to lose: national networks, diagnostic laboratories, and the security governance protecting both. From core network engineer to Regional Chief Cybersecurity Officer for three countries and the public voice of cyber governance in the Gulf, then into healthcare, where reliability and trust carry even higher stakes.

At Roche Diagnostics Kuwait I rebuilt Professional Services from a cost center into a commercial growth engine, taking the business to its record year, up 70% versus 2021, with the region's first exclusive Ministry approval for secure remote connectivity and the lead role in the ISO 27001 journey for Roche Middle East.

Beyond Kuwait, I serve on the Middle East Professional Services Committee and the global team supporting professional services across the region's countries.

Current mandates

Head of Professional Services, IT & Digital Transformation

Digital solutions lead across the Middle East, P&L, delivery, customer support

ISMS Manager & Data Protection Officer

Formal governance roles; ISO 27001 certification lead

Founder & Lead, RDME Cybersecurity & Privacy CoP

The region's first cybersecurity community of practice

Co-lead, "Cybersecurity as a Strategic Enabler"

EMEA-LATAM Cybersecurity Competency Center

Member, Roche Global Service Committees

Driving regional and global service excellence

ME Representative, "Digital Trust Partner of Choice"

Representing the Middle East in Roche's digital trust strategy

Career route

Eighteen years, one direction: bigger systems, higher stakes

2020 — PRESENTKWT · MIDDLE EAST

Head of Professional Services, Digital Solutions & Cybersecurity

Roche Diagnostics, Kuwait & Middle East

Leads services, digital solutions, cybersecurity, and customer support: full service P&L in Kuwait, Middle East leadership roles, and Roche global service committees.
Leads the high-level escalation interface: CIOs and CTOs of major customers, public-sector leadership up to Undersecretary level, and the National Cyber Security Center.
Showcased the Kuwait service success story at Roche's global Winning with Service Competitive Talks; won the Kuwait Oil Company national tender on the strength of value-added services.
Built the commercialization model that took the business to its record revenue year, with AI-enabled workflows, predictive maintenance, and resource intelligence.
Secured Kuwait's exclusive Ministry approval for secure remote connectivity; leading the region's ISO 27001 journey; founded the region's first Cybersecurity & Privacy CoP.
KPI turnaround: preventive maintenance 17% → 92%, remote connectivity 45% → 90%, 100% customer satisfaction; held full continuity through the 2026 regional crisis with 715 field hours.
Built national capability through Kuwaitization and early-career development programs.

2019 — 2020KWT

Head of Managed Services

Advanced Technology Company (ATC)

Built Kuwait's first healthcare managed services with integrated security operations: a 24/7 unified support center for all Ministry of Health projects, with a Security Operations Center designed in alongside the NOC.
Secured and onboarded a national partnership with Huawei to run 24/7 technical support for Kuwait's fixed network.
Implemented ITSM tooling governing all managed-service workflows, asset management, facility management, service operations, and project delivery.
Designed enterprise security frameworks aligned with NIST, ISO 27001, and COBIT 5 for government clients.

2016 — 2019KWT · QAT · BHR

Director of O&M / Regional Chief Cybersecurity Officer

Huawei Technologies

Appointed Regional CSO for three countries; official technical spokesperson leading TV, radio, and press interviews on cybersecurity across the Middle East.
Directed nationwide operations for the Ministry of Communication across national fixed-network infrastructure.
Featured in Huawei People global magazine ("No Secrets to Success") and published on Huawei's Expert Honorary Board as an Expert in Fixed Network Technology.
Best Network Quality Award (CTO Team, Huawei HQ); Top 3 Regional Managed Service Delivery Leader (2017).

2014 — 2016KWT

Chief Technical Officer

Huawei Technologies, Kuwait

Led national core network modernization (NGN, IMS, VoLTE) with end-to-end service continuity through major expansions and cutovers.

2008 — 2014JOR · REGION

Core Network Engineer → Department Manager

Huawei Technologies, Jordan & Middle East

Engineer to Department Manager in six years, delivering core network projects across Jordan, Egypt, Oman, Bahrain, and Kuwait.

Recognition & credentials

Recognized inside Roche, and beyond it

2026Global success case: Kuwait showcased at Roche's Winning with Service Competitive Talks
2026U.S. Embassy Kuwait panelist: "Cybersecurity Trends" with Kuwait's top executives in oil, banking, and telecom
2025AI Expert Judge, Arab Open University International Summit, under the patronage of H.H. the Prime Minister of Kuwait
2025First Roche Value+ Enablement Workshop in EMEA-LATAM: led design and delivery for the region
2024Leadership Mentor, national mentorship program under H.E. the Minister of Social Affairs; Vice Chair, Arab Entrepreneurs Committee
2022EMEA Award of Excellence: #1 Online Support adoption in EMEA, Top 4 globally
2017Top 3 Regional Managed Service Delivery Leader, Huawei Middle East; Best Network Quality Award, Huawei HQ
HQFeatured in Huawei People global magazine ("No Secrets to Success") and Huawei's Expert Honorary Board, Fixed Network Technology

Certifications

CISM, ISACA ITIL v4, AXELOS Scotwork Advanced Negotiation Managed Service Professional, Huawei HQ Media & Broadcast Training, PA Media

Education

B.Sc. Electronics & Communication Engineering, Amman Al-Ahliyya University, 2008

Published in

The Peninsula (Qatar) Al-Qabas (Kuwait) Al-Watan (Kuwait) Akhbar Al-Khaleej (Bahrain)

Languages of work

Arabic, native English, professional

"Special thanks to Mr. Ahmad Albikawi for leading the technical team with great technical experience and good management."

NGN Migration Project ManagerMinistry of Communications, State of Kuwait

"Hardworking, conscientious and enthusiastic… a true asset to the Ministry of Communication."

Technical & Maintenance Management TeamMinistry of Communications, State of Kuwait

"Your exceptional dedication, professionalism, and unique ability to inspire and guide… have left a lasting impression."

Chairwoman, Leadership Mentorship ProgramUnder the patronage of H.E. the Minister of Social Affairs

Open the full appreciation letters (PDF) →

InterSystems Role Match · Head of Product Support, Middle East & India

How I would lead Product Support for the Middle East & India

Support is more than solving problems. Behind every case is an end user, and in healthcare, that end user is a patient.

For me, product support means one thing above all: providing a safe environment for the patient. That is how I stay connected to the people we serve, and it is why I treat every case as more than a ticket. An initial view of how I would approach the mandate, to be validated with the regional managers, customers, the leadership team, and global Product and Engineering stakeholders.

Why my background fits: three chapters

MISSION CRITICAL

500K+

users and subscribers supported

Telecom-grade operations

National 24/7 support environments: availability, escalation, incident control, operational analytics.

CUSTOMER OUTCOMES

+70%

service revenue growth, 100% retention

Healthcare service leadership

Service shifted from reactive support into a governed, commercial, customer-facing differentiator.

DATA TRUST

countries in cybersecurity scope

Cybersecurity & governance

CISM, ISMS, DPO. Ministry assessments, secure remote access, regulated healthcare environments.

How I lead

1 · Strategic vision, operational presence

I work at two altitudes: with global leadership to implement strategy and enhance the service, and with my reporting managers on the ground to remove their operational difficulties. Visionary when setting direction, hands-on when the operation needs me, always mentoring, coaching, and empowering the leaders under me.

2 · Governance over heroics

Support that depends on heroes is fragile. I prefer ownership, cadence, clear decision rights, and escalation paths that always work, day and night.

3 · Evidence over assertion

Workload, customer impact, service risk, and investment cases should be visible in data, not defended through politics.

4 · Value before cost

Customers support what they can see and trust. Transparency, root-cause discipline, and consultative engagement come first.

Software and hardware support: two different disciplines

Hardware fails loudly. Software fails silently. A hardware failure raises an alarm and a field engineer replaces a part. A software issue is a bug, a vulnerability, or a customer calling to say "it feels slow" while no alarm fires anywhere. I have led both worlds, field service organizations and software platforms, and I merge that knowledge to strengthen both.

SOFTWARE SUPPORT · MY APPROACH

Defect management, hotfixes, and patches through an engineering loop
Version and release management with clear upgrade guidance
Cybersecurity: vulnerability monitoring, security patching, advisories
Observability and baselines to catch the silent issues no alarm reports

HARDWARE SUPPORT · ALSO LED IT

On-site field engineering, repairs, and installations
Spare parts logistics and installed-base lifecycle care
Preventive maintenance programs and site readiness
Alarm-driven monitoring and rapid dispatch

Sense

Use data, telemetry, and case patterns to detect risk earlier

Route

Improve case classification, ownership, and intelligent routing

Resolve

Shift known-error resolution left through knowledge and guided workflows

Learn

Feed incidents and customer signals into problem management and product improvement

Responsible AI in support: case summarization, knowledge search, similar-incident retrieval, and quality review, aligned with compliance and privacy rules. Automation and tooling asks framed as risk, capacity, and customer-impact decisions, not technology experiments.

How I would start

No assumptions about the current setup. I start by understanding what is there today, then build with the team, not over their heads.

People & trust first

Meet every team member and leader. Build trust and relationships before changing anything.

As-is & gap analysis

Collect what exists today: processes, tools, KPIs. Define the to-be, find the gaps, and work on them.

Hear the customers

Meet key customers, listen to their pain points in their own words, and bring their voice inside.

Build a squad

Create a cross-functional squad that works together on the gaps, with clear ownership.

Empower the leaders

Coach and mentor the managers, grow their skills, and close the capability gaps in the team.

Prioritize & deliver

Prioritize the work with leadership, fix the most painful issue first, and show a visible result early.

After 12 months: what I would ask to be measured on

Customers

Top accounts feel Product Support is easier to work with, escalation paths are trusted, and support is part of the expansion story.

Governance

One regional performance framework is live. Leadership uses the pack to make decisions, not to debate numbers.

Modernization

First practical automation or AI-assisted support use cases are live, measured, and governed responsibly.

People

Managers have clear development plans, critical-skill visibility improves, and workforce asks connect to growth and risk.

Closing thought

I would not start by telling the organization what to change. I would start by understanding where trust, flow, and capability need to improve.

My immediate contribution: leadership discipline, customer confidence, service governance, and the ability to translate operational complexity into executive decisions.

How I see service and how I lead

On service

On leadership

The Kuwait success story, showcased to Roche worldwide

From national networks to national healthcare

Current mandates

Kuwait Oil Company: a national tender won on service value

The tender

Why Roche won

Telecom grade frameworks, AI driven support

From U.S. Embassy platforms to the Gulf press

"Cybersecurity Trends", U.S. Embassy Kuwait & Innotech

Freedom 250: Security Partnership Ghabqa

AI+X Student Innovation Exhibition

Eighteen years, one direction: bigger systems, higher stakes

Interviews, articles, and moments on record

Competitive Talk, the Kuwait Success Story, showcased to Roche worldwide

On the criticality of cybersecurity, television interview

Cybersecurity and digital risk, media interview

Leading the AI graduation projects, Arab Open University, Kuwait

Understanding cybersecurity threats in a remote-work environment

Cybersecurity threats and the healthcare sector in times of crisis

The growing capability to face cybersecurity challenges

Service leadership articles and posts on LinkedIn