Cognizant announced that Maged Wassim has joined the company as Vice President, Head of Middle East. In this role, Maged will lead Cognizant’s commercial activities to supercharge growth in the region. Under his leadership in the Middle East, Cognizant will contribute to the region’s goal to move to a knowledge-based economy, focused on digital transformation technologies, such as data and AI, and helping enterprises with their cloud journey.

Maged has built his 23-year career in roles spanning functions, such as consultancy services, infrastructure and technology services, industry solution and software sales across the Middle East, Africa and Growth Market countries. He most recently served as Vice President of Technology at Majid Al Futtaim Carrefour, focusing on enterprise digital transformation. Prior to this, he worked at IBM for 22 years, with his last assignment as Vice President, IBM cloud and cognitive software.

Based in Dubai, he is part of the Global Growth Markets (GGM) country leadership team, reporting to Ursula Morgenstern, President, GGM.

Maged studied Mechanical Engineering in Egypt and completed his Masters in Industrial Engineering at Brunel University in the UK. He has lived and worked in London, Shanghai and Dubai.

“I am thrilled to welcome Maged to the Cognizant team as our new Head of Middle East,” said Ursula Morgenstern, President, GGM, Cognizant. “Maged’s leadership experience in enterprise digital transformation roles will help us accelerate growth in the region and grow our presence in key industry sectors such as banking and finance, public sector and aviation.”

“I am excited to join Cognizant at this time to be the Head of Middle East, drive commercial growth for the region and provide clients here with best-in-class digital transformation technologies,” said Maged Wassim, Head of Middle East, Cognizant. “In particular, I am looking forward to working with a highly skilled team of experts who will help ensure our clients see us as their digital transformation and cloud partner of choice as they accelerate their own digital projects and move into an era focused on knowledge-based operating environment.”

Cognizant has been present in the region since 2008.