Advisory Board
Partner & Principal Consultant

Ahmad Haleem is a C level executive with 28 years of professional experience in mobile telephony with strong interfaces in media and technology sectors. From the USA and then directly in the MENA region, led business development and operations in the Middle East, Asia and Africa regions.

As Group-CEO of Wataniya Telecom International he bid for and started up operations in emerging markets, including building a regional wireless operator that was successfully acquired for +10x EBITDA. Successfully closed over US$3 billion in corporate and project financing. He managed successfully as Chairman and/or Board Member to establish 6 telecommunication service providers across the MENA region. He further succeeded to sell the Wataniya Group for 2.2 Billion USD as one of the biggest deals in the region’s history in telecom.

Ahmad is a strategic thinker who creates a clear vision and strategy, incorporating long term values and convictions, while embracing cultural change.

He is a decision maker who drives results, leveraging key relationships, committed to performance by building consensus, with clear communication and sound business acumen.

He develops, motivates and mentors to ensure individuals reach their growth potential as a formula for consistent operational and management performance. Driver of change through to completion, breaking down barriers and encouraging innovation.

He is able to connect customer insights/needs with technology opportunities, embracing new/disruptive ways of delivering products and services, taking calculated risks to produce the highest returns.

Partner & Principal Consultant

John Lincoln has over 35 years of international digital and telecoms strategy, M&A, sales, marketing and operations experience in the USA, Europe, Japan, UAE, Saudi Arabia India and Malaysia and with shorter term stints in Thailand and Brazil.

Prior to the founding of Digital IQ, John was the Chief Business and Wholesale Officer in Mobily (a tier 1 telecom operator in Saudi Arabia), with leadership responsibly for sales, marketing, customer care, operations and collections. John’s other stints include as SVP of the SMB business unit for Etisalat with annual P&L responsibly for for USD 1.3 B.

John had responsibly to lead over 1000+ commercial team members. In addition, John played a significant transformational turn around leadership in 4 major telecoms operations in Japan and the UAE and has delivered double digit B2B revenue growth over a period of 8 consecutive years in both an attacker and incumbent tier 1 telecom operators.

John’s other roles include as Head or Commercial Strategy in Vodafone Group in the UK and Head of Enterorise Marketing for Japan Telecom (now Soft Bank) in Tokyo, Japan.

John has an MS in Telecommunication and an MBA in General Management from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, California, USA.