Omar Hijazi

Updated on Nov 16, 2023

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Nationality American		Name Omar Hijazi

Born August 17th, 1971 Beirut, Lebanon Alma mater University of California San Diego State University Occupation Entrepreneur, Founder of Digital Policy Council Education San Diego State University, University of California, San Diego

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Omar Hijazi is the managing partner of Digital Daya, a privately owned company and also the founder for the Digital Policy Council. He was the former CEO of Dubai-based company Tejari, which ranked as world’s 8th largest global electronic sourcing company in the year 2009.

Career

Omar joined Digital Daya in October 2009 as the Managing Partner. Digital Daya ('digital influence') is a new generation strategic consultancy that empowers leaders in the public sectors to leverage the new media of the Internet to communicate their message, build public influence, and execute high-impact programs to reshape governance and public policy. Digital Daya has offices located in Kuala Lumpur, Washington D.C., and Dubai. Omar Hijazi also leads the research and public policy arm of the organization based in Washington D.C. The Digital Policy Council (DPC), an international, non-partisan "think tank" on 21st Century Governance.

Omar Hijazi was the former CEO(July 2005- May 2009) of the Dubai-based Tejari, a fast-growing e-commerce network that has succeeded in becoming the number-one hub of online trade for businesses and individuals in the UAE, the region and across emerging markets all over the world. Since taking the helm at Tejari in 2005, Hijazi has managed to lead a semi-governmental one-product company into becoming a multi-product success story over the Internet, with the launch of several online e-commerce initiatives and ventures that brought global recognition for the six-year-old company.

Hijazi has helped to establish Tejari as the regional leader in e-commerce, making it one of the most recognizable brands in the industry. Tejari, the leading online B2B marketplace for emerging markets, has been ranked as the eighth largest electronic sourcing platform in the world, in a Forrester research report entitled “Holistic View: The ePurchasing Software Market”.

Tejari has managed to launch two new lines of business under Hijazi—Tejari Ventures and Tejari Communities. Tejari Ventures is the company’s idea-lab that incubates e-commerce new initiatives and then launches them as new companies. Tejari Communities is a new concept for the emerging markets, where offline communities are being brought online and offered a virtual space, in which members of each community can interact with their peers from the same community, members of other communities and the outside world.

Dubai World, the state-owned holding company of the Emirate of Dubai received criticism for overly aggressive expansion and reliance on debt to finance their expansion and development during 2009. Tejari as a Dubai World subsidiary and its CEO Omar Hijazi also faced similar criticism. Also, Hijazi managed to lead a substantial growth in Tejari’s main core business, the already successful Tejari Marketplace business-to-business procurement suite and Tejari’s international franchising operations.

Business

Hijazi has over 20 years experience of working in the ICT industry, with a large proportion of that experience gained in the global center of the high-tech community, Silicon Valley. Among his achievements in those 20 years, Hijazi has led a strategic sourcing program worth more than $1 billion; brought more than $100 million in savings to the holding company one of the world’s largest CPG firms; launched an e-marketplace whose current membership consists of global industry leaders with combined revenue of over $900 billion; and developed a go to-market strategy which captured a market worth $1.3 billion.

He has played a number of key roles for leading companies in the consultancy field, building a strong understanding of e-business and logistics. As senior manager at Ernst and Young LLP in Los Angeles, Hijazi helped lead the business intelligence and performance management practice for the company. Prior to joining Tejari, Hijazi was Senior Principal at A.T. Kearney, Inc., where he provided consultancy and thought leadership to the high-tech practice and e-commerce groups serving the Fortune 500.

Hijazi began his career as a Computer Scientist for Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) in San Diego, California.

Education

Hijazi has a degree in Computer Engineering from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and an MBA in Finance from San Diego State University(SDSU).