Usama Fayyad

Company: Oasis 500
Position: Executive chairman

Biography: Usama Fayyad is the executive chairman of Oasis 500, an early-stage investment and development company in Jordan that aims to fund 500 technology start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region within the next five years.

Prior to his current role, Fayyad served as Yahoo’s chief data officer and executive vice-president of research and strategic data solutions from 2004-08. During his time at the US web portal, Fayyad built the world’s largest behavioural targeting system operating more than half a billion user profiles and accurately predicting interests in many categories.

In 2008, Fayyad founded and served as chief executive of Open Insights, a data strategy, technology and consulting firm. He has master of science degrees in computer engineering and mathematics from the University of Michigan in the US. He completed a doctorate in computer science and engineering in 1991.

Contact: (+962) 6 580 5460
Company website: www.oasis500.com