Top IT honour for two Qatar residents

Two Qatar residents have been named to a list of the 10 most outstanding Information Technology managers in the region in 2009, for a second consecutive year.
Qatar University’s Information Technology Services director Mohamed Javeed and United Development Company’s ICT general manager G V Rao have been honoured by Arabian Computer News (ACN).
The selection was based on a range of criteria, including the overall impact the achievers have had on the regional IT community, as well as taking into account their experience with their organisations. The main criterion was their ability to align business and IT needs perfectly.
“In the middle of a global financial meltdown, they have defied conventional wisdom by maintaining considerable investment in technology,” ACN announced on www.arabianbusiness.com.
The top 10 IT managers have been credited with pursuing innovation, creating new means of working where possible and finding better ways of adapting the old technology.
Some have worked hard to bring the technology community closer together; others have taken age-old institutions and given them new life.
“Given that Qatar University is a publicly-funded institution, the challenges facing Javeed were enormous, but he’s proved himself up to the task at hand,” commended ACN, a leading technology and business magazine in the Middle East.
He replaced virtually every cable in the university campus with state-of-the-art technology and a 100% wireless network.
When Javeed joined QU in 2004, the IT department had less than 10 staff. Today, he runs a handpicked team of more than 75 professionals to handle the extensive needs of the school, all while successfully resisting the call to cut costs by outsourcing core functions.
“I try to make sure that my staff understands that it is in their best interest to improve their skills in order to be competitive in the market,” he said.
Now Javeed is preparing to roll out Windows 7 to the hundreds of desktops at QU.
Rao, the first-ever recipient of ACN’s Editor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement, is described as outspoken almost to a fault, frequently calling out his fellow CIOs for their lack of vision.
“He’s not afraid to work on projects that are notoriously difficult to pull off successfully such as Enterprise Resource Planning and indeed has become a well-known expert on the latter,” ACN has said.
At United Development Company Rao is engaged in building the network infrastructure for The Pearl Qatar’s mega-construction project.
He is highly experienced in different geographies having worked across the GCC in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, among others.
Commenting on his achievement, Javeed said that the honour reflects on the vision of Qatar University to provide state-of-the art facilities and products to its faculty, staff and students.