Riad Assir
Chief Technology Officer
*********@*******.***
+971-**-***-**** / +961-**-****** / +1-703-***-****
Dynamic and strategic technology leader with a distinguished career spanning over 28 years of experience in software engineering, technology innovation, and digital transformation in the US and Gulf region. Possesses a unique blend of experience in building commercial software, managing technology operations, and leading consulting practice. Proven track record delivering solutions in healthcare, insurance, environment, education, supply chain, eCommerce, banking, and finance.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Paragon Shift, US-Ohio (remote) 2021 - Present
Chief Technology Officer
Responsible for creating a new technology division to deliver projects in AI/ML and Data Analytics. Sample projects include:
AI/ML: delivered AI/ML and LLM based technology solutions to clients in agriculture, insurance, and finance.
Open Banking: built a new open banking platform for integrating banks and Fintech’s globally.
Medical Devices: strategy and blueprint to extend the physical devices with Medical IoT and analytics.
Azure Data Warehouse & BI: migration of on-premises data warehouses to Azure Synapse/Data Lake and Power BI
Crypto Wallet: created plans for a startup to provide Crypto currency access to retail outlets and investment companies.
GlobeMed Solutions, Gulf & Middle East 2018 - 2021
Group Chief Information Officer / Chief Technology Officer
Responsible for the technology division across 12 countries in the MENA and GCC. Upgraded the technology department to world class status for this established software & services company in the healthcare insurance industry.
Turned around the technology department to support the business expansion across MENA, Gulf and Europe.
Led the delivery of a healthcare insurance ERP system with latest technologies, including Amazon AWS, RAD tools, Mobility, AI/ML, BI and BPM. The new platform was designed to replace on-premises systems for 300 Insurance companies supporting 22,000 healthcare providers and 10+ million insured members in 14 countries.
Setup a new organization structure, implemented agile processes (SCRUM), embedded quality controls and upgraded talent and tools, which contributed to elevating the company rank into the number one spot in the regional market.
Established a new Professional Services department to handle all client implementations and create a new source of revenue, which vastly improved system implementation quality and time to market.
Team: 75 FTE’s (Architects, Developers, Quality Assurance, Business Analysts, DevOps, Support, BI, ML, and UX)
MetLife, Dubai & South Carolina 2013 - 2018
Head of Digital Strategy – Global Technology - GEB
Responsible for global IT strategic initiatives and emerging technologies, covering 40 countries, and focused on the Employee Benefits business division. Worked closely with the top 7 focus countries to implement emerging technology projects.
Led Data Analytics initiatives in the Gulf and Latin America to detect fraud and abuse in the Claims Processing department, which led to savings of $4M per country in the first year. Awarded “project of the year” delivery leader.
Led the development of a new Health & Wellness product, involving integration with third party wellness tools combined with Data Analytics as part of a global innovation program. The program was later used as a model for other countries.
Deloitte & Touche, Dubai 2010-2012
Head of IT Strategy - Gulf
Responsible for establishing the technology team in the Gulf and Middle East as a technology solution provider.
Led all projects in IT Strategy, PMO, SOA Transformations, Cloud Migrations and ERP Implementation (Oracle & SAP).
Significantly improved win rate for all technology bids and reduced proposal turnaround time by 70%
Ellucian (Datatel), Fairfax, VA 2006 - 2009
Senior Manager – Emerging Technologies
Responsible for introducing Microsoft based technology products for this established software company, serving the higher education. Led all aspects of design, development, and delivery of systems that significantly improved sales to over 700 colleges.
Led the delivery of the first release of a portal product on a scalable platform to support students and staff on college campuses. The system was awarded top 5 finalist status amongst 2000 Microsoft ISV Partner products worldwide.
Managed all phases of the first release of a student recruiting system which became the foundation for future products.
Led the acquisition of a Web Content Management company and integrated its product with the legacy applications.
Team: 20 FTE’s (Managers, Architects, Developers, Quality Assurance, Business Analysts, and UI Designers)
Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, VA 2001 - 2006
Director of Technology - TransportMAX
Successfully delivered the first release of an eCommerce exchange system used by US transportation agencies. Led all phases of the project from contract negotiations to technical support.
Chief Architect & Senior Manager - ICIS
Won a $32M project with EPA. Managed the delivery team during the requirements, design and development phases of this transformation of a legacy mainframe system to Java/J2EE technologies.
Introduced design methodologies using UML. Designed the entire system using a J2EE architecture based on patterns.
B2eMarkets, Rockville, MD 2000 - 2001
Director of Software Development
Responsible for leading the technology department that developed this startup’s main product - a strategic sourcing eCommerce application sold to Fortune 500 companies as a service (SaaS).
Established and managed a new software development department that successfully delivered the first version of an online exchange system. The system won clients from well established companies like Ariba, Commerce One, Free Markets.
Managed the product lifecycle from inception through maintenance. Provided architectural oversight and technical leadership to the delivery team with hands on involvement in all architecture and design work.
Team: 30 FTE’s (Managers, Developers, Product Managers, Data Architects, Administrators)
Thomson Reuters, Rockville, MD 1998 - 2000
Vice President of Technology/Technical Director
Responsible for product development and technical operations for the “insider trading” division.
Turned around the technology department after much employee and customer dissatisfaction. Instrumental in achieving stability, improving employee morale and focusing the entire organization on achieving strategic goals.
Established web presence with new and innovative applications to provide financial institutions access to insider information in publicly traded companies.
Team: 45 FTE’s (Managers, Developers, Quality Assurance, Graphic Designers, Data Architects)
Prior Relevant Experience
SoftMed Systems (3M), Bethesda MD Software Delivery Director
Manugistics, Inc. Rockville, MD Senior Software Developer
Applied Insurance Research, Inc. Boston, MA Software Engineer
EDUCATION
MS Computer Science, American University, Washington, DC
BS Computer Systems Engineering, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
Certifications in Scrum, Kanban, Data science, Java, Python, AI/Machine Learning, Azure, AWS and Microservices design
TECHNOLOGIES
Python, C/C++/C#, Java, .NET, ASP, JSP, OutSystems, Cloud native design, Microservices, and Cloud (AWS and Azure)
AI/ML development with Microsoft Azure ML and TensorFlow. Incorporating LLM (ChatGPT) in Python applications
Business Intelligence – QlickView, Tableau, Power BI, Azure Synapse & Data Lake, Mongo DB and Data Warehouse design
Methodologies such as Agile, Kanban & Scrum certified, CMMi, ISO-9000, Test Driven, DDD, CI/CD
ADKAR change management methodology to support enterprise systems migrations in various industries
LANGUAGES & PERSONAL
US Citizen – Native English speaker. Fluent in Arabic and French
Extensive travel and living experience throughout the USA, Middle East, Gulf and Europe