The Palestine Information and Communications Technology Incubator - PICTI
Team Members

Laith Kassis - General Manager
Mr. Laith Kassis is a graduate from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee in 1991 and he has recently completed a post-graduate studies in IT Management from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Laith also has certification in IT Project Manager from the Australian Computer Society and attended numerous training workshops on innovation an incubation with institutions such as the National Business Incubation Association, UNIDO, and the University of California – Berkeley in cooperation with Intel. Laith has over 15 years of experience. His most recent is a management position in an incubator lending its business services to start-up companies. His role at the incubator included the design and implementation of incubation processes: technical, business and financials and programs that included marketing the incubator services and an outreach campaign; designing and executing the pre-incubation and incubation programs and the graduation of client companies. Laith was able to successfully prepare clients for investors and business development and exiting on the incubator equity share. Laith has the ability to deal with and report to multi-stakeholders that include board of directors, donor community, contracting agencies, staff, entrepreneurs and client companies as well as the community of academia, business people and investors. Laith has also co-designed and currently fundraising for the PICTI Seed Fund. On a regional level in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Laith has participated in the formation and was founding member of the MENA Network of Incubators (MENAinc) under the umbrella of the infoDev program. Laith has also presented and was a key speaker in local and different regional forums and events on subjects related to incubation and seed and early start-ups investment such as the MENAinc Workshops and Forums and Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF) Investing in Technology Forum. Laith has volunteered as a panel judge on the 2nd Business Plan Contest organized by both ASTF and Intel. Laith is also a PRINCE II practitioner in IT project management at the University of Sydney and applying best practices in enterprise software acquisition, issuing expression of interest, tendering and subsequent evaluation. Laith has IT business experience, IT project management experience, and is well versed in IT trends, legal, ethical and policy issues. Laith is also knowledgeable in IT general administration, IT asset and facilities management, IT procurement, and IT human resource management. Mr. Kassis is also an active member of Palestinian e-groups and forums: ITsig, ISOC-PS and Palestine Development Gateway portal. You can contact Mr. Kassis at: Laith.Kassis@picti.ps
Eng. Hasan Omar - Incubator Manager
For the past fourteen years, Eng. Hasan Omar has gained an exceptional knowledge in the private, governmental and educational sectors working with multifaceted stakeholders. Mr. Omar has demonstrated key knowledge and skills as a practitioner in project management, institutional development, micro, small and medium (MSME) and high-growth strategic planning, networking and partnerships development. Mr. Omar is currently the Manager of the Palestine Information and Communications Technology Incubator – PICTI. He is a founding executive member of the first ICT incubator in Palestine (PICTI) since its establishment in 2004. He has greatly contributed to its physical infrastructure setup and establishment as he designed, implemented, and is still managing the technology infrastructure. Eng. Hasan has built on his previous experience in designing and establishing the ICT infrastructure; he built and managed the IT departments in the Ministry of Economy and Trade, Palestinian Investment Promotion Agency, and the Ministry of Social Affairs in Ramallah, and also in Bethlehem for GEKA – Vivendi Universal water project for the southern of Palestine funded by the World Bank. He worked also as a Software Engineer for IDS Software Systems (USA Based). Due to his high motivation at PICTI, Mr. Omar was tasked in managing the operations of the business development unit including the pre-incubation and incubation programs targeting ICT start-ups as well as the entire operations of PICTI and its programs and clients. Mr. Omar has mustered extensive experience in providing technical, business, and marketing advisory and coaching services to several ICT high-growth start-ups and MSMEs. He also managed PICTI’s pipeline as part of the technical and marketing evaluation panels. He has assessed more than 230 ICT projects’ ideas. He is also member in the evaluation panel for H. H. Sheikh Salem Al-Ali A-Sabah Award for Internet and evaluated more than 420 Arab web sites. Also, he is a jury member of the Imagine Cup competition 2009 sponsored by Microsoft. Mr. Omar is a Medibtikar Innovation Expert and has also developed niche skills to train, coach and mentor technology entrepreneurs in conducting dozens of workshops and has trained thousands of ICT students and recent graduates on technology entrepreneurship, innovation, starting technology businesses and running MSMEs. Furthermore, as an expert in the management of information systems, Mr. Omar has taught several computer training courses and prepared many ICT curriculums. He has wide technical expertise includes networking architecture and management, database design and development. Eng. Hasan has hands-on proven project management skills. He has worked on several projects and has end-to-end project management cycle experience from inception to closedown. He has played a pivotal role in managing specific initiatives and overall programs including tasks such as managing the subcontractors and consultants, project human resources, deliverables and milestones, budgets and expenditures. One of these projects is the “DEEP” which is a $500,000 development project funded by the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) through UNDP/PAPP and targeting deprived Palestinian families. During this 15 months project, he managed more than 80 persons and trained more than 100 fresh ICT graduates. He succeeded in employing 57 of them in more than 35 ICT companies in West Bank and Gaza. Also, he established six micro-enterprises for another 21 beneficiaries in different locations in West Bank. Mr. Omar has played a critical role in launching and also co-managing the 1st Technology Business Plan Contest in Palestine. He also co-managed the Digital Arabic Content competition with ESCWA. Mr. Omar managed the Student Internship Program sponsored by the infoDev – World Bank. Mr. Omar is a founding member of the MENA Network of Incubators (MENAinc) under the umbrella of the infoDev program. Again, he also managed the 2nd Technology Business Plan Contest in Palestine which was sponsored by Intel. Born in Palestine in 1971, Mr. Omar holds a Bachelor Degree in Computer Engineering from Jordan University of Science & Technology, Jordan, since 1995. He is a member in the Jordan Engineers Association since 1995, Canadian Professional Engineers Association since 2000, National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) since 2004, MENA Incubators Network (MENAinc) since 2006, and the African Incubation Network (AIN) since 2007. Recently, he launched the PalDev.net community with Microsoft with hundreds of Microsoft technologies and products experts in Palestine. He is also a member of Palestinian e-groups and forums: ITsig, ISOC-PS, PEF, PNGOF... He holds Palestinian nationality and is married with three children. Mr. Omar can be reached at the contacts below: Mobile: +970 59 922 5092                        Work: +970 2 240 9290                        Email: hasan.omar@picti.ps; hasanict@yahoo.com
Ahmad Daqqa - Accountant
Ahmad Daqqah is the Accountant of Palestine Information Technology Incubator – PICTI since February 2004. Ahmad’s 9 years experience includes auditing, consulting services, finance, accounting, and administrative work. Ahmad’s ORACLE general ledger training qualified him to work as a consultant to local government municipalities in 1997.Ahmad attended auditing and consulting services courses at Arthur Andersen European Training Center at Netherlands in 1998. He also attended ACCPAC (General ledger) training course in 2002 and qualified him as a consultant to the agent of ACCPAC in Palestinian National Authority. Ahmad has a good experience in financial and accounting for information technology industry and for profit and non profit organizations. You can contact Mr. Daqqa at: Ahmad.Daqqa@picti.ps
Advisors: