
Khalil Barsoum - General Manager, IBM EMEA Industries
Khalil Barsoum was appointed General Manager EMEA Industries, IBM in January 1998
responsible for all eleven of IBM's Global Industries across Europe, the Middle East and
Africa (EMEA).
Khalil now heads a dynamic group of people working together to provide technological
solutions for various industry sectors such as banking, insurance, government and
healthcare.
Khalil has strong views about the future of computing. Speaking late last year,
he said: "Because of the continuous development of computer technology, married
with the explosion in telecommunications capabilities, the revolution will continue to
make things happen that we haven't dreamed of - things that will be very positive for
society." Khalil cites tele-commuting, tele-medicine and tele-education as
three notable social advances through new technology.
Before taking up his new position, Khalil was Chairman and Chief Executive of IBM, in
the United Kingdom. He led the UK business for one year and under his guidance, the
UK customer satisfaction and employee morale improved significantly.
His time in the UK was preceded by two years as President and Chief Executive of IBM
Canada. Here he built a reputation as a leader in driving effective management and
leadership development programs.
In the two years the 52 year old was in charge in Canada, the company prospered.
IBM was, and still is, the leading IT exported in Canada, the the leading supplier
of PC's with its Personal Services Division shipping record volumes in 1996. All of
IBM Canada's figures for 1996 were, in Khalil's words, "very satisfactory", with
excellent results in all the key areas of hardware, software and services.
In his career with IBM, Khalil has held a string of management and senior executive
position in Canada and the United States. He led his team in strong growth and
market share gain in 1995 and 1996 and , for the past two years, IBM Canada has enjoyed
the highest customer satisfaction rating the the IT industry in Canada. The
foundation he laid in the UK in 1997 leaves the team in a strong position to repeat his
Canadian record in the UK in 1998.
Born in Cairo, Khalil grew up with the computer industry. His father, as head of
an IT installation, was an IBM customer. Khalil his his homework on the back of
continuous printouts and got to the IBM general manager and the IBM ways.
After completing three years engineering in Cairo, Khalil emigrated to Montreal in
1964. In 1966, he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from Ecole
Polytechnique ... and almost immediately joined IBM as a systems engineer.
In his spare time, Khalil is an amateur pilot. Bitten by the 'flying bug' five
years ago, Khalil took up flying lessons with his then teenage daughter --and today he
considers himself a 'weekend, good weather' flyer.
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