Ihab I. Osman is currently serving on the ICANN Board. He is a senior executive and board director with more than 25 years of experience in starting up, acquiring, building, transforming, growing, restructuring, turn-around-ing, exiting, and dissolving public and private corporations and nonprofit organizations in the U.S., Africa, and the Middle East.

Organization: U.S-Sudan Business Council
Currently a member
of the ICANN Board

Career History

Osman is the General Manager of New Businesses at NADEC Foods From 2009 to 2017, he was the Board Director of Mena Telecom. From 2012 to 2014, he was the President & Chief Executive Officer of Sudatel Telecom Group, with operations in five African countries. From 2005 to 2013, he was the Vice-Chairman, Board of Directors of Electronic Banking Services Co. Ltd. (EBS). Before moving to the MENA region, Ihab spent seven years with Verizon Communications in Atlanta, Dallas, and Seattle and before that GE and IBM in New York. Ihab was the first administrator and manager of the .sd ccTLD chosen by IANA. He managed .sd from 1997 to 2002.

Advising

Since 2014, he has been the US-Sudan Business Council Board Chair and President. From 2009 to 2012, he was a Senior Advisor of Private Equity at Kuwait Finance House-Bahrain From 2009 to 2011, he was a Board Director at Woosh Wireless.

Social Impact Initiatives

Osman also played a key role in the building of the EASSY submarine cable that brought affordable broadband access to large parts of Africa. He founded Impact Hub Khartoum.

ICANN and Internet Governance Participation

Osman was selected by the NomCom to serve on the ICANN Board, and his term runs from November 2019 to the AGM in 2022.

Current Committees

Education

Osman holds an M.P.A. from Harvard University, an M.B.A. from Oxford University, and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the New York Institute of Technology.

Personal Life

He has lived in six countries and traveled to more than 100.