Laith Kassis

A BBA - MIS graduate from UW-Milwaukee in 1991 and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in IT Management in 2004, Laith has over 15 years of experience. His most recent is management position in a technology business incubator lending its services to technology entrepreneurs and start-up companies. His role at the incubator included the design and implementation of incubation program strategies, its related processes and those initiatives such as the marketing services and an outreach campaign; pre-incubation and incubation programs and the business linkages of client companies that have given PICTI its brand equity in the community.

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.

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 World Bank infoDev program and is now elected on the board of directors as the Vice President. 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 was able to fundraise and co-fundraise over a US$3 Million dollars for PICTI and for start-up businesses as well as experience in developing local, regional and international cooperation with the multinationals such as Intel, CISCO, Microsoft and Google as well as with the economic development organizations such as USAID, Islamic Development Bank, UNDP, and the World Bank / infoDev Program. Laith has recently fundraised for seed funding in the amount of US$350,000 with Mercy Corps through the British Consulate and with the Mohammed Bin Rashid Foundation in Dubai. Laith is also experienced in designing and structuring for technology ventures Seed Fund and setting up the processes including deal sourcing, evaluation, due diligence, structuring of start-up deals, post-investment management and exiting.

Laith has experience and skills in technology marketing and technology start-up financial modelling including costing and revenue models, technology start-up business valuation and business plan development including SWOT analysis and intellectual property management and has the knowledge in organizing for techno parks and incubator projects. At PICTI, Laith has also designed a balance scorecard for the incubator as means for performance management and developing key performance indicators to support the monitoring and evaluation process of the incubation program.