An Innovation Consultant with 15+ years of experience and expertise in Innovation Consulting, startup accelerator, and fund management for ICT, Energy, and Telecom domains, Tariq is an Electronics and Communication engineer who has worked with Infosys Limited and has a Global MBA from HULT International Business School. He is a professional certified Innovation Expert.
He has been part of the UAE innovation ecosystem since 2013, having managed and picked startups in the technology space for the TURN8 global accelerator in Dubai, and the IBTIKARI incubator in Abu Dhabi. Tariq has advised and mentored 90+ technology startups in different geographies. In 2015, he was nominated as the Startups Mentor of the Year by Arabian Business Magazine. He was instrumental in setting up and operating a USD 60 million venture capital fund - TURN8 for Dubai Port World (DP World).
Tariq has also worked with government entities in UAE, Oman, and Qatar such as the UAE Ministry of Finance, DEWA, Rulers Courts - Dubai, Dubai Chamber, Khalifa Fund - Abu Dhabi, Digital Incubator Centre – Qatar, Ministry of Transportation and Communication – Qatar and Oman Technology Fund (OTF) - Oman to name a few on customized innovation programs that have helped grow their innovation quotient and ecosystem.
Since 2018, he has been part of the Khalifa Innovation Center (KIC) journey of enabling research to be commercialized as DeepTech startups in the UAE. At KIC, he focuses on building programs that enable nurturing DeepTech startups and has been mentoring startups on business commercialization and investor readiness.
