A jump of confidence - not a leap of faith!

I joined the UAE Space Agency two years ago after a nine-year journey at the UAE Embassy in Washington DC’s Trade and Commercial Office. I had moved into that role with a leap of faith from a comfortable job in the private sector within the energy industry where I was on the rise when it came to career development. My main motivation for the move was that it provided me with the ability to serve the UAE government in a non-political role, but rather with a commercially oriented function.

In 2014 when the UAE Space Agency was established, and our mission to Mars announced, I had relatively very little knowledge or experience in the sector (or space in general!), but as soon as I was exposed, I was infected with the “space bug” and begun digging a rabbit hole I’m still digging till today. I developed a passion for the sector and placed a big portion of my time and energy into developing knowledge and building a network all with the intention of trying to help advance the UAE’s position in the domain.

I also began understanding the commercial space sector in the US and how it evolved, and being that I am not of a technical background academically, I was drawn by the opportunity and challenge of trying to create a space economy, and convinced that the UAE was well positioned to make a mark.

Fast forward a few years and I was beginning to look at what private sector company in space I can join which could help the UAE or personally begin a startup, at which point I was approached by HE Dr. Mohamed Al Ahbabi the UAE Space Agency’s Director General (someone I consider a brother) to consider a role with them. I again saw this as an opportunity to continue serving the government, in an area I was passionate about. My calculus was that this would be an opportunity to also help move the needle by creating an enabling environment for the private sector in the UAE to flourish at which point, my objective to shift to it, would have the benefit of also serving the UAE from outside the government.

That time has now come. A confluence of events in the last few weeks convinced me that its time for me to move into the private sector and begin a new chapter in my career, but more importantly, begin to serve the UAE space industry and support the Agency from the outside. I am confident the team at the UAE Space Agency will take things to the next level, and a key focus that will build on what I spent most of my effort on over the past two years, in investment promotion and private sector enablement, will increase in focus. I will now be on the receiving end of this benefit and in return hope to be an Ambassador to the space agency in my new role from the private sector.

I have decided to take a “jump of confidence” into a UAE company called Group 42. 

G42 is a leading Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing company dedicated to the development and implementation of holistic and scalable technology solutions. They have an experienced team of data scientists and engineers based in Abu Dhabi, who conduct both fundamental and applied AI research and development. They have a dedicated research organization, the Inception Institute of Artificial Intelligence (IIAI), on AI, big data and machine learning. They also have a Cloud Computing Infrastructure with the largest and most powerful computing capability in the region and one of the largest supercomputers in the world called Artemis. 

The company operates in several verticals including Healthcare, Smart Cities, Finance, Government Services, Energy, Aviation and more. Notably, the company has been playing a leading role in confronting the COVID-19 pandemic through different activities that included advanced testing, contact tracing, and vaccine development efforts (see: https://g42.ai/news/)

G42 is an incredible company with visionary leadership and an ambitious vision to work towards bringing us closer to Artificial General Intelligence. After several conversations with their inspiring CEO, and a strong alignment philosophically on how the best use case for AI is space, I was convinced the company could make a difference, not just locally, but regionally and globally. A quote from their CEO Mr. Peng Xiao which really resonated with me was:

"The molecular level in human body is measured by 10 to the power of minus 12. The distance of light-years is measured by 10 to the power of positive 12. In the center, AI augments our ability to observe these phenomena, and answer life's most challenging questions."  

G42 will be working towards the development of a Space vertical, which I would have the privilege of helping to shape and lead. 

I am honored to have been trusted to take on such a challenge, and grateful to the UAE Space Agency, and team, for enabling my development and a great two years which was full of memorable experiences, topped by the most recent launch of our Mars “Hope” probe. I look forward to this new chapter and continuing to evolve the UAE space sector and the global space economy. 

Per Aspera Ad Astra