Why do I coach?

I believe our backgrounds and life experiences shape not only who we are, but how far we can go—if we learn how to leverage them effectively. Having worked across Egypt, Canada, and the United States, I’ve seen firsthand how different environments, cultures, and business practices influence success. Over more than 20 years, I’ve navigated complex projects, diverse teams, and high-stakes challenges. But what makes that experience truly valuable is not just having it—it’s sharing it in a way that helps others move forward faster and with more confidence. I didn’t get here alone. Along the way, I benefited from mentors and leaders who challenged my thinking, helped me see blind spots, and pushed me to grow. That experience shaped how I approach coaching today. My philosophy is simple: *start from where others have ended.* You shouldn’t have to learn everything the hard way. My goal is to help you build on real-world experience, avoid common pitfalls, and accelerate your progress. To deepen my impact, I formally trained in coaching and earned IBM’s Blue Core Coaching certification. Since then, I’ve coached professionals within IBM and beyond—helping them clarify their goals, navigate challenges, and take practical, structured steps toward meaningful outcomes. Coaching matters to me because I’ve seen what’s possible when someone has the right guidance at the right time. When we work together, I’m not just offering advice—I’m partnering with you to help you move forward with clarity, strategy, and confidence.

Work Experience

Director of Program Management, Strategic Programs & Transformation Initiatives

IBM

July 2022 - Present

As Program Manager/PMO Lead, I lead enterprise-scale delivery programs that span multiple business units and geographies. I establish a unified governance model, develop a cross-functional steering committee, and ensure strategic alignment from executive to engineering teams. I successfully led AI and NVidia GPU expansion programs across IBM Cloud global regions, supporting watsonx.ai and watsonx.data offerings with timely schedules and efficient deliveries. I also spearheaded SaaS expansions on IBM Cloud, managing dependencies and technical requirements to ensure cross-organizational alignment and success. I managed hardware expansion programs, delivering storage and compute capacity expansions, technology upgrades, and significant cost savings for IBM and clients. I led the program management for the IBM Cloud Service Framework, ensuring security, compliance, resiliency, high availability, and usability, and managing risks and delivery issues. I established KPIs and OKRs for IBM's Cloud strategic programs, reporting to senior executives on risks and issues, and driving timely escalations and risk mitigations. I defined and guided technical program management roles across IBM, including training guidelines and expectations. I lead the governance and transformation program around streamlining of tooling , ensuring the choice of right tools and coverage across all IBM Cloud, in alignment with all IBM's organizations. Was recognized with the 2023 Cultural Catalyst award for supporting Women at IBM, and for leading Multicultural Women BRG, and Quarterly Growth awards in 2024 and 2025 for accelerating IBM strategies, sales plays and processes.

Director Strategic Programs, PMO Lead

IBM

March 2021 - June 2022

As the leader of the IBM Cloud IaaS program management team, I successfully drove strategic initiatives that elevated efficiency and optimized delivery timelines. By cultivating cross-functional and cross-organizational partnerships, including requirements for anchor clients. I established robust collaborations that ensured seamless compliance with Financial Services requirements for regulated industries and ISVs, often under tight deadlines. Through diligent planning and execution, I spearheaded the planning of IBM Cloud's Gartner-required IaaS enhancements, for the Gartner Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services (CIPS) market assessments. This resulted in a remarkable 67% increase in CIPS solution scorecard score in 2021 and an acceleration to 82 Gartner points. In a strategic partnership with IBM Research, I collaborated on advancing AI workloads on IBM Cloud using cutting-edge NVidia GPUs, paving the way for a multi-million-dollar investment that solidified IBM's leadership in AI. To drive operational excellence, I established and managed key metrics to track delivery efficiency, resulting in a 10% quarter-to-quarter increase in on-time client requirements. This enabled us to better manage escalations, facilitate tradeoff discussions, and optimize project execution in an agile manner. As the architect of executive communication, I developed and implemented processes and dashboards to provide C-Suite executives with transparent updates on the IaaS portfolio roadmap progression, priorities, and risks. Through a commitment to up-skilling and standardizing project management practices, I delivered training sessions for the project management population, focusing on IBM Cloud governance, product management processes, and best practices in project execution. Recognized with the prestigious IBM Manager Choice award, which honors exceptional leaders who embody the traits necessary to create a winning culture.

PMO Manager, AI & Big Data / Modern Data Protection Program Management

IBM

October 2019 - March 2021

Established an enterprise PMO, governance frameworks and processes to drive operational excellence. Led the successful delivery of 20+ software releases across IBM’s Data, AI and Data Protection and Hybrid Multi-Cloud portfolios, including Scale, ESS, Spectrum Discover, Protect, and Storage Insights. Directed global program planning, release scheduling, risk mitigation, and end-to-end release execution. Managed and supported a worldwide team of program managers; led hiring, resource allocation, coaching, and development initiatives. Fostered a culture of growth mindset, collaboration, and execution excellence—especially during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. Established and implemented standardized quality metrics and real-time dashboards to proactively monitor and address issues during hardening and regression phases. Oversaw compliance with IBM Corporate CISO security mandates, ensuring secure and timely delivery of features for Scale and ESS products. Spearheaded improvements to IBM Storage fix pack processes, reducing release cycle time by 40% through streamlined workflows. Standardized program management practices across teams, introducing consistent methodologies, quality improvements, and agile best practices. Championed the agile transformation of IBM Storage, aligning delivery with strategic roadmaps and leveraging design thinking to solve complex challenges. Designed and implemented a centralized, live IBM Storage dashboard using internal tools, enabling transparent program tracking and executive-level reporting.

Technical Program Manager, HPC Software

IBM

January 2015 - October 2016

Program manager for High Performance Computing Software, part of Software Defined Storage portfolio . Responsible of the planning of all phases of the program including release schedule, cross functional coordination, dependencies, risk management and release cycle. Strong skills in coordination with other software and hardware teams. Collaboration with IBM partners for interlock on dependencies and schedules. Providing executive updates and contingency plans. Managing continuous process improvement.

Project Manager, IBM Canada

IBM

October 2011 - October 2014

Project/Release manager of a large number of software projects. Establishing release schedules and managing dependencies & project risks. Proven experience with variety of projects; on premise, Software as a Service, new acquisitions, brand new products and established products. Led the release of several initial Software as a Service offerings to market and the release established processes needed.

Software Developer

Cognos

February 2008 - August 2011

Management and coordination of release deliverables of Cognos BI software. Progress reporting to senior management and escalation of any issues that may arise. Creating and leveraging progress reports and creating dashboards for ongoing status reporting. Establishing and working with teams on establishing release quality milestones and exit criteria. Experience in agile development, received "train the trainers" education for Agile development. Coaching and mentoring teams to introduce and implement agile at Cognos.

Education

University of Ottawa

Masters, Engineering, Engineering Management

2002 - 2007

The American University in Cairo

Bachelor of Science, Computer Science

1992 - 1997