Mr. Laith Al-Qasem is an established leader with over 25 years of business and development experience in Jordan. Mr. Al-Qasem’s professional experience is broad, varied and multi-disciplinary integrating technology, innovation and economic development.
The foundation of his experience and competence is based on an intimate practical knowledge in technology development, business development, venture capital financing, business incubation, acceleration and mentoring of start-ups. He indentified, invested in and was involved in 19 start-up companies, several of which have become paragons of success in the Jordanian technology environment. As such, Mr. Al-Qasem has substantial capability in private sector and economic strategy development, objective setting, planning, coordination and execution. His substantial hands on work with technology entrepreneurs and venture capital investment has led to excellent knowledge and experience with technology related private sector development, entrepreneurship development, managing start-up companies and dealing with entrepreneurs.
In 2000 and 2004 Mr. Al-Qasem led Jordan’s first national private sector led business development initiative (Jordan Vision 2020 – JV 2020 versions 1.0 and 2.0. This required recruiting economic sector leaders from various economic associations to communicate and encourage private sector players to look beyond Jordan’s existing economic reality and define and articulate sector development strategies, including required government reforms, to facilitate export led growth and job creation to create a new economic reality.
As chief of Party of the USAID funded Jordan Economic Development program (2008 – 2012), Al-Qasem demonstrated his knowledge of the local Jordanian economic context by focusing the program’s efforts on knowledge economy sectors, where Jordan has sustainable competitive advantage and by navigating the challenges of moving reform through the Government of Jordan bureaucracy. The impact of the Economic Development Program activities and initiatives on public sector reform, private sector development and local economic development has been substantial.
Mr. Al-Qasem is a member of the Jordan Economic and Social Council, the National Competitiveness and Innovation Council, and has led and participated in several Jordanian national economic development initiatives such as the Jordan Vision 2020, the National Agenda, Jordan Vision 2025, and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor. Moreover, Mr. Al-Qasem is a board member of several national associations and NGOs which address gaps in the economic and social environment. These associations include the Young Entrepreneurs Association (YEA), Center for the Study of the Built Environment, Partners Jordan for Democratic Change, the Institute of Management Consultants, Al-Aman Fund for Orphans, Tkiyet Um Ali (hunger alleviation NGO) and Dar Abu Abdullah (youth empowerment and employment).