As President of Microsoft Middle East and Africa (MEA), Samer Abu Ltaif is responsible for the company’s strategy throughout the region, advancing Microsoft’s position as an innovative industry leader, and a socially responsible enterprise that recognizes diversity and inclusion .
A significant part of Abu Ltaif’s role is to accelerate the digital transformation agenda of the region across governments, enterprises, Microsoft’s partners ecosystem, developers and SME’s . His leadership is instrumental in advancing Microsoft’s mission to empower people and organizations, transform businesses, impact societies and fuel a knowledge-based economy in the region.
Samer leads Microsoft’s operations in an area that represents one of the fastest growing, dynamic and certainly most diverse markets. MEA’s three thousand team members span over 40 offices covering 79 countries across three continents with over 17,000 partners.
Abu Ltaif, who joined Microsoft in 2004, has held many senior roles within the organization including Regional Director for Enterprise and Partner group across MEA. Most recently, prior to taking the role of MEA President in Feb 2017, Abu Ltaif was the Regional General Manager of Microsoft Gulf. During his tenure, he successfully led key Microsoft initiatives aimed at empowering governments and their citizens through innovation, revolutionizing education, stimulating SME growth and entrepreneurship – all to enhance the region’s global competitiveness and modernization. Under his leadership, Microsoft expanded its vibrant partner channel ecosystem, and recently announced major investments with its datacenters geographic expansion to both the Middle East and Africa.
Samer has received numerous accolades in recognition of his important contributions to the region, including the worldwide Microsoft Honor Compete Award in 2007, 2008 and 2009. In 2018 Samer was ranked among the top 5 Executives in the Middle East by Forbes Middle-East, and was the top-ranking CEO for technology companies. He has been an active member on several advisory boards across various industries in the region.
Prior to joining Microsoft, Abu Ltaif worked as Regional General Manager for the Financial Solutions Group at NCR, where he had a distinguished career spanning 14 years. He started at NCR as fresh graduate hire after completing his Computer Science Studies at the American University of Beirut.
