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00:00I'm a graduate 2005 from Higher Colleges of Technology I majored in accounting not knowing
00:08that I'll end up in engineering and high-tech organization the whole thing started by me
00:16joining offset program Birodan as analyst and I've been very consumed with new projects
00:27and actually one of my first projects that I worked on was one of the entities that today is under it called LEHAP
00:35and what it does is ammunition from small to medium to large caliber ammunition in the conventional domain
00:44along that journey in 2007 Tawazan Holding was formed and I was part of the group and the working team that worked in Tawazan as well then
00:57and I remember our early days in creating Karakal which was solely focused on the pistol and today we see that they're
01:05actually covering everything from a pistol to really top-notch snipers
01:11moving from that I remember as well that we got engaged in NIMR and forming NIMR
01:24from a timeline perspective I went from ammunition to Karakal to you can call it armored vehicles
01:33unmanned drones
01:38and then I took one of the initiatives that I think I can claim that I've actually led
01:47with a very bright team and that was the formation of our first air-to-ground weapon
01:57in a joint venture with the South African organization called NL
02:03and at that time I was entrusted by my leadership and my manager then
02:12to actually take lead in what came out to be one of our biggest contributors to EDGE
02:22and that was the missile demand of course the formation of that early merger that occurred in 2013
02:32with the formation of EDGE which I also been part of all the way to 2017
02:40where we tried to consolidate the defense industry into one cluster
02:46we started seeing that there is a bigger opportunity to consolidate homeland security
02:53cyber space and the defense industry into one large conglomerate that we know of today called EDGE
03:01we started in 2018 physically on ground to do the merger which I actually played part
03:10and I worked with His Excellency Faisal Ben-Naymah current chairman
03:15to try and shape this vision and bring EDGE to life
03:23in 2019 November 2019 we have inaugurated EDGE into what we see today
03:30we are competing on a world level
03:34today EDGE is listed in the top 25 defense groups in the world
03:40our order books are hitting the 50 percent in export
03:44which is something that we were really working hard to get
03:52and that is to place UAE and EDGE in the global arena
04:01my studies are irrelevant my education my experience in the past was irrelevant of what I'm doing today
04:11my education was irrelevant for me to be in this industry in the first place
04:17and I'm not smarter and I know that for a fact
04:22but I was determined and I had this determination myself
04:27is to be one day the longest servant UAE national in this sector in this domain
04:39and I believe I did
04:41clearly when you go back and you have the UAE armed forces as your client
04:49over the last 20 20 plus years
04:53the captains of that time are today the brigadiers and the generals
05:00and we grow up together
05:05that gives me the support
05:09they treat me as one of them
05:12that I need for my success here
05:14and most importantly we understand where we're coming from
05:17all of us
05:18growing together
05:20and this is helping me a lot in my career
05:22so any person who will want to be successful
05:28he needs to be a hard worker
05:30it won't come easy
05:31he needs to have a purpose
05:34and never forget or never think that you can do it
05:38smarter people around you
05:41and you need much stronger people around you to fall on to fall back
05:45I also fall back
05:47I do mistakes
05:48I fail every single day somewhere
05:51working for a group like Edge
05:55number one you have to acknowledge that
05:57you're surrounded by
06:00the best of the best people to run the business better than you do
06:05and I believe in that and I see that
06:09but Edge as well has 14 000 employees
06:14and many family dependents
06:17on what we decide every single day
06:19for them to live for them to flourish
06:24you have to
06:26put enough time at work
06:30mentally physically
06:33effort that you soon get hit with the reality
06:37of which comes first
06:39your family
06:41or work
06:41and I chose family
06:45people that they think family
06:48the reality is I chose work
06:51work comes first
06:53family comes second
06:57work come first social life comes second
07:01work come first hobbies comes
07:04and then some people ask me how do you
07:06dare prioritize in this way
07:08I feel you know I've been in this industry for
07:1420 years a little bit over 20 years
07:15I don't know another industry about this
07:19and I know it's time demanding
07:23and maybe when I used to run the missiles and weapon cluster I was at my best contribution
07:28and I believe my experience was extremely relevant
07:35there and then when I was entrusted to lead edge I came to realize how much of lack of knowledge I do have in every other domain that I wasn't an expert in
07:49and for me to do a great job
07:52or try to do a great job
07:55I have to even double up on my effort
07:59to cut to catch up with whatever I have missed in order for me to support my team better and help them
08:06achieve their goals
08:08one of the best
08:12strategies you can follow
08:15in managing an organization like edge or anything similar or maybe anything
08:19in life is to have
08:21and be ultra focused
08:24on what you like to deliver
08:26or where what what would differentiate you from others
08:30in edge
08:32we saw that we would like to
08:35be the player in three domains
08:38the autonomous systems
08:40the electronic warfare
08:42and smart weapons
08:43and this been our
08:45underlying strategy and areas focus for our
08:49engineering
08:51our innovation
08:54and our offer
08:56now when we touch on
08:57autonomous systems
08:59this is a very clean
09:01piece of paper that you can think of especially in edge
09:04we don't have
09:04we have much legacies
09:06we have young workforce
09:09and a daring customer
09:12to try and test
09:14as well as very experienced customer
09:16so they always push you
09:19and push your limits
09:20so when we looked at the
09:22drones
09:23we talk autonomous
09:24we talk drones
09:25whether it was land
09:26sea air
09:27we wanted to
09:29be able to
09:30do autonomous navigation
09:32we wanted to target
09:34we wanted to
09:37do swarm missions
09:38we wanted to add intelligence
09:40use very smart chip sets
09:43be prepared for the future
09:46and of course AI
09:47so artificial intelligence is becoming part of our daily lives
09:52on every level
09:57so