1. CIO
Spotlight
Port AuthorityYousif Almutawa, CIO, DP World, has seen some ups and downs. From a start-up in California during the
Internet boom and subsequent crash, to the surge in construction in Dubai in the mid-2000s, Almutawa has
learned a few things about success and failure.
A
lmutawa did not intend
on becoming a CIO,
though from an early
age he had an interest in
technology. He spent his youth
between Bahrain and the UAE and
remembers fondly playing a bit of
Pong on an early gaming machine.
When he was 11, in 1983, he
received his first major piece of
technology, a Commodore 64 – the
kind that still used tapes as storage.
However, Almutawa's true
involvement with technology came
later, as a result of his endless drive
to do what he does best – reach out
to people.
He showed an early interest in
physics and maths, as well as space
and sci-fi. “I remember reading about
things like light speeds and Einstein’s
theory of relativity, and thinking
that they were science fiction,” he
says. As he studied more, however,
he realised that these things were
actually possible and real, and his
passion was ignited. “To me it wasn’t
science fiction anymore, I knew that
these things were true and I imagined
myself in a world where I could use
technology like that.”
Still, his interest in science trumped
his interest in technology when it
came time to choose his university
degree. His father, a lawyer, supported
his decision to go into medicine. He
was accepted, on a scholarship, to an
extremely competitive programme
in a preparation course for the Royal
College of Surgeons in Ireland directly
after secondary school in 1990. “My
English was weak,” he says in his now
perfected accent, “and the programme
was very competitive.”
After a year and a half in Ireland,
26 february 2015 www.cnmeonline.com

2. Almutawa says, he became addicted
to social interactions on the web
before social media even had a
presence. “To be fair, though, it
stopped there,” he says. “I don’t even
have a Facebook account these days.”
Then in 1994, Almutawa transferred
just down the road to the University
of California campus in Sacramento,
California to continue his studies in
engineering. “I wanted to focus on power
generation, so when I completed, I also
earned a certificate in that field,” he says
of his transfer.
Upon graduation in 1996, he
had every intention of returning to
the UAE. However, during his last
year of study, he had met a group of
seven students that had an idea. The
idea was to start an Internet Service
Provider. “These guys were providing
Internet over 14.4k dial-ups to
consumers in Sacramento as well as
connectivity projects for companies,”
he says. Almutawa, however, was to
face a big learning curve. He hadn’t
studied these things, and so at the
company, InterX, he had to learn on
the go.
He began in a technical support
position, but with only seven people
on staff, he was actually doing a
number of things. “I was picking
up phones for technical support,
performing system administration
duties, and even mopping floors,” he
says. It was the days of the Internet
revolution, and the group truly felt
that they were changing the world.
As with many start-ups of the time,
employees were paid in shares.
The start-up did well, taking on
system integration projects, building
e-commerce shops and even creating
Internet banking software. By 1999,
they had grown into a team of 17.
Unfortunately, just as the company
was going to go public in 2000,
1983
received his first
Commodore 64
computer
1992
enrolled in CSU
for Engineering
2001
returned to UAE
2008
joined DP World
1990
attended medical
school in Ireland
1996
joined start-up
InterX
2003
joined Dubai
Internet City
he decided that medicine simply was
not for him. He changed not only his
course, but his country. “So that I
could keep my scholarship, I changed
from medicine to engineering, and
moved from Ireland to the US,”
Almutawa explains. “I loved Ireland,
but to be honest, I was tired of the
rain and the cold.”
His first stop off in the United
States was Richmond, Virginia, in
February of 1992. After six months
of acclimatising to the culture and
working on his language skills, he left
the east coast for sunny California.
Almost as if fated, he met three Arab
students living in Virginia who had
also studied in Ireland.
In the Spring of 1992, he and
his friends enrolled in California
State University in Chico, California.
There, he began a course in Electrical
and Electronic Engineering. “The
work was very challenging,” says
Almutawa. “I remember studying very
hard during that time. While all the
business and marketing guys were
out partying, we from the Engineering
college were in the library.”
In that library in 1993, Almutawa
discovered a resource that would
change the course of his career. “It
was there that I began using the
Internet for research. I was using
LexisNexis when I realised that I
could use the Internet to reach out
to other people.” At the time, the
Internet did not have a friendly user
interface, but attracted to the idea of
connecting with information from
around the world, Almutawa set to
learning a few commands.
“I could read news directly from
the source, with no filter,” he says
of the early days of the Internet, “I
could also talk to my family using IRC
chat rooms, as well as meet people
from around the world.” Admittedly,
february 2015www.cnmeonline.com 27

3. the Internet bubble burst. Though
the company disbanded and its
employees scattered, Almutawa left
with a wealth of lessons. “I learned
what it meant to be in a start-up
environment,” he says, “and I learned
what it takes to make a business run.”
With these lessons learned, he
moved on to another California-based
company, Synergex. He was hired
as an e-business consultant. His role
was to perform system integration
for companies with legacy systems
that needed to get on board with the
Internet and with mobile applications.
Through his interactions with
Synergex clients, he learned about
other industries and how they do
business.
Finally, in August 2001, he
made his return to the UAE and was
quickly hired at a branch of the Dubai
government that had only just opened
– Dubai eGovernment. Though Dubai
eGovernment was a government
agency, to Almutawa, the environment
was akin to the start-ups that he was
used to. As the Manager of Technology
and Information, he established the IT
infrastructure and systems integration
architecture models for a number of
government departments.
In 2003, Almutawa moved on
to Dubai Internet City telecoms
department as a Program Manager.
“Dubai Internet City had promised
to provide certain services,” he says
of his projects. “We had to meet with
developers to ensure that things like
connectivity could be rolled out.”
Dubai was booming with construction
at the time, and Almutawa had to
manage the teams that were in charge
of making sure that the brief could
be met. “It was almost like I was in a
start-up again,” he says, “I felt like I
was part of the team that was building
Dubai.” These days, when he walks
past landmarks like the Burj Khalifa, he
knows that he was part of making the
dream of Dubai come true. “I feel lucky
that I was a part of the Internet boom,
and then also part of the Dubai boom
as well,” he says.
At the end of 2005, a new
company was formed. du was to
become one of the main telecom
providers in the UAE. The telecom
department was acquired by du at
that time. Almutawa continued with
du implementing fixed line projects.
By 2008, du and his department were
stable, and it was time for Almutawa
to take on a new challenge.
That new
challenge came
in the form
of DP World.
When he began
at the ports
management
company, there
was no CIO.
There had not
been a CIO for
two years, and
Almutawa took
on the role.
“They hired me
because I could
think outside the
box,” he says, “I
wasn’t from the port industry, and
they wanted fresh eyes.”
From 2009 to 2012, Almutawa was
secounded by Dubai World Holding
Company. “After the crisis, there was
a lot of restructuring going on,” he
recalls, “and I needed to change the
shared services department from
a cost centre to a profit centre.” As
such, he changed the culture of the
company, shifting the way that they
were thinking about IT. “The role
of IT has completely changed,” he
says, “people can do basic tasks for
CIO
Spotlight
We look for people
with new ideas
that can be refined
and brought to the
market. The program
then selects start-
up teams with
marketable ideas and
supports them with
funding, mentoring
and training.
themselves. You have a lot of business
people becoming IT savvy.”
In 2012 he returned to DP
World and brought with him his
spirit of innovation. In addition
to running the technology
infrastructure of DP World, he
has brought his start-up savvy
to secondary projects. As the
Accelerator Program Director for
DP World-funded seed accelerator
TURN8, Almutawa has put himself
back in the start-up game. “TURN8
is designed to encourage innovative
entrepreneurship worldwide,” he
explains. “We look for people with
new ideas that
can be refined
and brought
to market. The
program then
selects start-
up teams with
marketable
ideas and
supports them
with funding,
mentoring and
training.”
The idea is
to give young
innovators a
chance to make
their business
work. “We provide a great space,”
says Almutawa, “where our teams can
simply work, and dedicate their time to
their ideas.” In short, he says, TURN8 is
like a boot camp for start-ups.
Almutawa seems to be a master of
turning crashes into booms and failures
into successes. He continually reaches
out to people to encourage them to
fulfil their potential. Perhaps it was
the Internet crash, or perhaps it began
earlier on in his history, but Almutawa
is a CIO that can turn any situation on
its head and make it positive.
28 february 2015 www.cnmeonline.com