Sami Abou Saab is currently the CEO of Speed@BDD, Lebanon’s first ecosystem-backed startup accelerator.

He has been occupying this role since July 2015 and during his tenure, he officially launched Speed@BDD and recruited the first batch of startups to accelerate. Sami has more than 10 years of experience in technology, both in startups and big tech firms.

Prior to Speed@BDD, he worked at Skype and Microsoft Corporation in the US, covering strategy, marketing, and channel modelling. In Silicon Valley, Sami started his own company (MobiLock, aimed at creating a hardware device and mobile application that allows you to unlock your home with your smartphone) that was voted as the best startup in the Berkeley MBA program entrepreneurship class.

At Data Consult, Sami led the Systems Department in Lebanon and the Middle East and grew its business 8-fold over the course of 4 years. Sami holds a Bachelor of Engineering from the American University of Beirut and an MBA from Berkeley-Haas and London Business School. He is fluent in Arabic, French, and English.