Amjad Umar, Ph.D.

Dr. Amjad Umar received an M.S. in Computer and Communication Engineering and a Ph.D. in Information Systems Engineering, both from the University of Michigan. His main areas of expertise include enterprise architectures and integration, SOA, strategic planning of e-government and e-business, ICTD (information and communication technologies in developing countries), e-consulting for international projects, mobile computing and wireless communications, and information security. He has extensive industrial and academic experience in these areas at the national as well as international levels. He has supervised numerous large scale industrial projects with international organizations in more than 25 countries, has led numerous industrial seminars and corporate training sessions, and has taught graduate level university courses at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Fordham Graduate School of Business, Rutgers University, and Peking University.

Currently, he is CEO of NGE Solutions, a U.S.-based international corporation (offices in Pakistan, Italy, and Turkey) that concentrates on Next Generation Enterprises (NGEs) and ICT for developing countries (ICT4D). He is a Senior Technical Advisor and Chief Architect of the United Nations eNabler Project that is intended to accelerate the pace of ICT in developing countries. Dr. Umar is also a Fulbright Senior Specialist in ICT and works with academic institutions of developing countries in this capacity. His 20+ years of industrial experience includes Director of Systems Planning and Integration at Bellcore (part of the Bell Lab system, now known as Telcordia Technologies) for over 10 years, and consulting assignments with global telecom organizations, US Department of Navy, US Army Research Labs, Frost and Sullivan (England), Toyota Corp., Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and government/non-government organizations in Macedonia, England, Singapore, China, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina, Canada, Bahrain, Nepal, Liberia, and Myanmar. His current academic assignments include an adjunct faculty position at the University of Pennsylvania and a professorship at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology.

He has received numerous awards (Faculty Award from IBM, Fulbright Senior Specialist Award from the US Council of International Exchange of Scholars, Distinguished Faculty Award from the University of Michigan, Best Adjunct Faculty Award from Fordham, and Outstanding Performance Awards from Bellcore). He has also received grants from US DARPA (Defense Advanced Project Agency)