Mubadala Investment Company, the Abu Dhabi-based investment and development company, has appointed Amal Al Jabri as the chief executive officer of Cognit, the Mubadala and IBM Watson joint venture established to be the exclusive provider of Watson technology for the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.

Al Jabri will leave her role as deputy CEO of Injazat Data Systems (Injazat), a regional market leader for secure data centre and managed services solutions, to focus on the newly appointed role, following Al-Jabri operating as acting general manager of Cognit, in an interim capacity since June 2016.

IBM Watson is a revolutionary computing system that uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data.

The inception of Cognit is critical as the UAE and its neighbours across Mena look to take advantage of Watson’s cognitive computing services across a wide arc of sectors to stimulate growing economies and support societal wellbeing.

Khaled Abdulla Al Qubaisi, chief executive officer, aerospace, renewables and ICT at Mubadala, said: “Al Jabri has been pivotal to our activities in the sector for over a decade, and has rapidly developed into a clear leader in the technology space.”

“Cognit is one of the most exciting and ambitious investments for us, and she is the ideal candidate to lead this company as it brings to market IBM Watson’s transformative solutions,” he added.

In her capacity as acting general manager of Cognit, Al Jabri has been instrumental in spearheading the growth of the company and working alongside a team of specialists focused on delivering IBM Watson to the UAE and broader Mena region. During her tenure, it was announced that Watson had been programed with Arabic cognitive learning capabilities, followed by the first successful installation of a live application of IBM Watson Arabic.

Al Jabri previously supported Mubadala’s asset portfolio within the then named aerospace and engineering services platform. Joining in 2007, she played a critical role in overseeing key business and government program initiatives, including those at Injazat, where she was seconded, as well as supporting the establishment of Strata’s ‘Nationalization Program’.
 
Speaking on her appoinemnt: Al Jabri said: “Today is an extremely proud and humble moment for me.”

“I am looking forward to building on the legacy already in place by the talented Cognit team, and supporting our shareholder’s mandate to deliver value for the UAE government and subsequent diversification of the economy,” she added. – TradeArabia News Service