Follow The Leader: How Hatem Dowidar, e& Group CEO, Bet the Future on Reinvention– and Turned a Regional Telco into a $20B Global Tech Player "In the grand scheme, e& transformation isn't about being a success story. It's about being a catalyst."

^{This article is a part of the 2025 edition of Entrepreneur Middle East's annual Follow The Leader series, where the region's business leaders share strategies, sector insights, and the professional challenges they navigate on the path to success.}

Five years ago, Hatem Dowidar stood at a crossroad most CEOs only face in theory. The company he had just taken over – then still called Etisalat – was profitable, respected, and "dangerously comfortable."

"The reality for telecom operators is very different today, its not just about providing a stable mobile connection," he says. "We had become like utilities – necessary, profitable, predictable, reliable – and commoditized. To put it simply: we were successful, but we were the invisible infrastructure. The real value had shifted elsewhere: to the big tech players who built ecosystems on top of our network. We were still feeding the system, but someone else was eating the cake."

For many leaders, being a utility with steady margins would have been enough. For Dowidar, this inertia was not an option. "In tech, complacency is riskier than failure. Reinvention wasn't optional – it was survival," he said. "So, we asked ourselves: how do we grow when the traditional playbook no longer works?"

^{Image courtesy Farooq Salik/BNC Publishing}

The choice was clear: stay in the lane of minutes and megabytes, or a leap into uncharted territory. And in February 2022, it was the moment Dowidar decided to leap and chart a new playbook. "Either we rewired everything, or we'd end up a footnote." During a speech delivered at this year's Mobile World Congress in Spain, Dowidar described the process of transforming the company as having to "risk everything by changing everything". He wasn't exaggerating.

Indeed, the leap came with a new brand identity and a complete transformation as the company rewired itself from being a regional telecom leader into a global tech group adopting a "platformization" strategy with five distinct business verticals spanning connectivity foundation with e& UAE; consumer digital services with e& life; driving digital transformation for governments and businesses with e& enterprise; telecom operations across 19 countries with e& international; and strategic investment with e& capital.

Proof in the numbers and actions

Such a massive shift was as much cultural as operational—a move that often comes with its own set of challenges. "Changing the name, the color, the identity was a signal, to our people, our partners and the world: this is who we are now," Dowidar explains. "Yes, there was skepticism. Reinvention always comes with risk. And looking back now, with e& named the World's Fastest Growing Brand in the Brand Finance Global 500 report this year, and our brand portfolio and investment value surpassing US$20 billion this year, we know it was worth it."

Indeed, three years into the transformation, that momentous decision has paid off in more ways than one. In addition to the milestones Dowidar mentions, the Group now sits among the Top 10 telecom brands globally with an AAA brand rating, having achieved a Brand Strength Index score of 84.6.

What transformed e& from a regional player into a global contender was a series of bold bets, powered by innovation and backed by landmark deals that continue to define the group's journey.

Right at the beginning of the year, at the World Economic Forum 2025 in Davos, e& announced a partnership with IBM to roll out an end-to-end AI governance framework – the kind of compliance-first move that puts it ahead of looming regulations.

The partnership aims to strengthen e&'s AI governance framework, ensuring compliance, effective oversight, and ethical standards throughout its expanding AI ecosystem, while simultaneously strengthening the company's dedication to strong governance, risk control, and regulatory adherence in all AI applications.

Then, in July 2025, e& partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the UAE's Cyber Security Council to launch the UAE Sovereign Launchpad, a platform designed to keep sensitive UAE data onshore while accelerating AI adoption to support the UAE's ambition to lead in digital infrastructure. It's the kind of infrastructure that could decide which nations win the digital sovereignty race. e& is also working with the UAE Cybersecurity Technology Innovation Bureau, which will focus on developing homegrown cybersecurity solutions. The UAE Sovereign Launchpad with AWS, is expected to add an estimated US$181 billion cumulative value to the UAE's digital economy by 2033.

At the heart of e&'s endeavors across cloud, AI, and cybersecurity, however, has been a decision that has enabled all of these initiatives to happen in the first place: a sovereign stack. For the uninitiated, a sovereign stack is simply a locally governed digital infrastructure that ensures data residency, compliance with national regulations, and control over AI and cloud services. "The sovereign stack is about trust, control, and long-term resilience," Dowidar says. "As a group operating in multiple markets, many with specific data governance and localization requirements, having a sovereign digital foundation means we can build and scale services in a way that respects national priorities and protects digital sovereignty. It also gives us the flexibility to innovate and with an edge, closer to our customers, with full visibility and ownership of the infrastructure layer."

Dowidar then adds that e&'s efforts to directly benefit businesses in the UAE have two critical enablers in this regard: the first of these is the already mentioned sovereign technology stack; the second is its AI-NET.

The next-generation network backbone tuned for edge AI, provides UAE businesses with the speed, capacity, and security they need to run AI at its full potential, whether that's making faster decisions, running smarter operations, or creating more valuable customer experiences.

^{Image courtesy Farooq Salik/BNC Publishing}

For enterprise customers, this means faster, more reliable service with fewer disruptions, better call quality, and more personalized digital experiences.

Just in the last few months, e& capital has made significant moves, backing startups from fintechs like Fuze, Qlub, and Derq, to real estate platform Nawy, and AI scaleups like AppliedAI. e& life's work with MOHRE is a great example of innovation with real impact, launching the UAE's first salary solution for domestic helpers that brings unbanked communities into the financial system.

On the international front, a new wholesale hub in Miami is putting e& in striking distance of U.S. and Latin American markets. In Europe, e& acquired Serbia Broadband through its partnership with PPF Telecom Group. In Africa and Asia, it rolled out nationwide 5G in Egypt and launched the country's first fully digital remittance service, expanded fiber in Morocco, and bolstered Pakistan's backbone with the Africa-1 Submarine Cable.

But the list of achievements e& has clinched, especially over the past 12 months alone, doesn't end here– in fact, it could easily become something of a full-fledged feature of its own if I were to pen only those events down.

Instead, here's the Group CEO himself highlighting some of the unmissable bits. "Results-wise, so far, we've had our most historic year on record, with our financial performance being driven by a series of bold, future-focused moves," Dowidar reveals. "We successfully divested our stake in Khazna, enhancing financial agility to support long-term growth. Of course, as mentioned, the UAE Sovereign Cloud, in partnership with AWS, is a major step in advancing sovereign AI infrastructure. But what's great is that our leadership in responsible AI was further recognised with the 'Tier S' rating under the Dubai AI Seal, which is a distinction held by very few. We also deepened strategic partnerships, including with Qualcomm, to fast-track innovation across 5G and edge AI."

Why platformization matters

"These weren't isolated wins," Dowidar insists. "They're proof that we're no longer just selling connectivity," he explains. "Instead, we're building platforms others can innovate on – entertainment, fintech, AI, cloud, you name it." With Wio, Careem, and Starzplay, e& shifted from selling minutes to embedding itself into people's daily lives and expanding into daily life touchpoints far beyond telecom.

Dowidar describes e&'s philosophy with a startup-like bluntness: "At some point, every leader faces a fork in the road. Do you stay in your lane, or do you reimagine the road entirely?"

So, instead of owning every touchpoint, e& began orchestrating ecosystems – from banking and mobility to streaming and shopping. Careem Everything App, Wio's digital banking services, and Starzplay's streaming platform became nodes in a bigger web – all tied back to e&.

And it's working. The platformization model has also opened doors to sectors that once seemed unrelated. Careem Technologies' total gross transaction value (GTV) increased 117% year-over-year, with GTV per user rising 74%. Starzplay's OTT platform has crossed 10 million installs and added 2.4 million new installs in Q2 of this year alone. Wio has significantly expanded its presence among both consumer and SME segments and was recognized as the Middle East's Best Digital Bank by Euromoney.

"The lesson," Dowidar says, "is you don't need to own 100% to unlock 100% of the opportunity and reap 100% of the value."

He emphasizes that there is a straightforward goal in executing all these shifts: customer ease and satisfaction. For consumers, the shift means fewer log-ins, more integration. "From entertainment and shopping to fintech and mobility — you can do more in one place, with more relevance and reward," Dowidar says. For businesses, it's intelligent connectivity that shortens decision cycles, personalizes experiences, and runs AI at full potential.

Speaking of customer "ease," that notion also happens to be the inspiration behind the name of e& smart stores. EASE is a complete reimagining of the retail experience, powered by AI and automation. Customers can walk in, activate their visit with biometrics or the e& app, and complete their journey without ever waiting in line. "Everything we do is driven by our customers," Dowidar says.

^{Image courtesy Farooq Salik/BNC Publishing}

Future-Proof Vision 2030

For Dowidar, all these moves ladder up to e& Vision 2030 — a four-pillar strategy built around doubling down on core connectivity, diversifying the portfolio, digitalizing operations, and embedding sustainability.

"It's the test of our strategy," he declares. "That's the mindset I've taken into e&'s 2030 Strategy anyway. Because for us, growing while decarbonizing is the only way to truly be future-proof. To build an operating model for the decades ahead, we need to sustain scale and decarbonization at the same time."

e& has ambitious, science-based net-zero targets and is committed to cutting Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 43% and Scope 3 by 25% by 2030.

These goals demonstrate operational discipline, ecosystem-wide accountability, and long-term competitiveness. But e&'s approach to sustainability is deliberately expansive. It goes beyond green tech, energy efficiency, and circularity to encompass Emiratization, digital inclusion, and future skills development. "We don't treat these as parallel initiatives; they're interconnected levers in a single, integrated strategy," Dowidar says.

The Road Ahead

Hatem Dowidar inherited a steady telecom. He aims to leave behind a restless tech group. The risks have been high, the bets bold, and the work continues. Yet he's still pushing the accelerator as he prepares for the final stretch of 2025.

He revealed that e&'s pipeline is packed with plans for deeper technology bets, sovereign tech stacks for more markets, and scaling AI responsibly.

But 3 years into e&'s transformation journey, Dowidar emphasizes that "In the grand scheme, e& transformation isn't about being a success story. It's about being a catalyst."

"Our future growth will depend not only on what we build ourselves," he concludes, "but also on what we enable others to build through us." And in a region eager to prove it can create global platforms, that may be the bigger mould e& is built to break.