Egyptians mourn Khaled Bichara 'Egypt’s Bill Gates'

CAIRO – 1 February 2020: Many Egyptians, businessmen and media professionals mourned the death of the CEO of Orascom Development Egypt (ODE) Khaled Bichara, 48, in a car accident on the Ring Road during the early hours of Friday.

Preliminary investigations showed that Bichara’s car turned over on the road, and hit an iron fence on the side of the road, causing his immediate death.


Bichara giving a TEDXTalk in Rome - Bichara's Facebook page

Images of Bichara’s damaged car circulated on social media following the collision. Officials opened an investigation into the incident to reveal circumstances leading to the death.

The funeral activities of Bichara will be held on Sunday at St. Mark Cleopatra Church at 12 p.m.

Many social media users expressed sorrow for the loss of Bichara’s family, saying his death is a loss to the business field in Egypt as he was called “Egypt’s Bill Gates.” Praisal posts flooded social media speaking about Bichara’s role in encouraging entrepreneurs to start their projects out of his belief in the powerful role of start-ups in boosting Egypt’s economy.


Bichara with his wife and two sons - Bichara's Facebook page

Bichara was born in 1971 ,and he earned his B.Sc degree from The American University in Cairo in 1993 with a major in Computer Science and a Minor in Business Administration.

He was the Group Chief Executive Officer of Orascom Telecom Holding, as well as the Chief Executive Officer of Weather Investments. He was also a board member of WIND Italy, and various telecom and IT companies, according to an Orascom Telecom Holding report.


Bichara announcing the groundbreaking of SUPERNAP Italia - Bichara's Facebook page

Bichara headed the fixed line and portal business unit at WIND Telecommunicazioni from 3005 until he was promoted to Chief Operating Officer of the company. At Wind, he played a key and instrumental role in restructuring the company’s organization, which led to the successful turnaround of WIND from a continuously loss making company to one of the best performing mobile, fixed line and broadband integrated operators in Europe within a record time span of three years. Prior to joining WIND, he was the cofounder, Chairman and CEO of LINKdotNET (LDN), the largest private Internet Service Provider in the Middle East.

Bichara was awarded by Business Today Egypt as one of the best executive officers below 40 years old.