Azmi Mikati

Azmi T. Mikati (born 21st September 1972 in Tripoli) is a Lebanese businessman. He founded his first company, T-One, whilst studying engineering at Columbia University. In 1998, Mikati became CEO of Investcom, one of the leading companies to have introduced mobile telecommunications to the Middle East; Investcom was floated for $778 million on both the London and Dubai Stock Exchanges. In 2005, Azmi Mikati became the youngest CEO of a publicly traded Middle Eastern company.

Career

Azmi T. Mikati founded T-One, a US based telecommunications company specialising in international services in 1994, whilst studying engineering at Columbia University. T-One was sold to a publicly traded US company in 1997. In 1998, he was appointed CEO of emerging market mobile phone company, Investcom.

Investcom, founded in 1982, was a Middle Eastern mobile telecommunications network provider. Under Mikati's leadership, the company's sales grew from $30 million to close to $1 billion. In 2005, Investcom was added to the Dubai International Financial Exchange and the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in what was known to be the largest listing of a Middle Eastern company on the LSE, making Mikati the youngest CEO of a publicly traded Middle Eastern company at the time. The following year, Investcom was bought by the leading African mobile operator MTN for $5.5 billion. Mikati was appointed Non-Executive Director of the MTN Group in July 2006.

Azmi T. Mikati is CEO of the M1 Group, a family investment holding company that was founded by former Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and his brother Taha. In addition to holding a 10% stake in the South Africa based telecommunications company MTN, M1 Group is invested in various sectors and geographies such as real estate, aviation, cement, fashion, retail, energy and banking.

Education

Azmi T. Mikati studied at Columbia University, New York, graduating in 1994 with a Bachelor of Sciences from the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science.