Ramez T. Shehadi is an internationally seasoned transformational leader, an industry and technology strategist, thought-leader, venture capitalist and community builder.  Ramez is at the regional helm of a global digital innovation and social media giant, and over the years, has started, scaled and led regional and global lines of business and cross-industry portfolios for a number of top-tier global consulting firms.  He has written extensively and advised leading public and private sector institutions on topics ranging from digital strategy to technology-driven socio-economic development sectoral digitization and next generation smart services and infrastructure. Ramez has also built and led social responsibility programs and actively participates in community leadership initiatives with the aim to deliver positive change across the MENA region on essential themes such as empowerment of women, environmental preservation, and social entrepreneurship among various other socio-economic issues.

Ramez is the Managing Director of Facebook for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). He leads the operational and commercial growth of Facebook and its expanding portfolio of apps, services and platforms (Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Messenger, Oculus, Workplace, etc.), with the aim to drive and magnify both the mobile-first performance success of the business as well as the positive impact of further enabling the near 200 million people using the platforms and the millions of other not yet using them, to build social and commercial communities and bring the region closer together.

Ramez was formerly Senior Partner, Executive Vice President and Managing Director of Booz Allen Hamilton, a leading business and technology strategy consultancy, where he was tasked with driving the international expansion of the firm’s general management consulting services portfolio for public and private sector clients across all major industry verticals in MENA and Turkey;  Lead Partner, MENA Digital Practice Leader and Global Booz Digital Co-Leader at Booz & Company, a leading business and technology strategy consultancy;  Co-Founder and Senior Director of Product Development at eBreviate, a billion-dollar online e-sourcing solutions platform in San Francisco;  Senior Associate in the Strategic IT Practice at A.T.Kearney, a leading business and technology strategy consultancy;  Research Associate at the Centre for Management of Technology & Entrepreneurship, a leading operations think tank housed within the University of Toronto;  Mechanical Engineer at Stone & Webster, a leading engineering consultancy; Co- Founder of R&R Ventures, a boutique VC focused on US and MENA digital innovation investment.

Ramez is a Board of Directors Member of Aramex, a publicly-traded global logistics provider; a Board of Trustees Member of BeMA (Beirut Museum of Art); a Board of Directors Member of MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) in MENA; a Member of IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau) in MENA; an Advisory Board Member of the Stony Brook School, a college preparatory boarding school in New York where he had graduated Cum Laude; a former Board of Directors Member of Young Arab Leaders as well as Endeavor Mentor and remains an active Young Presidents Organization Member of both the Emirates and Lebanon chapters. Ramez is a Fellow of the Aspen Institute’s Middle East Leadership Initiative and the Aspen Global Leadership Network and serves as a Moderator to both. He is a frequent speaker and presenter at regional and international conferences, forums and media outlets on a wide variety of digital innovation and regional development topics.

Ramez is an avid sailor and an 8m class amateur medalist in the 1997 and 1998 North American Championships and the 1999 World Championships. In 2018, he completed a 30-day 500km hiking expedition from southern tip to the northern tip of Lebanon, while charitably raising funds for the trail’s preservation.

Ramez holds a B.Eng. in Mechanical Engineering from Rutgers University and an M.A.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto and has enjoyed continuing education programs at Oxford, INSEAD and the University of St. Gallen. Ramez and his wife, Dr. Nada Afeiche, are blessed with four children (between the ages of 6 and 15).