// Tarek Abu-Esber - CV

abuesber@gmail.com // +447590542720

Key Skills
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Social Media Strategy

  • I was responsible for setting Volantis’ first ever Social Media strategy and ran all the company’s social media initiatives.

  • As a member of the New Media team at Al Jazeera I was heavily involved in setting the Social Media strategy for that company.

  • Ran Social Media campaign for a Hostage In Qatar. Included setting him up with a blog and on Twitter and guiding him on how to use them effectively to get his message to the world. (http://hostageinqatar.com)

Mobile Web and Mobile Technology

  • Worked on the creation and launch of Al Jazeera’s first Mobile Website (http://m.aljazeera.net)

  • Spent 2.5 year with Volantis System, an industry leader in Mobile Web technology where I became an expert in Mobile Browser technology.

  • Expert knowledge of mobile devices and operating systems stemming from my experience in managing Volantis’ Mobile Device Database and carrying out extensive device testing.

  • Expert Knowledge in Mobile Technologies: Device Independent Development, UAProfile, User-Agent Parsing, wcss/css-mobile, xhtml-mp, wml

Evangelist

  • Mobile Web evangelist at Volantis Systems where I enhanced the companies visibility in the mobile developer community and spread my enthusiasm for the mobile web.

  • New Media services evangelist at Al Jazeera, along with the rest of the New Media Team. Helping spread the word about Al Jazeera services and interacting with online communities.

Product/Project Management

  • Product Manager for Al Jazeeras Mobile Web service and Mobile Reporter Application.

  • Project Manager for various New Media services at Al Jazeera including a Mobile Application and tools for enhancing the way the newsroom interacted with online communities.

  • Managed all projects related to the Mobile Device Database at Volantis, a key component to all their products.

Web Technologies

  • Good knowledge of HTML and CSS after having created, maintained and edited various web-sites since 1997.

  • Working knowledge of apache, mysql, csv, xml, rss, java, javascript, Eclipse, perl, python, php

Blogging

  • I have been blogging since 2002 and have set-up and run a variety of blogs both for personal use and for corporate use. Wordpress, Typepad and Blogger.

  • I am a regular user of Twitter, the micro-blogging social network. (http://twitter.com/tarek)

  • I currently blog at my personal site (http://www.tarekesber.com)

Professional History
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Senior Analyst, New Media & Mobile – Al Jazeera, Doha (November ‘08 – June ‘09)

  • Senior member of the team that sets New Media strategy for Al Jazeera

  • Worked on the creation and launch of Al Jazeera’s first Mobile Website (http://m.aljazeera.net)

  • Initiated & lead a project to allow Al Jazeera to engage with various online communities, request content & pull content directly into the newsroom for use on TV and online

  • Rolled out a Mobile Reporter application which allowed journalists to create and send content directly into our Newsroom

  • Designed & managed an Al Jazeera application that would be created for various mobile operating systems

  • Worked on a project involving the launch of a Live Streaming application for the iPhone

  • Initiated & lead a global mobile content deal with a major Operator

  • Developed guidelines for improving Al Jazeeras interaction with online communities & its use of online tools.

  • Involved in various other mobile and social media projects including projects revolving around the War on Gaza, various major elections and other major news stories

Freelance Account Manager – Launch Group, London (July ’08 – September ‘08)

  • Concentrated on online and mobile campaigns specialising in New Media and Social Media.

  • Heavily involved in Digital campaigns and pitches for Nokia, Action Aid, Sunny Delight, SpreadEx, Pfizer and others.

Mobile Industry Analyst – Corante, Online (May ’08 – November ‘08)

  • Mobile analyst contributing to the Mobile Messaging 2.0 blog.

  • Wrote regular opinion pieces about what is going on in the Mobile Industry.

Mobile Web Evangelist – Volantis Systems, Guildford (Mar. ’08 – June ‘08)

  • Developed and ran Social Media strategy for the company. Assisted on the campaign to increase awareness of the company & its products in the market & media

  • Drove forward a Community project revolving around an Open Source product and generated interest within the developer community

  • Created useful dialogue with our target audiences in order to reinforce Volantis’ position as a market leader and industry expert.

  • Ensured the company was kept up to date with developments in the market and was able to reflect its knowledge and expertise in its communications

  • Kept the company executives up-to-date on relevant & industry trends and internally blogged about relevant industry happenings

Mobile Device Engineer, Lead – Volantis Systems, Guildford (Dec. ’05 – Mar. ‘08)

  • Hired, Trained & Managed the Junior Device Team based in Poland to be responsible for Device Information Repository

  • Helped new and current customers with mobile device related issues, creating test-cases for various low-level properties of mobile browsers

  • Kept the customer informed on the current industry landscape and helping create strategies for the companies products and road-maps based on the latest mobile device technology being released.

  • Supported sales and crisis meetings

IT Technician - Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Trust, Bath (March ’05 – Aug. ’05)
Mobile and Wireless Editor - IT-Observer, Online (Nov. ’04 – Feb. ’05)
Electronic Engineer Internship - NCR, Abu-Dhabi (Oct. ’04 – Nov ’04)

Other Interests
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Personal Projects

Sports

  • Have played many sports at team level both at school and at university. These sports include football, tennis, basketball and volleyball. I also do cross-country running on a regular basis.

Other Hobbies

  • Reading: I am currently reading books on politics and Japanese Culture.

  • Journalism: This interest was rekindled during my time with Al Jazeera where I had the opportunity to experience real journalism and regularly interact with various journalist, correspondents and anchors. My specific interest is in investigative journalism with a view to producing documentaries.

Education
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University of Bath, Dept. of Electronic & Electrical Eng. (Sept. ’01 – June ’04)

BEng (Hons) Computers, Electronics and Communications

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