Biography:

Mr. Esam Abulkhirat earned a Bachelor degree of Computer Science from the University of Tripoli, Libya in 1997 after gaining remarkable degree of 100% in his graduation project.

Mr. Esam gained his MSc degree in 2003 from University of Putra Malaysia (UPM) in Distributed Systems, specifically in Encryption and Decryption methods and has published scientific papers of his findings. He has a long extensive experience in diverse areas within ICT spectrum such as Policies, Regulations, Internet Governance and Cybersecurity, Mr. Esam joined the African Union Commission in April 2005 as a Senior ICT Policy Officer. Since then, he has been involved in many key projects, events and programmes. He has a broad background in ICT and Internet related issues, and has held a series positions of increasing responsibilities in many international/regional organizations and institutions.

Mr. Esam is also a frequent guest and key speaker at many conferences, events and workshops. Mr. Esam is IEEE Security & Privacy Articles Reviewer in (2003, 2007). Currently, Mr. Esam Abulkhirat is assigned as the General Director of the National Information Security and Safety Authority (NISSA) in Libya, where he is mandated to establish the national Computer Emergency Readiness Team (CERT), Security Operation Center (SOC) and setup the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) foundation among other things.

Mr. Esam has a strong multidisciplinary competencies (Commercial, Technical, Economical, Policy, Regulation, etc), combing professional and academic activities. He has also a strong capacity of working in a complex and multicultural environments, with the ability to create good work relations. Mr. Abulkhirat has a strong work ethics, personal integrity and good communication skills.