Rima Al-Shikh

Experience

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  Begin.AI

  Founder and Chief Executive Officer

  Dec 2020 - Present

  Personalization infrastructure software for real-time product adaptation to keep users happy.

  • Invented a decentralized fast technology that works at very large scale.
  • Led product design and development.
  • Led teams, investment, etc.
  • Led development of high quality, general purpose user retention algorithms that are easy to deploy.
• 

  OpenMined

  Core Engineer (volunteer)

  Apr 2020 - Oct 2020

  Non-profit building federated learning libraries that are recognized globally, working with Meta.

  • Worked with the founding core team on solving complex decentralized learning challenges.
• 

  Lixar IT (Acquired by BDO)

  Data and AI Practice Lead

  Mar 2018 - Nov 2020

  Premier AI and Data Company delivering AI research and Applied AI solutions to Fortune companies in North America and EU.

  • Built and led a solutions engineering team that was responsible for solution delivery and account growth.
  • Led data and AI teams to deliver applied AI solutions for a wide range of applications.
  • Led executive stakeholder meetings for the largest accounts that spanned teams across countries/continents for AI adaption strategies.
  • Led internal efficiency upgrades efforts prior to acquisition by BDO.
  • Coded MVPs for AI solutions for call centre voice analysis, predictive radio, predictive sales, scenario simulations and more.
  • Led R&D efforts for AI solutions in self driving cars, medical devices, aerospace, and more.
• 

  Research Exchange (Acquired by Liquidnet)

  Lead Software Engineer

  Feb 2018 - Aug 2019

  Financial research aggregator in the UK.

  • Hands on keyboard responsible for research import/updates from a variety of systems.
  • Interface development for users to find and pay for research.
  • Team onboarding and support through acquisition transition.
• 

  Mokus.io (scaled to U$1m revenue in first year of ops)

  Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder

  Mar 2015 - Dec 2017

  The leading web and mobile development business in MENA. Recruiting 300+ contract engineers to deliver cross-platform solutions.

  • Hired and led executive team.
  • Developed GTM and scale strategy.
  • Helped key clients in their product strategy working closely with their executive board.
  • Launched solutions for many recognized scale ups like Health at Hand and Democrance.
  • Built systems for engineer rotations, payouts, quality engineering, onboarding, and efficiency optimization.
• 

  Nabbesh.com (Acquired by Wamda)

  Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder

  Jun 2012 - Mar 2015

  The leading freelancer marketplace for MENA region.

  • Build product MVP in a hackathon.
  • Built product for scale and search & matching algorithms.
  • Built reporting dashboards for user funnels and user interactions.
  • Executive board member.
  • Hired and onboarded initial team.
• 

  ITP Media Group

  Head of Development

  Jun 2010 - Jun 2012

  A leading publisher in MENA, publishing 80+ publications, including TimeOutDubai and ArabianBusiness.

  • Hired and led dev teams across publications.
  • Led architecture design and development of a new publishing system to service high demand.
  • Built recommender systems for increasing user retention.
• 

  Dubizzle (Acquired by Rocket Internet)

  Lead Developer

  Dec 2009 - Nov 2010

  The leading classifieds website for MENA.

  • Built feeds systems for ads.
  • Built search algorithm, and recommender systems for millions of users.
  • Developed expansion systems for new countries/languages.