Board

Youssri is an entrepreneur and investor who has successfully founded, operated and exited several startups globally. He has over 30 years of experience in engineering, product management, marketing, and business development in a wide range of technologies.

Youssri founded ITWorx in 1994 with Wael Amin, where they incubated and spun off LaserStorm (MBO), FileWay (exited), Otlob.com (sold to Orascom), and NetCelera/SwanLabs (sold to F5). After exiting ITWorx in 2007, he cofounded IdealRatings, Roboworx, and Eonite Perception (sold to Intel). In 2019, Youssri returned to ITWorx as CEO.

Youssri earned his Bachelor of Science degree in electronics and telecommunications engineering from Cairo University. He is an active member in the technology community in Egypt and in Silicon Valley where he resides with his family.

Wael Amin

Wael Amin is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Sawari Ventures. He has been a Partner at Sawari Ventures since February 4, 2015. At the firm, Mr. Amin provides further support to the company’s current and future portfolio companies. He served as President of ITWorx. Since co-founding ITWorx in 1994, Mr. Amin was responsible for steering ITWorx through its growth and transformation into a regional software powerhouse.

At ITWorx, he quickly went to work creating a one-of-a-kind environment for software engineers with plenty of flex time, recreation areas and the occasional food fight. Mr. Amin served as Chairman of ITWorx Limited until January 20, 2016. He co-founded MicroLabs. He is a seasoned veteran, having worked in the development trenches of both Microlabs and Pie Practical Solutions. He is a Director of ITIDA and EITESAL. He is software engineer and leader. Mr. Amin is frequent Lecturer on Managing Professional Services and is a founding member of the Software Engineering Competence Center in Cairo and a Lecturer on the transformational impact of technology and a Guest Lecturer at the AUC MBA program. He was a mentor and judge to Endeavor, Flat6Labs, Google Ebda2, Injaz, and Bedaya. Mr. Amin graduated top of his undergraduate class from the American University in Cairo.

Romen Mathieu

Romen is the chairman of ITWorx ltd, the largest software development company in its region, covering the Middle East, Europe and the US. He has more than 20 years of experience in corporate transactions and family owned businesses. In addition, he chairs on the board of several companies in a large number of sectors and countries covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Romen has been the managing partner of the EuroMena Funds since 2004.

Roman began his career in 1994 with Arthur Andersen, in its corporate restructuring and finance division in France. He then headed the credit department of Banque Saradar in Lebanon from 1996 to 1998. Along the following years, he worked with Lazard frères, became partner of Ernst & Young Corporate Finance, and became a board member of the International Chamber of Commerce in Lebanon, an independent board member of Chedid Capital Holding SAL, the 2nd largest reinsurance broker in the Middle East one of the top 20 worldwide, and became an active member of organizations supporting SMEs, entrepreneurship programs and corporate governance initiatives in the region.

Mr. Mathieu holds two graduate degrees in Finance (DESS and Magistère) and a Master’s degree in Management from Sorbonne University

Robert Wages

Mr. Wages serves as vice chairman of ITWorx. Mr. Wages has more than 30 years of experience managing private equity investments in the US, Europe and MENA region. Since 2017, Mr. Wages has been the Head of Post Acquisition at Venture Capital Bank in Bahrain, where he oversees its international portfolio of private equity and real estate assets.

Mr. Wages began his career in private equity in 1987 with Castle Harlan, a New York-based middle market buyout firm, where he, and was involved in all aspects of investment acquisitions, divestitures, financings and portfolio company oversight. From 2007 to 2010, Mr. Wages was the Executive Director of Private Equity for the Abu Dhabi Investment Company (InvestAD), where he executed leveraged buy-outs in the MENA region and oversaw the Company’s international PE fund portfolio. From 2010 to 2016, Mr. Wages served as Head of Private Equity at EIIC, a royal family private office in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where he oversaw the group’s extensive portfolio of direct investments, co-investments and fund investments, across both emerging and developed markets.

Mr. Wages obtained his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Princeton University and his master’s degree in Computational Finance from the University of Washington. He holds Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA), and Financial Risk Manager (FRM) designations.