2026 — PresentSyria
National Center for Capacity Building
Founder & Executive Director
MandateEstablish the Center as an institution, and tie skills development to evolving institutional, economic and digital transformation needs.
Executive Leadership · MENA
Asem Rostom
Executive Leader in Capacity Building, Digital Transformation & AI
Founder & Executive Director
National Center for Capacity Building
Syria · 2026 — Present
Vice President, TC Group
Global Managing Director, Rabbitt AI
Riyadh · 2024 — Present
Building institutions.
Developing people.
Turning vision into impact that lasts.
25+
Years in executive leadership
1,000
AI engineers, T5 programme
1,200
Testing centres, MENA network
01 — Leadership Profile
How he leads
Twenty-five years spent where technology, institutions and people meet — turning transformation strategy into capability that outlasts the programme that created it.
His work has run through education systems, assessment infrastructure, workforce development and applied AI, across Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Lebanon and the wider region — and now through founding a national capacity-building institution in Syria. The through-line is consistent: build the institution, develop the people inside it, and hold commercial discipline while doing both.
Capability before technology
Transformation holds when people can run it. Every mandate starts from the skills, structures and leadership an institution will still need in five years.
Institution building
Standing up teams, partnerships and operating models that carry their own weight — in enterprise, government and academic environments alike.
Regional fluency
Two decades working inside Gulf and Levant markets, where trust is earned in the room and delivery is the only credential that counts.
Strategy into execution
Board-level agendas translated into programmes with owners, timelines and outcomes that can actually be measured.
02 — Impact at Scale
The measure of the mandate
Five signals that describe the altitude he operates at, drawn from roles held and programmes led. Network figures describe scope under his regional leadership, not work done single-handedly.
25+
Years in executive leadership
Across education, assessment, digital learning and applied AI.
1,000
AI engineers
The T5 capability programme, with SDAIA, across Saudi government entities.
120+
Testing centres in Saudi Arabia
Network expanded with the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation.
1,200
Testing centres, MENA network
Approximate scope of the Pearson VUE regional network he led.
MENA
Regional leadership scope
Executive mandates across the Gulf, the Levant and North Africa.
03 — Leadership & Advisory Fields
Where his judgement is asked for
Nine fields he leads and advises in, and what his involvement changes in each.
AI & Digital Transformation
Moving AI from executive ambition to deployed capability — the governance, the talent and the operating model that has to carry it.
Human Capital & Capacity Building
Designing the skills pipeline a market actually needs, then building the delivery machinery that fills it.
Institutional Development
Reshaping how an organisation is structured, staffed and led when its mandate changes underneath it.
Business Advisory & Consulting
Advising organisations and founders on growth strategy, operating models, market expansion and partnership development — connecting strategy to execution.
Education & Assessment
Operating inside high-trust testing, certification and accreditation environments where standards cannot slip.
Workforce Development
Moving a workforce from where it is to where the economy needs it — the pathways, the credentials and the employers who have to recognise them.
Government & Enterprise Strategy
Aligning commercial programmes with national agendas so that both sides get a return worth defending.
Partnerships & Market Development
Opening markets through alliances that hold — with universities, government bodies, platforms and enterprise buyers.
Regional Expansion & Go-to-Market
Entering a new market with a thesis rather than a hope: where demand actually sits, who has to say yes, and what has to be built locally.
04 — Executive Journey
Six chapters, one direction
Each chapter widened the mandate: from regional commercial leadership, into assessment and education infrastructure, into national AI capability, and now into founding a national capacity-building institution.
- Nov 2024 — PresentRiyadh, Saudi Arabia
TC Group · Rabbitt AI
Vice President, TC Group & Global Managing Director, Rabbitt AI
MandateLead the group's AI growth platform globally, and its executive positioning across the region.
- Oct 2021 — Oct 2024Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Simplilearn
Managing Director, Middle East
MandateOwn the Middle East business and position digital skills against national workforce agendas.
- Sep 2019 — Sep 2021Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Cambridge University Press & Assessment
MENA IELTS Department Manager
MandateRun regional IELTS operations to Cambridge standards while growing institutional partnerships.
- Mar 2013 — Aug 2019Riyadh · Dubai
Pearson VUE
META Manager
MandateLead the certification and professional testing business across the Gulf, the Middle East and North Africa, inside a global assessment ecosystem.
- Jan 2008 — Feb 2013Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
SmartWay
GCC Regional Manager
MandateBuild the GCC commercial base — the accounts, the partners and the regional execution behind them.
05 — Signature Impact
What the leadership produced
Four transformations, told plainly: the situation, the leadership, the result.
T5 — building AI capability at national scale
Context
Saudi Arabia needed applied AI engineers faster than its universities could produce them.
Leadership
As Managing Director for the Middle East, he led the regional mandate behind T5, a capability programme for 1,000 AI engineers drawn from government entities, delivered in collaboration with SDAIA.
Impact
Placed the business at the centre of national talent development and applied AI readiness.
Assessment integrity at regional scale
Context
IELTS delivery carries institutional and regulatory weight in every market it touches.
Leadership
He ran the MENA department for Cambridge University Press & Assessment across Gulf and Levant markets.
Impact
Held delivery standards and institutional trust while the regional footprint kept growing.
A regional testing network at scale
Context
Professional certification across the Gulf, the Middle East and North Africa was fragmented between markets at very different levels of maturity.
Leadership
He led Pearson VUE's regional business for six years, across a network of roughly 1,200 testing centres, working with technology partners including Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, Autodesk and EC-Council.
Impact
Supported expansion to more than 120 testing centres in Saudi Arabia with TVTC, widening access to professional certification.
An AI platform with regional centre of gravity
Context
Global AI platforms rarely build genuine authority in the Gulf rather than selling into it.
Leadership
As Global Managing Director of Rabbitt AI and Vice President of TC Group, he leads the platform from Riyadh.
Impact
Anchors a global AI growth platform in the market where its institutional buyers actually sit.
06 — Institutional Footprint
The institutional network
Organisations and ecosystems connected to his leadership, with the nature of each relationship stated.
- Leadership role
National Center for Capacity Building
Founder & Executive Director · parent institution of the Tamkeen platform
- Leadership role
TC Group
Vice President
- Leadership role
Rabbitt AI
Global Managing Director
- Executive role
Simplilearn
Managing Director, Middle East
- Executive role
Cambridge University Press & Assessment
MENA IELTS Department Manager
- Executive role
Pearson VUE
META Manager
- Executive role
SmartWay
GCC Regional Manager
- Strategic engagement
SDAIA
Collaboration partner on the T5 capability programme
- Strategic engagement
Technical and Vocational Training Corporation (TVTC)
Collaboration on the Saudi testing-centre network
- Strategic engagement
National eLearning Center
Digital learning ecosystem context
- Strategic engagement
Dubai Digital
Regional digital transformation context
Leadership and executive entries reflect positions held. Strategic engagement entries reflect programme, partnership or ecosystem context — not employment.
07 — Governance, Advisory & Ventures
Board seats and advisory roles
Board and advisory appointments, and a venture of his own. Titles are stated as held; no responsibility is claimed beyond them.
Board Member — Digital Transformation
University of San Francisco
An advisory role contributing an academic and institutional perspective on digital transformation and capability development.
Former Member
Dubai Development Authority
A former appointment within Dubai's development and digital governance environment.
Founder & Owner
Creatipro Business Consulting
Founded to provide business advisory services supporting organisations and entrepreneurs across strategy, development and capability building.
08 — Education & Foundations
The grounding underneath
Academic and professional formation supporting a career spent between boardrooms and classrooms.
Master of Business Administration
Altinbaş University, Istanbul
Executive business formation underpinning strategy, growth and transformation practice.
Bachelor of Arts, English Literature
Tishreen University, Syria
A language and communication foundation behind two decades of work across cultures and institutions.
Diploma, Digital Marketing
E-Marketing Egypt
Applied grounding in modern market engagement and digital reach.
09 — Strategic Collaboration
Open to conversations that build something institutional
Advisory mandates, board and executive roles, AI and workforce capability programmes, speaking platforms, and partnerships across government, education and enterprise.
Based inRiyadh, Saudi Arabia. Active across the Gulf, the Levant and the wider region.