Cisco Systems Announces New General Manager for Saudi at Cisco Expo 2005

Top Executives visit Kingdom to share latest technologies with customer and partners

Riyadh, KSA, March 6th, 2005 – Cisco Systems International B.V. announced today the appointment of Dr. Badr. H. Al-Badr, a Saudi national and well-seasoned ICT professional, as General Manager for Cisco Systems Saudi Arabia. With ten years experience in the Saudi ICT and networking field, Al-Badr will further enhance Cisco's activities in the Kingdom, including cooperation with the public and private-sectors to bridge the digital divide.

Dr.Al Badr's announcement came on the eve of Cisco Expo 2005, the Kingdom's largest networking & advanced technologies conference and exhibition organised by the international networking giant in the capital Riyadh, and followed a day-long summit organised by Cisco for its partners in the Kingdom .in which strategies and nextgeneration technologies were shared and a set of distinguished partners were awarded.

While hosting the biggest gathering of IT and networking professionals from across the region with over 600 delegates attending, senior executives at Cisco Systems not only re-affirmed the company's key role in meeting the Kingdom's fast growing demand for advanced ICT technologies but also how well positioned the company is at addressing the demands of its priority one market in the Middle East.

"Saudi Arabia is the largest single market in the region and a key growth area for Cisco. With exceptional market knowledge and understanding, Dr. Badr is sure to successfully lead the Saudi team and operations in order to strengthen Cisco's market leadership position in the Kingdom," said Ghazi Atallah, General Manager, Cisco Systems Middle East. "One of Badr's main focuses early on will be to work closely with the public- and private-sectors, educational institutions and service providers to forge alliances and partnerships to promote technology adoption and internet penetration and narrow the digital divide in the Kingdom."

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Al-Badr said, "This is an exciting and fast-moving period in the ICT industry in Saudi Arabia, a time when organizations – from small businesses to large enterprises and government agencies – require intelligent information networks to manage the complexity of today's world and the intelligent movement of data, voice and video across networks. I look forward to the many challenges posed by this new world and to helping Cisco customers in the kingdom benefit from using our industry-leading solutions."

Dr. Al-Badr, a Saudi national, has a distinguished career track. Founder of Advanced Digital Technology and Communications Co. (Raqmia), a successful incubator of Saudi ICT and e-government projects, he has also overseen the merger of Arabian Internet and Communications Co, subsequently becoming the largest Internet Service provider of the region (ISP). Dr. Al-Badr's most recent accomplishment has been to lead the wining consortium for Saudi Arabia's second Saudi Data telecom license.

Cisco Expo was an ideal forum to showcase Cisco and its partners' wide range of intelligent network solutions such as Cisco's IP communications, Self-Defending Networks, Business Ready Data Centers, Wireless Networks and Mobility Solutions.

These live demos provided attendees the chance to gain insight into how enterprises, business and governments alike may benefit from a capacity to intelligently channel data, voice and video across a system of networks faster, smarter and more securely.

Speaking further, Dr. Badr. H.-Al-Badr outlined Cisco's commitment to Saudi Arabia by stressing the fact that the company is actively engaged in hiring Saudi nationals and will also get engaged in various activities in the Kingdom.

The Cisco Expo 2005in Saudi was sponsored by Saudi Business Machines Ltd., along with MIS, Al Jeraisy, Ebttikar, Panduit, and Logicom.