Team size: 20+

Firas Oggar is the group general counsel and a member of the executive leadership team of Zain Group as well as being a board member of Zain KSA and Zain Iraq. Zain is a leading mobile telecommunications operator listed on Boursa Kuwait — and on three other regional equity markets — with a market cap totaling over US$8.5 billion as of 31 December 2021. Zain counts over 7,000 employees among its ranks and owns or manages operations in seven countries across the MENA region, serving a customer base of over 51.7 million. Zain has responded to the digital wave reshaping the telecom industry by embarking on an ambitious strategy to transform from a traditional mobile telecom operator into a regional digital and ICT communications business, driven by data and pursuing the highest levels of the customer experience.

Mr. Oggar is a trilingual Corporate Attorney — English, French and Arabic — with over 20 years of experience, having qualified as a Lawyer before the Paris Bar, also holding a master’s in international business law from University of Paris and completing an executive education programme from Harvard Business School.

He is a board member of The Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), Washington D.C. (Middle East Chapter, 2017 – to date). ACC is the world’s largest community of in-house counsel and a global bar association that promotes the common professional and business interests of in-house counsel.

Mr. Oggar is a visiting lecturer in M&A, international contracts and international arbitration at the University of Paris II, Pantheon-Assas International Law School Executive Education Programme.

He is a board member and secretary of the Harvard Club of Kuwait and a member of the advisory board of Harvard Business Review.

Recent years work involved Oggar and his team in leading the restructuring of the wholesale and submarine cables business of Zain Group; the launch of ZainTech, the one-stop digital and ICT solutions powerhouse of Zain Group, aiming to accelerate the digital transformation of enterprises and government entities across the region; the sale and leaseback of Zain towers passive network in Kuwait, Jordan and KSA; and the rollout of 5G in Kuwait, KSA and Bahrain.