Iveda Appoints Smart City and AI Visionary Mo Bakheit as VP of Business Development
Iveda , a worldwide provider of smart city digital transformation technologies, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based video search technology and Internet of Things (IoT) devices and management platforms, announced that it has hired Mo Bakheit as the company’s Vice President of Business Development.
Most recently, Bakheit was a principal partner and infrastructure lead for MMGI, a security and risk consultancy focused on business intelligence and capture management. The company engaged clients focused on the $1 trillion U.S. Infrastructure Upgrade Fund.
When ethereal concepts like Smart Cities, AI and machine learning were merely ideas, Bakheit was already well-established in the fledging industry that we know today. He served as Commercial Lead for the first Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Accredited Safe Smart Cities Reference Architecture and Consortium, an initiative developed to provide defense, security and sustainability of global Smart Cities. The company he co-founded, Alacera International developed SENTRIX, the security master plan reference architecture created as an overlay for DHS’s National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) and was a precursor to today’s U.S. DHS SAFETY Act and Qualified Anti-Terrorism Technologies (QATT) certifications.
Read More: Splunk Names Katie Bianchi Chief Customer Officer
In his role as Alacera commercial lead and V.P. of Strategic Alliances, Bakheit oversaw the creation of the Alacera International Consortium – Saudi (AICS), a group of defense and intelligence firms, which included Ridge Global, Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Solutions, PWC, Schneider Electric and Cisco Systems. In 2008, this led to the security master plan contract award for King Abdullah Economic City, a $55 billion, 67 square-mile Smart City project in Saudi Arabia. The city plan served as the template for five additional Economic Smart Cities built in Saudi Arabia.
“Having been privileged to be mentored by the pioneers of the very first Smart City initiatives, I was fortunate to have teamed up with the leading global providers in this industry since 2006,” Bakheit said. “However, when I started engaging with Iveda’s management team in 2016, I realized how critical the role of AI and IoT are in the digital transformation of cities around the world.”
Read More: SalesTechStar Interview With Rich Hoyland, Head Of Sales At Anyscale
While at Comstor/GE ITD as Director of Engineering in the late 1990s, he established one of the very first customer and partner labs showcasing Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony. IP Telephony soon became the communication norm, replacing the legacy PBXs and circuit switched networks relied upon for decades.
Iveda CEO David Ly said “It’s rare to find somebody who knows Smart City development from both the financial and technological side. Mo’s international business prowess and acute knowledge and experience with Smart Cities from every level adds another catalyst to Iveda’s growth. His stellar reputation in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) market makes this a perfect fit for Iveda’s future goals.”
Bakheit earned a BA in Communications and Media Studies from The American University in Washington DC and later attended a postgraduate program in International Communications.
