Dr. Karim Badawi
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Karim is a passionate product and strategy professional with 15 years of experience in many markets with multi-nationals and startups in B2B and B2C. He enjoys excellent qualifications including an Executive MBA from a top business school and a Ph.D. in engineering and technology from a global top-5 university. He considers himself a life-long learner. Karim is an empathic people leader who has managed high-worth products from ideation to phase-out.
Expertise
Work Experience
Group CPO/CSO, Head of Strategy and Product Portfolio Management
Trapeze Group
- Designed and implemented the corporate strategy and business strategy bringing back the focus to disruptive strategies with the executive board.
- Oversaw strategic portfolio management and restructured the group's portfolio for the different business areas with a focus on adding new portfolio areas, value proposition, and differentiation strategies.
- Oversaw product management and led the product management team. Modernized product management in a highly-competitive disruptive and market-driven world. I also assumed the role of the product lead for the most important products.
- Managed the innovation management. Installed a revised innovation management process to balance ROI with a “fail-early” mindset.
- Bridged innovation with strategy, orchestrated the four innovation acquisition approaches, and established several successful strategic partnerships in the industry and academia.
- Led cross-business unit strategic initiatives and projects.
- Introduced modern pricing and licensing strategies.
- Revolutionized strategic marketing and established a new online strategic marketing and customer engagement tool for joint marketing and road mapping.
- Took responsibility for new business development and launched more than 10 new products in existing and new business areas.
- Introduced and sponsored business model innovation (confidential details).
Project Manager - Consultant
Siemens Consulting
- Consulted on product strategy cases in B2B and B2C during different phases of the product lifecycle (from ideation to phase-out).
- Provided professional project management expertise for high-value strategic projects and initiatives.
- Worked on future roadmaps for disruptive digitalization technology products.
Product Architect and Project Leader
ETH Zurich & Advanced Circuit Pursuit (ACP)
- Led projects in the area of high-speed high-performance modem technologies (software and hardware).
- Assumed the product owner role for the high-speed high-performance modem product portfolio.
- Led the design and development of the industry’s first 4G scalable-performance modem product.
- Represented and promoted our innovations in international flagship conferences.
- Supervised and mentored juniors and postgraduate students.
R&D Engineer
Nokia
- Privileged to have worked at Bell Labs, the globally renowned innovation engine for some of the most popular disruptive technologies.
- Worked on advanced signal processing techniques for LTE Advanced and Multiuser MIMO OFDMA (the underlying technology for WiFi 6).
- Devised several innovations in over-the-air training of the transmission channel using machine learning techniques.
R&D Engineer
Ericsson
- Worked on the inception of the third generation mobile telecom networks.
- Assisted in the 3GPP feature standardization efforts.
- Co-developed a high-speed simulation platform to enable rapid prototyping.
Project History
AI-based Transport Network Planner
Led this strategic product (product management and development) from ideation to completion.
Intelligent Transport System for Operators
Owned and led the product portfolio management of the #1 award-winning ITS system in Europe for the future generation of the portfolio elements.
High-Availability Network Router for Industrial and Enterprise Applications
Led the strategy, product management, and UX design for the product.
A Management System for Electric Mobility
Led the strategic and product management of an innovative product suite for the management of electro-mobility.
A 4G Device Modem for Scaleable Resource-Availability-Based Performance
Led the product management and product development of this industry's only solution.
Parking Sharing Platform
Led the product strategy and management of the first parking sharing platform in the DACH region. Played a fundamental role in raising investor funding.
The project included the design and development of a unique IoT on-street sensor, a highly-scalable cloud platform, and user mobile apps. The startup aspired to solve the limited parking availability problem in European metropolitans by introducing the sharing-economy strategies and business models to parking spots. The project was launched successfully and had very high user-adoption rates.
The Largest eCommerce Platform in the Middle East
Led the strategy, product management, ownership, and UX design for the platform from its ideation phase, throughout its implementation and roll-out to the growth hacking stage
The promising startup aimed at building and operating an eCommerce platform for light-weight consumer products in several countries in the Middle East region. The startup has exited after tremendous growth through an acquisition by a global giant.
Education
Executive Diploma in International Management and Doing Business in China
Antai College of Economics & Management, Jiao Tong University - Shanghai, China
Executive Diploma in Strategic Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation Management
University of California, Irvine - California, USA
Executive MBA in General and Strategic Management
University of St. Gallen - St. Gallen, Switzerland
Ph.D. in Information Technology and Electrical Engineering
ETH Zurich - Zurich, Switzerland
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