Ronaldo Mouchawar (), is a

Syrian Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...

entrepreneur. In 2005, he co-founded

Souq.com Souq.com was the largest e-commerce platform in the Arab world. The company launched in 2005 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. On March 28, 2017, Amazon.com Inc. acquired Souq.com for $580 million as a subsidiary. On May 1, 2019, Souq.com UAE becam ...

, the largest e-commerce retailer in the

Arab World The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

, making the e-commerce retailer the region's first

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unico ...

. When

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

acquired Souq in 2017, Mouchewar became

vice president A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

of Amazon

Middle East and North Africa The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), also referred to as West Asia and North Africa (WANA) or South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA), is a geographic region which comprises the Middle East (also called West Asia) and North Africa together ...

. He is a veteran of

Maktoob Yahoo! Maktoob () was an online services company founded in Amman (Jordan). Maktoob.com was known as the first ArabicEnglish email service provider. In 2009, Yahoo! acquired Maktoob.com, making it Yahoo!'s official arm in the MENA region. As of 31 ...

, the internet portal that was purchased by

Yahoo Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, an ...

in 2009.

Early life and education

Ronaldo Mouchawar was born in

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

, in

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. His father was a merchant, and this provided the inspiration for the name of the e-commerce site. Mouchawar is also a former basketball player of the Jalaa SC Aleppo. Mouchawar holds a master's degree in digital communications and a bachelor's degree in electrical and computer engineering from

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. He spent the early years of his career with the Boston engineering firm working in technology and business management, including a role as a technical and systems consultant at

Electronic Data Systems Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Corporation was an American multinational corporation, multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Plano, Texas, which was founded in 1962 by Ross Perot. The company was a s ...

(EDS).

Career

Mouchawar co-founded Souq.com in 2005 alongside Jabbar,

Internet Group Internet Group do Brasil (iG) is a Brazilian Internet service provider that owns and operates web portals and provides a variety of services, including news, shopping and financial information. iG offered free e-mail accounts until 2016. At the t ...

's Samih Toukan, and Hussam Khoury. He added products from fashion to electronics and homeware and the site became the largest e-commerce retailer in the Arab world.

'White Friday'

In 2014, he established the White Friday sales event to coincide with Black Friday in the US, explaining that a "black" Friday didn't make cultural sense in the Arab world, since Friday is the traditional day of prayer. The sale was widely popular as it raised over $275 million. In 2015 Souq.com more than doubled its sales during its second White Friday sale, with 13 million visitors and 600,000 items sold between 25–28 November across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt. Additionally it was involved in the exclusive release of the Huawei Honor 6 launch in Abu Dhabi.

Funding and Amazon acquisition

In February 2016, Souq.com announced it had received $275m of funding, with a valuation above $1bn, the Arab world's largest ever funding deal. In March 2017, it was made public that Amazon would be acquiring Souq.com. The sum of this deal was not initially disclosed, though an Amazon SEC filing later revealed that the total sum paid was $580m in cash. Today Mouchawar serves as VP of Amazon MENA.

Awards

Ronaldo Mouchawar has received several professional awards both in UAE and overseas. *2013: Gulf Business Industry Awards, CEO of the year in the IT/Technology category *2015: Entrepreneur of the Year award (Retail)

Early life and education

Career

'White Friday'

Funding and Amazon acquisition

Awards

See also

References

Further reading