Nabil El Kadhi

Dr Nabil EL KADHI is the Vice President of FutureCitiesCouncil Canada. He has almost 30 years of experience in the academe, and more than 15 years of experience in the management of higher education institutions with an exposure to European and Middle East and North Africa academic systems. He started his professional career in the early 90s; assumed positions ranging from Project Manager and Department Head to Lab Director, Master Programs Director, Dean, Provost, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs; Vice Chancellor and President where he remarkably contributed to institutional excellence, and several applied research and industrial projects related mainly  to Data  and Cloud Security and Privacy, Smart Cities and Internet of Things, Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence, Secure Payment, Smart Card Use and various Cloud - based applications.

EL KADHI is today a recognized Futurist in both education and innovation side. He was selected among the 50 most Impactful International Leaders in Smart Cities and Smart Applications. He is also the Managing Director and Partner at Innovative Solution and Management Consultancy, President/ Vice-President of various think-tank and associations such as Smart Cities Council, Future University and the Tunisian Association of Future Foresight.

EL KADHI notably contributed to the design and revision of various curricula for both graduate and post-graduate levels in France, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, Tunisia and UAE. Since 2006, he focused his professional activities on Institutional Strategies, Research, Program/ Curricula Development and Review, and Quality Assurance in Education. His experience encompasses leadership, administration, management, program design and development, quality assurance management, national and international accreditation, staff development, teaching, and assessment.

EL KADHI is also one of the external reviewers of the Oman Academic Accreditation Authority (OAAA), and National Center for Academic Accreditation and Assessment (NCAAA) - Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). He has been actively involved as an External Reviewer and/or Consultant in other international universities, such as Indonesia, Bahrain and Iraq.

With 11 years of experience in GCC, EL KADHI mastered the academic particularities of the region as well as the cultural aspects impacting the higher education arena in the Gulf Region. From 2020 to 2022 EL KADHI assumed the role of Vice President then President of KIC Abu Dhabi. From 2015 to mid-2019, EL KADHI as a Vice Chancellor of the University of Buraimi-Oman, has led the institution during its rebranding and internationalization processes; which allowed the institution to jump from a non-ranked university to 35^th (2017) then 16^th (2018) out of 55 local ranked universities and colleges. EL KADHI built a strong governance by developing and implementing several academic and administrative policies and procedures; and succeeded program accreditation for the General Foundation Program. The university improved to a great extent its academic environment and moved miles ahead toward internationalization, with several agreements with reputable institutions from UK and Europe.

From 2012 to 2015, EL KADHI as Dean of the College of Computing Sciences, then later as Provost at AMA International University - Bahrain, mastered the international accreditation process as he successfully led the full ABET accreditation of the Computer Science as well as Engineering curricula at AMA. Such was part of a well designed and implemented strategy to deliver academic excellence locally cross the university. The College of Business also secured European Council Business Education (ECBE) accreditation for the offered Bachelor degrees. In addition, EL KADHI succeeded to lead the University to its first positive local program and institutional accreditation as well as the redesign of existing academic programs and the introduction of new innovative curricula and teaching methodologies.

From 2008-2012, as Department Head at AHLIA University Bahrain, and in addition to his remarkable contribution to the success of various Quality Assurance visits, EL KADHI forged links with ISG – College of Business Paris and EPITECH – Engineering Higher Institution Paris to kick-off the first effective students exchange program between France and Bahrain (private sector). The program was a success story starting with 6 international student exchange to reach more than 120 students in less than 3 years.  EL KADHI assured also the success of the department programs by merging professional certification and academic degrees in an innovative student-centered approach.

From 2000-2008, EL KADHI contributed to the exceptional development and outstanding expansion of EPITECH-Paris. EPITECH is a Computer Science and Information Security Higher Education Institution belonging to IONIS Groupe. IONIS is one among the largest and most reputed group providing higher education in IT, CS, Business, Multimedia, biotechnology and Aeronautic in Paris, France.  EL KADHI assumed the role of Founder and Director of the LERIA research lab with various successful research transfer projects. EL KADHI initiated the design and delivery of 03 professional master degree programs tailored to the market need between 2004-2008 in Business Intelligence, E-payment and Risk analysis

EL KADHI has a PhD in Computer Science and Information Technology, which he earned from FST- Tunisia (for academic requirements) and France (for research requirements) at the INRIA Lab as part of a European Project on Verified Internet Protocol. He has more than 60 international publications indexed by ACM, IEEE, DBLP and others. He is also a reviewer in various international scientific journals and conferences such as International Conference on Security and Management, Super-computing Journal, MDPI, ICICT-IACSIT, IKE Conferences and International Conference of Network and System Security (NSS), as well as a keynote speaker or chair in numerous international conferences. His research expertise includes Quality Assurance in Higher Education, Instruction, Assessment, Smart Cities Security and Privacy Aspects, Internet and Information System Security, and Cloud Security and Cryptology. EL KADHI supervised successfully 3 PhD students and more than 30 Master level students in addition to bachelor degree students. EL KADHI has master degree in Optimization and Information Management from ISG- Tunis and earned the presidential award for his bachelor degree in Management Information System.

EL KADHI is distinguished in developing leading ideas and forming new academic directions based on an analysis of institutional statistics and institutional image; and forging partnerships and collaborations that pave way for exchange programs. EL KADHI is also an entrepreneur and innovator as he contributed to the establishment of various consultancy companies such as KnK Partner in France.