Bahjat El-Darwiche

Bahjat is a Partner at Strategy& and the Technology, Media, Telecommunications and Digital leader for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). He has over 30 years of consulting experience and has led high-profile client engagements in the Middle East, Europe, Africa, US, and Asia.

Bahjat has played a pivotal role in advising governments, regulatory bodies, global enterprises, and leading technology and telecom players on designing and executing national transformation programs, shaping sectoral policies, and implementing institutional governance frameworks. His expertise spans giga-projects, public sector reform, the digital economy, cultural heritage, media, telecommunications, and technology.

Bahjat’s client experience has included:

• Sector Development & Governance: Led the restructuring of a major economic sector for a GCC country, tackling stagnation, economic leakage, and outdated regulatory frameworks.
• National Digital Transformation: Designed Saudi Arabia’s National Digitization Strategy and ICT sector transformation roadmap under Vision 2030.
• Legislative & Policy Reform: Spearheaded governance and policy alignment for national councils and regulatory authorities, including preparing submissions to ministerial councils.
• Public Sector & Smart Cities: Developed digitization and governance frameworks for cultural heritage initiatives, smart cities, and brownfield digital infrastructure projects.
• Institutional and Corporate Governance: Designed governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) models for major giga-projects, sovereign wealth entities, and public-private sector institutions.

In addition to his client work, Bahjat is a regular contributor to reference industry publications and leadership panels in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, the International Telecommunications Union, INSEAD, and the SAMENA Telecommunications Council. He is a member of the Advisory Board for the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report (WEF GITR) and is a Fellow of YPO and the Endeavor network, mentoring start-ups in technology, education, and agriculture. He also contributes to global policy dialogues on the digital economy, AI governance, and public sector innovation.

Bahjat holds a MSc. in Engineering (Diplôme d'Ingénieur) from the École Polytechnique in France as well as a Master’s in Telecommunications from Télécom ParisTech (formerly École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications) in Paris.