Ronaldo Mouchawar ( ar, رونالدو مشحور), is a

Syrian Syrians ( ar, سُورِيُّون, ''Sūriyyīn'') are an Eastern Mediterranean ethnic group indigenous to the Levant. They share common Levantine Semitic roots. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend of both indi ...

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 ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...

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

unicorn The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unicorn has for the last thousand years o ...

. When

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

acquired Souq in 2017, Mouchewar became

vice president A 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 vice president is on t ...

of Amazon

Middle East and North Africa MENA, an acronym in the English language, refers to a grouping of countries situated in and around the Middle East and North Africa. It is also known as WANA, SWANA, or NAWA, which alternatively refers to the Middle East as Western Asia (or a ...

. He is a veteran of

Maktoob Maktoob ( ar, مكتوب) was an online services company founded in Amman (Jordan). Maktoob.com was known for being the first Arabic/English email service provider. In 2009, Yahoo! acquired Maktoob.com, thus turning Maktoob into Yahoo!'s officia ...

, the internet portal purchased by

Yahoo Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...

in 2009. In 2005, he launched

which as of September 1 2021 is a defunct e-commerce app replaced by its parent company

Early life and education

Ronaldo Mouchawar was born in

Aleppo )), is an adjective which means "white-colored mixed with black". , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = ...

, in

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. 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) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

in Boston, Massachusetts in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

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

Electronic Data Systems Electronic all cash BSN acc: 1311729000110205 Data Systems (EDS) was an American multinational information technology equipment and services company headquartered in Plano, Texas which was founded in 1962 by Ross Perot. The company was a subs ...

(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 stock information. iG offered free e-mail accounts until 2016. At the time ...

'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 doesn'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 during 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 __NOTOC__ ''Gulf Business'' is a weekly magazine published from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and focusing on Middle East business news, especially in GCC countries. It was launched in 1996. It is published in Motivate Media Group. The magazine ...

, 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