Wael Ghonim

Wael Ghonim (وائل غنيم ; born 23 December 1980) is an Internet activist and computer engineer with an interest in social entrepreneurship.

Ghonim was born to a middle-class family on 23 December 1980 in Cairo, Egypt, and grew up in Abha, Saudi Arabia.

When he was 13 years old, he moved back to live in Cairo.

Between 2002 and 2005, Ghonim was the Marketing and Sales Manager of Gawab.

He earned a BS in computer engineering from Cairo University in 2004 and an MBA, with honors, in marketing and finance from the American University in Cairo in 2008.

In 2005, Ghonim left Gawab to establish Mubasher.info, a financial portal serving the Middle East region.

Ghonim joined Google Middle East and North Africa as its Regional Marketing Manager in 2008 based in Google Egypt.

In January 2010, Ghonim became Head of Marketing of Google Middle East and North Africa based in Google's United Arab Emirates office in Dubai Internet City in Dubai.

In 2010, Ghonim founded a Facebook page titled, "We Are All Khaled Said," in support of Khaled Said, a young Egyptian who was tortured to death by police in Alexandria.

Ghonim used this page in moving and integrating the anti-government protests of the January 25 Revolution.

He first made an announcement on the page on 14 January, asking members whether they were going to plan on taking to the streets on 25 January and do what Tunisia did.

In less than two hours, he published an event titled "25 يناير على التعذيب والفساد والظلم والبطالة" ["January 25: Revolution against Torture, Corruption, Unemployment and Injustice"].

This was the first of several invitations to the page.

He anonymously collaborated with activists on the ground to announce the locations for the protest.

The page also organized other activities such as the Silent Stands and the Police Communication Campaign.

In 2011, he became an international figure and galvanized pro-democracy demonstrations in Egypt after his emotional interview following 11 days of secret incarceration by Egyptian police.

During these 11 days, he was interrogated regarding his work as one of two administrators of the Facebook page, "We are all Khaled Said", which helped spark the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.

Time magazine included him in its "Time 100" list of the 100 most influential people of 2011, and the World Economic Forum selected him as one of the Young Global Leaders in 2012.

During the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, Ghonim took leave from Google to focus on his work in Egypt and the Middle East.

In January 2011, Ghonim persuaded Google to allow him to return to Egypt, citing "personal issues".

He came to Egypt to partake in the Egyptian revolution but he disappeared on 27 January during the nationwide unrest in Egypt.

His family told Al-Arabiya and other international media that he was missing.

Google also issued a statement confirming the disappearance.

Many bloggers like Chris DiBona and Habib Haddad campaigned in an attempt to identify his whereabouts.

On 5 February 2011, Mostafa Alnagar, a major Egyptian opposition figure, reported that Wael Ghonim was alive and detained by the authorities and to be released "within hours".

On 6 February 2011, Amnesty International demanded that the Egyptian authorities disclose where Ghonim was and to release him.

On 7 February, Ghonim was released after 11 days in detention.

Upon his release, he was greeted with cheers and applause when he stated, "We will not abandon our demand and that is the departure of the regime."

The same day, Ghonim appeared on the Egyptian channel DreamTV on the 10:00 pm program hosted by Mona el-Shazly.

In the interview, he praised the protesters and mourned the dead as the host read their names and showed their pictures, eventually becoming "overwhelmed" and rising to walk off camera.

The host followed.

In the interview, he urged that the protesters deserved attention more than he did and called for the end of the Mubarak regime, describing it as "rubbish".

Becoming a symbol of the revolution in Egypt, Ghonim stated that he is "ready to die" for the cause.

In 2012, he founded Tahrir Academy, a technology focused NGO that aims to foster education in Egypt.

Ghonim's memoir, "Revolution 2.0", was published in January 2012 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the U.S. and by HarperCollins in the UK.

A reviewer at The New York Times called the book "a touchstone for future testimonials about a strengthening borderless digital movement that is set to continually disrupt powerful institutions, be they corporate enterprises or political regimes".

Ghonim is the author of Revolution 2.0: The power of people is greater than the people in power (2013).

In 2014, Ghonim joined Google Ventures as an Entrepreneur in Residence before resigning in December to work at a start-up company.

In 2015, Ghonim co-founded Parlio, a social media platform that was acquired by Quora in March 2016.

He is currently a non-resident senior fellow at Harvard's Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation.