Basel Dalloul Founded the Dalloul Art Foundation in 2017 to manage and promote his father’s (Dr. Ramzi Dalloul) vast collection of modern and contemporary Arab art. At over 4000 pieces it is the largest collection of it’s kind in private hands. The collection includes but is not limited to paintings, photography, sculpture, video and mixed media art. Basel has had a passion for art since he was very young, inspired by both his mother and father, both of whom are also passionate about art in all its forms.
Basel Dalloul founded NOOR Group in 2000 in response to the Egyptian government’s announced goal of becoming the hub of the information technology (IT) industry in the Middle East. As Chairman and CEO, he has set the overall direction of NOOR, introducing the most comprehensive information technology and Internet-related services in the MENA region and changing the ground rules for Internet access, service, speed, and reliability in both the consumer and business marketplaces. In launching NOOR, he has brought the first region-wide, full-service IT development program to the area.
Basel introduced countrywide internet service throughout Egypt in late 2001 by introducing a very innovative idea called the “Free Internet” where for the same price of a local call ANY Egyptian citizen with a phone line, a modem and computer could access the internet through the prevalent dial-up service at that time. He did not stop there, he also introduced the concept of unbundling voice and data over the same phone line to provide the then nascent xDSL Broadband service to Egypt and the region. Through NOOR Basel built one of the most advanced, and first Multi-Packet Label Switching (MPLS) in the region, along with the region’s first Tier 4 Data Center, to provide Internet, telephony and video services, not only to consumers, but also to very demanding Enterprise customers. In 2008/2009 NOOR built the first Next Generation IP Network (NGN) in Egypt.
Today NOOR boasts one of the most powerful and redundant Networks in the Region, with over 500 points of presence in Egypt alone and reach to over 137 countries worldwide through a very sophisticated web of cable and Telco partnerships.
Today Basel has his eyes on Africa and the rest of the Middle East region, building partnerships through mergers and acquisitions to creat a data communications juggernaut.
A visionary, successful entrepreneur, and widely recognized authority in the emerging digital economy, Basel saw the IT revolution coming and founded Magnet Interactive Group, Inc. in the United States in 1989. Under his direction, the company pioneered new technologies and applications for the Internet and for interactive multi-media in such critical areas as interface design and multi-media integration. During the 1990s Magnet became one of the most respected and successful interactive multi-media companies in the United States, with offices in Washington, DC and Los Angeles, CA and approximately 400 employees. It was acquired by Andersen Consulting, now Accenture, in 2000 and merged into AKQA, Europe’s largest independent Internet development and consulting firm.
Magnet’s more than 200 national and international awards attest to its leadership in setting high levels of quality standards and programmatic versatility within the young industry. Prolific in its portal development throughout the business sector, Magnet provided multi-media services and Web solutions to some of the most admired corporations and organizations in the world, including Microsoft Network, America Online, Prodigy, IBM, Mercedes-Benz North America, Nissan, Harvard Business School, Eastman Kodak, DuPont, Merck, Bayer, General Foods, Pillsbury, Kellogg’s, M&M/Mars, PaineWebber, Wells Fargo Bank, Citibank, Bank of America, Twentieth-Century Fox, MCA/Universal Studios, Discovery Network, Univision, Time-Warner, Time-Life Books, National Geographic, The Vatican, and SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation), and others.
Basel was instrumental in establishing industry-wide alliances and strategic partnerships in the US’s fledgling multi-media industry throughout the 1990s, bringing together such companies as Akamai Technologies, Andersen Consulting, Macromedia, Microsoft, Netscape, Twentieth-Century Fox Home Entertainment, and media conglomerate WPP. He has continued this strategy with NOOR, bringing together such global technology powerhouses as Cisco Systems, Juniper, Paradyne, IBM, Microsoft, NCR, and Sun Microsystems to build the Middle East’s most extensive IT infrastructure from the ground up.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in finance from American University and a Juris Doctor and MBA from Georgetown University, both in Washington, DC. Basel also studied electrical engineering and computer science at Rice University in Houston, TX, and undertook comparative studies of American and British common law and procedural law at Oxford University in England. He co-taught a course in entertainment law and the Internet at Georgetown University Law Center and is a frequent speaker and seminar leader at IT conferences worldwide. His personal interests have involved him as a member of the American University Board of Trustees; the President’s Council; the Board of Trustees of the Washington Hospital For Women, the advisory council for RIF (Reading Is Fundamental), the advisory council of the Best Buddies Foundation, and the Board of Directors of the Duke Ellington School for the Performing Arts. He is fluent in Arabic, English, and French.