In the wireless world, Hatim Zaghloul commands respect as a world-renowned authority — but who is the man behind the brilliant electrical engineer?
As we discovered in this interview, the CEO of Wi-LAN is a man of diverse interests who speaks from the heart on all subjects.
With refreshing candour, a relaxed Zaghloul shares his views on family, his devout Muslim upbringing, his fierce pride in the Egyptian culture, conflict in the Middle East, the human costs associated with running a major corporation and his weakness for romantic comedies.
1. Can you tell us about your upbringing in Egypt and the United Kingdom and how it impacted your life?
“My family wasn’t very typical. My mother (Nabawia Harb) lived in Egypt and my father (the late Abdulmonem Zaghloul) worked in the U.K and came to visit sometimes and I would spend my summers with him in the U.K. It was not a traditional Egyptian upbringing, but it gave me the best of both worlds. My mother was a conservative Moslem lady (former high school teacher and school supervisor) and my dad (a former producer of Egyptian programs for the BBC) was relatively a liberal Moslem. It helped broaden my horizons quite a bit, seeing two cultures.”
2. How did that shape your beliefs and values?
“For instance, I’ve had a chance to see the Middle East war from both sides — Egypt and England. I was on the inside where we were bombarded and I also remember reading about it from England. It was important to see different views of the same thing. I don’t want to say that governments lie but they tell the truth differently. I started to learn not every word you read is true. It made me more cynical than an average Egyptian. It’s a cynical view, slash, strict Muslim upbringing, slash, liberal U.K. kind of view. My family now follows the Muslim traditions.”
3. Do you have a role model?
“The prophet Mohammed.”
4. What is your most vivid boyhood memory?
“When I was 10, there was too much talk about the crisis with Israel. I remember playing with toys, soldiers and stuff like that with my neighbour. We actually enacted a war and that was fun. It left a big impression because just as we were playing, the war really happened. By the end of the playing, there were air raids on Cairo.”
5. Was that frightening to a child?
“Not really. From a Muslim point of view, we have a very different perception of life and death. It is the Muslim culture in which martyrdom and dying in a war is something to be proud of. We weren’t brought up to be scared of death. Moreso, it was a fact of life.”
6. How important was education?
“My eldest brother (Adel, an electronics and automotive entrepreneur) was about 10 years older and became an engineer. I wanted to become an engineer and I wanted to impress my family with studying because my mom was pushing us very hard to do better than the kids before him. She was relentless.”
7. Was it ever good enough for your mom?
“She only let go when I was at the top of my class in (Cairo University).”
8. Who had the greatest impact on your life?
“Without a doubt, it was my mother. She never accepted what I did was good enough — until I was number one.”
9. What was the most important lesson your mother instilled in you?
“Overall integrity. You do things because they’re right and then you think of the rest.”
10. At what stage did you formulate your vision for starting Wi-Lan?
“If I had known the difficulties or read a 50-page or a 500-page manual about all the difficulties an entrepreneur faces, I would never have started Wi-LAN.
If I knew that, one day, I would be responsible for people’s money, shareholders’ money, I would never have gotten into it. (Laughing) So I got suckered into it. I was promised that you make a million dollars in six months and sell it. But in six months there was no million dollars and because of the goodness my mom instilled in me, I had to do good on people’s money so I had to work hard and it was the worst slavery one could imagine.”
11. As an entrepreneur, do you celebrate the victories?
“I don’t celebrate when we get a patent or when something big happens. I generally look at what went wrong. I don’t mind other people celebrating. For myself, I don’t see anything big in the history of Wi-LAN. I only see challenges for the future.”
12. How have you managed to balance personal and business life?
“To be honest, I didn’t balance it for the first 61/2 years of Wi-LAN. I didn’t even know what the word meant. So basically I was 90 per cent dedicated to Wi-LAN.”
13. So what have you done about it?
“Since the middle of ’99, as Wi-LAN seemed to be heading towards stability and looked like it was here to say, I started to focus more on my family. Of course, there was a lot of damage already done. Since mid-’95, I decided to go home early every day. I have attended lots of my (four) kids’ big events, like my daughter’s recitals, but I haven’t seen everything.”
14. What have you missed?
(Sighing and throwing his arms up). Oh, I’ve missed the three goals my daughter has scored (in hockey).”
15. So are you now comfortable with your perspective on life and business?
“The most important thing that I’ve done relatively right is stopping to smell the roses. So, when I went home at five, I would insist that we not talk business. My wife was very involved in the company in the beginning. She was the bookkeeper and she sold her jewelry and her car to finance Wi-LAN. So it was natural for her to ask a question about Wi-LAN every day, but then we agreed that there would be no business when I go home.”
16. The prophet Mohammad taps you on the shoulder and says you can change one thing in your life?
“I’d dedicate more time to my wife (Sawzia). I spent a lot of time with my kids, but not enough time with her. If I missed anything, it was the romance kind of thing in my life during the beginnings of Wi-LAN.”
17. Your sporting passion is soccer, so how is your game?
“I last played in university (University of Calgary). Funnily enough, my game wasn’t very good until I broke my leg. After I broke my leg, I learned precision. So I started to use my head instead of my foot.”
18. Your favourite movie?
“I like comedies. Of course, my favourite is Something About Mary. You’ve got to watch it enough times to catch every move, especially the scene where the guy carries a 230-pound boy and he cracks his back. Oh, what we’d do for a girlfriend!”
19. If you could change one thing to make the world a better place, what would that be?
“Peace. I’d introduce peace. It’s really unfortunate. I come from a region that never knew peace really. It’s sad because peace is just around the corner — and that corner has been there for 40 years.”
20. How would you describe your business philosophy?
“Gosh, it’s simple. It’s a chess game. You beat others by thinking two steps ahead. To be a master, you’ve got to know how many moves the guy in front of you thinks. Then, if you think even half a move ahead, you win.”
THE COMPANY:
* Brass: Hatim Zaghloul, CEO/co-founder; Bill Hews, president; Peter Kinash, chief financial officer; Sayed-Amr (Sisso) El-Hamamshy, chief operating officer.
* Focus: Innovation of wireless data communications with an emphasis on high-speed Internet access, LAN/WAN extension and broadband wireless access.
* Highlight: Wi-LAN was chosen as the sole provider of broadband wireless access solutions for the provincial megaproject known as Supernet, targeted to connect provincial communities with three years.
* Recent stock price: $8.63 (year range, $6.95-$94.00).
* Web site: www.wi-lan.com
* Phone/Fax: 273-9133, 273-5100.
* Address: #300-801 Manning Rd. N.E., T2E 8J5.
IN PROFILE: Hatim Zaghloul
* Born/Raised/Age: Cairo, Egypt; 44.
* Title: CEO/chairman, Wi-LAN.
* Education: BSc (electrical engineering), Cairo University; MSc, PhD (physics), University of Calgary.
* Family: Wife Sawzia, children Ahmed, 15, Fatima, 13, Marian, five, Sara, one.
* Claim to fame: Zaghloul is a co-inventor of two wireless technologies (W-OFDM, MC-DSSS) and holds nine Canadian and American patents, some of them in a partnership with Michel Fattouche, CEO of Cell-Loc.
* Passions: Romantic comedies, soccer, Flames’ hockey and Egyptian culture (he is a major donor and the presenter of the Mysteries of Egypt exhibit at the Glenbow Museum).
