Sam Darwish

Sam Darwish has over 25 years’ experience in the telecommunications industry and co-founded IHS Towers in 2001. Under Sam’s leadership, IHS Towers has grown from a start-up infrastructure company in Nigeria to one of the leading emerging market telecommunications infrastructure businesses with over 30,500 towers. Previously he served as the Deputy Managing Director of CELIA Motophone Ltd, Nigeria’s first Global System for Mobiles (GSM) operator. He was also the Vice Chairman and Director of Projects at Lintel, an international GSM operator, responsible for global project implementation in West Africa and the Middle East. Before that he was the Network Chief Engineer for Libancell (currently Touch), Lebanon’s first GSM network operator. Additionally, Sam founded Singularity Investments, a private investment firm with a focus on technology, media and telecommunication companies with investments in the United States and the emerging markets. He is also the Founder and President of DAR Properties, a property investment company, and DAR Telecoms, a telecommunications consulting company. Sam is a graduate, with distinction, of the American University of Beirut with a Bachelor’s Engineering Degree in Computer Communications. He was awarded the CNBC Africa Business Leader of the Year Award for West Africa in 2016 and the TowerXchange Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 for his founding and continued leadership of IHS Towers. Sam is a US citizen, a member of the Wilson Center Global Advisory Council and frequent speaker at telecommunications industry events. He is also a Trustee of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, New York.