Fred F. Korangy, NEEI Founder and Chief Executive Officer, envisioned New Enterprise East Investments; upon his departure as CEO of Logictree in 2007, he began testing the NEEI concept within MENA and the GCC and received encouragement from GCC NGOs and investors alike, as well as from interested financial entities outside the region.
Since 1989, Serial Entrepreneur Korangy founded or acquired 4 Hi-Technology firms and drove these to successful exits as Chairman and/or CEO:
- In 2002, acquired Denmark’s BTSLogic; a developer specialized Directory Solutions for carriers. Since then, BTSLogic captured major accounts in the USA, UAE, Egypt, Bahrain, and Oman. Today, it is the largest provider of directory software in the Arabic-speaking world. For Telecom Egypt, BTSLogic built the largest contact center in the MENA region; another notable client was the US Department of Defense (“Pentagon”). In 2007, BTSLogic was sold to a public Canadian company at 6x the original investment.
- In 1999, founded LogicTree Corp., a software development firm for voice access and speech recognition technologies. As Chairman & CEO, Fred drove it to >100% annual revenue growth for most of this decade; in 2006, Deloitte Touche ranked LogicTree the 3rd fastest growing company in Maryland and 73rd in the USA. It deployed solutions at state and federal agencies in Florida, Virginia, New York, Arizona as well as at the Pentagon. By 2007, LogicTree had raised USD14M from investors and had built a revenue backlog >USD70M.
- In 1996, founded Sazu GMBH of Hamburg, Germany. As CEO of this e-Commerce software development firm he rapidly grew this niche programmer and sold it in 2000 to Ansari GMBH for 7 times the original investment, prior to the release of its product line and the start of revenue generation.
- In 1989, founded Digital Technics Inc. in New York, a switch developer creating Class 5 switches for the Fixed Wireless Local Loop. Company held patents on Switch & Radio (wireless) interfaces, and sold its products to Hughes, Motorola and Lockheed Martin. CEO Korangy raised USD12M, built revenues to USD7M annually, and, in 1995, sold the company to L3 Communications at 5x the original investment.
While still in college (at Temple University), in 1977, he started The Philadelphia Food Works and Chefs Market, a unique up-scale natural food restaurant and gourmet shop; it received the highest accolades from East Coast critics, and was sold in 1981.
Between 1981 and 1989, Fred formed 10 partnerships to develop industrial and commercial properties in Maryland, Virginia and Florida, eventually valued at >USD300M. All ventures were exited successfully prior to the 1989 real estate crash.
Fred holds a Master of Science Degree in Technology Management and Systems from the University of Maryland (UMD), and has been a guest speaker on entrepreneurial processes at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, Columbia University, UMD and Johns Hopkins University. He holds US patents on speech recognition.