Abdullah Al-Barwani

Omantel, General Manager, Corporate Security

Speaker Bio

Abdullah Al-Barwani is a strategic enterprise technology and cybersecurity executive with more than 27 years of progressive leadership experience across telecommunications, national digital infrastructure, cybersecurity governance, regulatory compliance, and secure cloud transformation. He has built and led high-impact security and technology functions at national and enterprise scale, aligning digital and cybersecurity strategies with business growth, operational resilience, and risk reduction priorities.


At Omantel, Abdullah founded and led the Corporate Security Division, establishing a five-year corporate security strategy and strengthening cybersecurity governance across telecom, IT, cloud, digital, and enterprise risk domains. His leadership has supported secure migration of 4G/5G core networks, billing platforms, and IaaS/PaaS environments across major cloud ecosystems, while embedding advanced threat detection, network segmentation, and Zero Trust principles across core, transport, access, and IoT networks.


He is recognized for translating complex technology and security challenges into executive-level strategy and measurable outcomes. His career achievements include developing Omantel’s AI-powered 24/7 Security Operations Center, reducing MTTD and MTTR by more than 70%, architecting an award-winning telecom network security protection framework recognized by GSMA in 2023, and monetizing cybersecurity services through a DDoS Protection offering that sustained 100% uptime over five years.


Previously, Abdullah served as Director General of Information Security and Infrastructure at Oman’s Information Technology Authority, where he helped establish foundational national cybersecurity and infrastructure capabilities, including the first National Security Program and Expert Team, a managed security services catalogue supporting more than 400 government organizations, and strategic initiatives in government cloud, data center optimization, and national security governance.


Abdullah combines deep technical credibility with board-level advisory capability. He has influenced national and international cybersecurity communities through advisory and committee roles with GSMA, Gartner, national PKI, business continuity, disaster recovery, GIS, and academic technology bodies. He is also a frequent speaker at international and regional cybersecurity and telecommunications forums, contributing to discussions on telecom security, digital trust, privacy, resilience, and enterprise risk management.

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