Jamal
Farhat

Jamal Farhat is a Partner in Fortium Partners’ Midwest region, where he serves a range of industrial and manufacturing companies including automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. His leadership experience spans IT strategy, outsourcing, system development and cyber security.  He has built and managed global technology teams for both public and private companies.  With advanced degrees in engineering and business, Jamal is a systematic and strategic thinker.  He drives standardization of processes to improve results and support organic growth of the enterprise.  His keen ability to navigate restructuring and globalization initiatives reflects his change management prowess.  He holds refined diplomatic skills which were honed while serving on the board of a US-Chinese joint venture.

As a CIO, Jamal has led IT transformation and digitization efforts that resulted in significant cost reduction.  He moved the IT organization from a highly distributed environment to central management.  He launched shared services centers in low-cost countries including Poland, India and China with significant savings for the company.  Jamal has also implemented project management techniques, consolidated vendors, and harmonized human capital management systems as part of his commitment to standardization.  His responsibilities have included cyber security, data analytics, IT governance, and compliance to meet multi-national requirements.  His passion for progress and results impels him to cultivate strategic relationships and build consensus in adverse environments.  Jamal has created a talent development and succession planning model that reflects his commitment to developing next generation IT leaders.  

Jamal has served on the advisory boards for Cisco, AT&T and Microsoft as well as privately held startups such as data analytics firm QLIK and artificial intelligence company TextIQ.  He is a member and Governance Fellow of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), a member of the Private Directors Association, and active in the Society of Information Managers.  Jamal also holds credentials as a Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified in Integrated Resource Management (CIRM) by American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS).  

Jamal graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Washington University.  He earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Michigan and completed the Innovation Management program at Said Business School, University of Oxford.

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