Tarek Kamel
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Egyptian engineer who established his country's first internet connection in the 1990s, built the regional gateway through which neighbouring countries first reached the network, and served as minister when the state switched it off.
An engineer with a Munich doctorate who grew up between German and Egyptian cultures, he ran the networking department of the Egyptian cabinet's information centre from 1992, established the country's first connection to the internet, brought in commercial service, and founded the local chapter of the Internet Society - and because Egypt became the gateway, several neighbouring Arab countries reached the network through the link he built. He helped found AFRINIC, the region's address registry, and joined the ministry at its formation in 1999, becoming minister of communications from 2004 to 2011. The hard part of the record is January 2011: in the final weeks of the Mubarak government the state shut down internet access across the country, and he was the sitting minister. The head of ICANN later stated that he had not been responsible for the shutdown and had worked, at real risk to himself and his family, to restore service as fast as it could be restored. Both facts stand. A state's decision and a minister's conduct inside it are not the same question, and the record does not resolve them into one. He went on to ICANN in 2012 as the first senior advisor from the developing world, and was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2025, six years after his death. He is, among other things, the case of the person who built the switch being in the room when it was thrown.
Also known as: kamel, afrinic, internet society of egypt
Sources
- Internet Hall of Fame inductee page: led the establishment of Egypt's first internet connection in the 1990s, introduced commercial internet and founded the Internet Society of Egypt; Minister of Communications and IT from 2004 to 2011; the first senior advisor at ICANN from the developing world; helped found AFRINIC; by providing a gateway through Egypt he helped stimulate internet penetration in several Arab countries; he grew up between German and Egyptian cultures
- ICANNWiki: Tarek Kamel, 8 May 1962 to 10 October 2019, Senior Advisor to ICANN's President and Senior Vice President for Government Engagement, the first such advisor from a developing country in ICANN's senior management; from 1992 to 1999 at the Cabinet's Information and Decision Support Centre he established Egypt's first connection to the internet and steered the introduction of commercial service; joined the ministry at its formation in October 1999; minister from July 2004 to February 2011
- Internet Society tribute: PhD in electrical engineering and information technology from the Technical University of Munich; co-founded the Egyptian chapter and served as a trustee and vice president for chapters from 1999 to 2002
- Domain Incite, October 2019: during the final weeks of the Mubarak government in early 2011, the state shut down internet access across the country while Kamel was minister; ICANN's then chief executive later said Kamel was not responsible for the shutdown and showed near-heroism, at great personal risk to himself and his family, in restoring services as quickly as possible
- Wikipedia: chaired the Arab telecommunications ministers' executive bureau from 2004 to 2008 and the African Union's ICT ministerial conference from 2006 to 2008; inducted posthumously into the Internet Hall of Fame in September 2025