Tarek Kamel

In Egypt, he’s known as the Father of the Internet—or Mr. Internet, for short. Dr. Tarek Kamel earned the nicknames for his groundbreaking work to bring the Internet to Egypt, but his geographic influence expands across countries and regions. His passing in 2019 cut his extraordinary career too short, but not before he could leave an indelible mark on not just who gets to access the Internet, but who gets to shape how the Internet is governed.

Kamel’s leadership established Egypt as a regional Internet leader. Its success there caught the eye of investors and neighboring countries alike, bringing in resources and partnerships. “By providing a gateway through Egypt for neighboring countries to access the Internet in its early days, he helped stimulate Internet penetration in several Arab countries,” recalled Baher Esmat, vice president for stakeholder engagement, Middle East at ICANN. At the governance level, the geographic influence was similarly notable: he helped found AFRINIC, one of the world’s five Regional Internet Registries, responsible for Internet Protocol addresses for the region based on community-developed policies.

“Growing up between German and Egyptian cultures shaped his outlook: he was driven by what unites people rather than what divides them,” said his wife, Dr. Eman El-Azab, a fellow computer scientist. “He was always passionate about connecting people—across our family, cultures, sectors, and borders.” This passion led him to assemble stakeholders from government, industry, and academia to discuss Egypt’s digital present and plan for its future, as early as 1996. While this kind of multistakeholder model of Internet governance is now considered the gold standard, at the time there wasn’t even a word for it. But to Kamel, it was the obvious way to make informed choices about the Internet.

The population of Egypt has nearly doubled since 1993, to roughly 116 million people. Kamel continued to build on his work to expand access until the very end, taking calls and sharing his expertise from the hospital. “He believed deeply that everyone should have the opportunity to connect and thrive in an increasingly digital world,” said El-Azab, who noted that Kamel was most happy about seeing the ways in which the Internet improved life for people in Egypt, and for the career successes of the many young people whom he mentored and inspired to pursue careers in ICT or Internet governance. He has left his legacy in these skilled hands, and the generation of Internet governance leaders across the region whom he helped cultivate will mean Kamel’s contributions to the Internet will unfold for years to come.