Home Country: Algeria
Program: Management/Business Administration 
University: University of Science & Technology Houari Boumedien
Pronouns: he/him
Languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French

My name is Chakib Khechai a tech entrepreneur from Algeria, I hold a bachelor`s degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in Robotics from USTHB in Algiers.

I started my career as an engineer at General Electric then decided to take a break and moved to the island of Cyprus to volunteer in a sea turtles rescue project, after a few months, I returned home and decided to launch my first startup in Robot arms and elevator manufacturing, after a year operating my company, I realized that I lacked many skills in Business Administration and decided to pivot my career to business roles. I decided to shut down my company and started working in Business Development for Jotun then moved to Unilever as part of the Unilever Future Leaders program which I left after 3 years as Marketing Brand Manager.

While I was at Unilever, I launched my second startup, where we use artificial intelligence to diagnose disabilities among children, after gaining traction in Algeria I decided to apply for Fulbright and get an MBA for the Number 1 university for entrepreneurship in the US "RICE University" so I can effectively manage to scale my business.

On Rice and Houston: 

At Rice I was able to explore different career paths and learn new disciplines to which I was a complete stranger, I was also very pleased with the academic standards of this institution.

On Fulbright:

Networking and learning more about other people's backgrounds, this allowed me to create bonds with people I have never met before and make friends for life.

Fun Fact:

I am Robotics engineer.