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Elyes Grar
Learning · Building · Teaching · Creating

More than three decades
of ideas, experiences
and evolution.

From technology and entrepreneurship to consulting, professional education, events and creative production — each chapter has shaped who I am today.

Elyes Grar portrait
In My Own Words

A Journey Beyond One Profession

I never set out to have a single career. I set out to keep learning, and to let that learning take me wherever it made sense to go next.

That has meant standing at a workbench in a Tunisian garment factory, designing websites in the early days of the Tunisian web, leading digital transformation programs for governments and global institutions, training the next generation of PMO and enterprise architecture professionals, and building companies, platforms and communities along the way.

What ties it all together isn't a job title. It's a pattern: understand a problem deeply, build something real to solve it, teach others what I've learned, and keep creating — whether that's a strategy, a platform or a piece of visual storytelling.

Elyes Grar
Career

Professional Experience

29 years of director-level advisory work across the GCC, MENA and Europe — architecting national-scale digital transformation for ministries, sovereign entities and large enterprises.

Yellomind Consulting

Founder & Managing Partner
  • Lead strategic advisory and transformation engagements spanning strategy, institutional effectiveness, PMO, governance, enterprise architecture, data and digital transformation.
  • Built and managed a regional advisory practice across 10+ countries, delivering 50+ transformation mandates for government and enterprise organizations.
  • Advise senior executives and public-sector leaders on strategic transformation, operating models, governance, performance and organizational capability.
  • Lead business development, strategic partnerships, client relationships, proposal development and engagement delivery.
  • Built and launched digital businesses and platforms, including YelloAcademy, expanding the firm's digital and capability-development offerings.
  • Delivered 300+ capacity-building workshops reaching more than 1,000 professionals.

Kaizen Consulting

Senior Manager — Data Governance
  • Leading the establishment of the Data Management Office (DMO) for SOCPA, ensuring alignment with NDMO requirements and assessing data management maturity against the NDI Maturity Index.
  • Driving C-suite engagement and cross-functional stakeholder alignment to embed data stewardship, data governance and responsible AI practices.
  • Defining the DMO operating model, governance mechanisms, capabilities and maturity improvement roadmap.

LeadMind

Senior Manager — Data & AI Governance
  • Led the establishment of a Data Management Office for a major public-sector organization, covering data architecture principles, metadata standards and AI governance frameworks.
  • Aligned data and AI governance practices with national data strategies and ISO/IEC 42001.
  • Engaged C-suite and ministry stakeholders to strengthen data stewardship, governance, accountability and responsible AI adoption.

Digital Future

Senior Manager — Strategic Management Office
  • Designed and operationalized an enterprise data governance and management strategy, including AI use cases, integration standards and data lineage frameworks.
  • Led cross-functional initiatives across IT and business functions to improve data and AI maturity and self-service analytics adoption.
  • Defined data management processes, governance mechanisms and transformation priorities linking data and AI capabilities to strategic objectives.

Al Nafitha

Enterprise Strategy Consultant
  • Implemented PMO frameworks for Al Zahid Group and supported the Ministry of Tourism with Qiyas compliance delivery.
  • Led organizational change management for the National Center for Waste Management (MWAN), including operating model, capability roadmap and change adoption.
  • Supported strategic transformation initiatives across complex multi-stakeholder environments.

Devoteam

Senior Data & Architecture Consultant
  • Established Data Management Offices for the Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Education.
  • Developed a consolidated Enterprise Data Architecture Strategy, reducing data redundancy by 15%.
  • Enabled self-service BI initiatives and defined data governance operating models supporting Saudi Arabia's national data strategy and Vision 2030.

Cyceo

Consulting Engagements
  • Data & AI Strategy Consultant, DAHER (2025) — developed DAHER's Data Strategy, including current-state assessment, target vision, governance model, policies, KPIs, Data Maturity Index and a strategic Data & AI transformation roadmap.
  • Enterprise Architecture Consultant, Sonepar · Ynovolve · Pasori · Clesence (2021–2022) — developed Information Systems / IT Master Plans using the TOGAF framework and supported implementation of the ABACUS Enterprise Architecture tool.

EVC

Consulting Engagements
  • Senior Digital Transformation Consultant, MWAN (Feb–Apr 2022) — developed and delivered the Digital Transformation Strategy for the National Center for Waste Management, enabling self-service BI and data governance operating models.
  • Senior Portfolio & PMO Advisor, Diplomatic Quarter Smart City (Feb–May 2020) — advised on portfolio and project delivery, including infrastructure, telecommunications and fiber-optic projects.

Ficom Conseil

Consulting Engagements
  • Senior Governance & Digital Transformation Consultant, Ministry of Social Affairs (2021–2022) — led an IT Governance Diagnostic and sectoral Digital Transformation Roadmap applying COBIT and TOGAF.
  • Senior PMO Consultant, Ministry of Health (2019–2021) — established project governance, coordination and portfolio management for an EU-funded health-sector digital transformation program.
  • Business Analyst, Tunisian Bank (2016) — supported ARIS Business Process Management implementation and business process modeling.

RSM Qatar

Senior Transformation Consultant
  • Education Above All (EAA) — supported a Strategy & Institutional Effectiveness engagement focused on strengthening organizational effectiveness and strategic alignment.
  • Contributed to Financial Governance Transformation, redesigning high-level financial governance frameworks and policies.

SLNEE

PMO Senior Consultant
  • Rolled out adaptive project governance for the Ministry of Defense, reducing rework by 30%.
  • Established central PMOs for King Faisal University and municipal authorities in Hael and Jazan.
  • Designed PMOs as Centres of Excellence, embedding governance capability that persisted beyond the engagement lifecycle.
International Standing

International Organizations & UN Engagements

Selected assignments with the United Nations, the Arab League and international trade bodies.

2025 – Present

United Nations — UN DESA

Official Assessor, E-Government Survey 2026

Appointed as one of a select group of global assessors contributing to the UN's biennial benchmark of digital government maturity across 193 member states.

2020 – 2021

International Trade Centre — SheTrades

E-Commerce Expert

Mentored Tunisian women entrepreneurs in e-commerce strategy and global market access under the UN ITC SheTrades program.

2018

United Nations — ESCWA

ICT Expert

Partnered with ESCWA and KPMG to deliver Enterprise Architecture and ITIL workshops for public sector IT managers at Qatar's Ministry of Telecommunication.

2011 – 2014

Arab League — ALECSO

ICT Expert & Solution Architect

Designed technical architecture for the Open Source Arabic Search Engine program as a core member of the platform development team.

Where It Started

Early Career (1997 – 2014)

Progressing from software engineering and IT management to digital entrepreneurship — the technical depth that still underpins the advisory practice today.

2008 – 2014

ABWEBNET

Founder & CEO — digital solutions firm, MENA region

2006 – 2008

IMM

IT Manager — enterprise infrastructure & systems modernization

2004 – 2005

BAE Systems

Software Engineer — mission-critical defence systems

1997 – 2004

SPIMACO · MAI Edition · Omecron

Web development, graphic design & print production

1993 – 1996

MARSA CONFECTION

Technician in Garment Manufacturing.

Academic Foundation

Education

A formal grounding in digital transformation and quality management, built alongside — not instead of — decades of hands-on practice.

2015 – 2017

MBA — Digital Transformation

Université Virtuelle de Tunis, Tunisie

Strengthened my expertise in digital transformation, business and organizational change.

2011 – 2014

BSc — Quality, Health & Security Management

Université Virtuelle de Tunis, Tunisie

Built a strong foundation in quality, health, safety and risk management.

1997 – 1999

Certificate in Web Design

ECOLIG, Tunisia

Formal training in web design that contributed to my transition into the digital and technology field.

1992 – 1993

Technician Certificate in Garment Production

CFP Den Den, Tunisia

My first professional qualification and the starting point of my professional journey.

1989 – 1992

University Studies in Law

Faculté des Sciences Juridiques et Sociales de Tunis, Tunisia

Studies not completed

How I Work

Principles That Guide Every Chapter

Whatever the role — consultant, trainer, founder or creator — the same principles apply.

01

Depth Over Noise

I go deep into a problem before proposing a solution. Frameworks matter less than genuinely understanding what an organization needs.

02

Build, Don't Just Advise

I've built companies and platforms myself. That hands-on experience shapes advice that is practical, not theoretical.

03

Teach What I Learn

Every engagement becomes a lesson I can pass on — through training, coaching or mentoring the next generation.

04

Stay Curious, Stay Creative

Design, video and storytelling keep my thinking sharp and my communication human — on stage, on screen and on paper.

Contribution

Thought Leadership & Professional Standing

Publications & Speaking

  • Research in Progress
    Integrating AI Governance and Project Delivery Maturity: A Dynamic Capabilities Perspective on Aligning ISO/IEC 42001 with P3M3
    Research paper in preparation for publication, 2026 — exploring how organizations can align AI governance maturity with project delivery capability.
  • Introduction to PMO Value Ring 2020
    First Arabic translation of the PMO Value Ring methodology, expanding access across the Arab world.
  • PMO, Notions de Base 2024
    Whitepaper on foundational PMO concepts, widely circulated in francophone professional networks.
  • Conference Speaker
    Regular speaker at regional PMO and digital transformation conferences since 2018.

Memberships & Affiliations

  • ISACA Awards Reviewer
  • PMI Volunteer Member
  • Data Governance Institute Member
  • Association of Enterprise Architects Member
  • European Consulting Network Expert (#EX2016D275767)
  • Tunisian National Steering Committee, 4th OGP Action Plan (2021–2023)
Beyond the Desk

Community, Sport & Contribution

Outside consulting rooms, I've founded a national walking movement, served on sports federation boards, and stayed active in professional associations across data, PMO and enterprise architecture — because building healthy communities matters as much as building healthy organizations.

TAFISA
Elyes Grar Kolna Nemchiw