Samih Elhage
Professional affiliation
Full Biography
Samih Elhage is global senior executive with over 30 years of Telecom Industry experience. He is currently a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company where he advises McKinsey’s clients in areas related to TMT, 5G and Cloud technologies. In addition, he advises clients on improving business and financial performance and leading major business transformations. Samih is as well a Senior Advisor to Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP) and member of its Advisory Board since 2011, a private equity firm in USA.
Samih is as well an experienced board member and passionate about creating shareholders’ value. He is currently a member of the board of directors of Cogeco Inc., a publicly listed Communications and Media company in Canada. Between 2008 and present, he assumed multiple corporate director roles in USA, Canada, China, France, and Korea.
Until May 2017, Samih was the President of Nokia’s Mobile Networks Business. Prior to that, he assumed the roles of Chief Financial and Operating Officer (CFOO) and Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Nokia and Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN). During his tenure at Nokia and NSN, Samih enabled the company to establish a leading market position and significantly improve operating performance that led to market leadership in business and financial performance.
Prior to joining Nokia Siemens Networks, Samih served as a Senior Advisor to Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP), to Apollo Capital Management and to McKinsey, advising on the acquisition of various telecommunications and technology companies.
Between 1998 and 2010, Samih assumed at Nortel the role of the President of Nortel’s Carrier Voice and Applications Solutions division and several global business management executive roles.
From 1990 to 1998, Samih served in several leadership roles in Network Development at Bell Canada. In his last role, he held decision-making authority in the company for network vision, strategy, architecture, network technology planning and deployment.
Samih has a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering (Telecommunications) and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Ottawa, and a Master of Electrical Engineering (Telecommunications) from the École Polytechnique de Montréal in Canada.
