Martin Tarr, Chief ICT Officer at du: Spearheading Digital Transformation Initiatives Across the UAE

Digital transformation is moving fast in the UAE, and du, one of the country’s leading telecom operators, is helping businesses and individuals keep up. Martin Tarr, du’s Chief ICT Officer, is the person making sure the company stays at the front of that shift. Under his watch, du is concentrating on 5G, cloud computing, data centers, cybersecurity and the Internet of Things (IoT) to meet what customers need now and what they will need next.

Tarr sees this as more than a business goal. As a national company, he says, du has a duty to bring the best solutions and global technologies to the UAE. Doing that helps clients grow in the new digital era, and it feeds into the country’s economic growth.

Two things make that possible, in his view: people and partnerships. du puts real weight on hiring and keeping talent, and it is working to widen its partner ecosystem so it can drive economic and social change across the UAE.

Keeping pace with a digital landscape that changes this quickly is not easy, but Tarr enjoys the challenge. The COVID-19 pandemic sped things up even more, and he finds that energizing. He says du relies on its agility and its ability to innovate to strengthen the UAE’s digital infrastructure and its competitive position.

Much of du’s recent work has centered on IoT and Industry 4.0, but sustainability matters just as much. Tarr stresses the need to improve sustainability both inside the company and outside it, in step with COP28, which the UAE was preparing to host in 2023.

With a new year approaching, du is ready to stay ahead of change, guided by a strategy built on innovation, sustainability and collaboration.