At a Glance

Organization: i-GENTIC AI

Role: Co-Founder & CEO

Industry: Artificial Intelligence; AI Governance

LebNet Connection: Professional Member

With more than 17 years of experience across artificial intelligence, data strategy, healthcare, and digital transformation, Zahra Timsah has built her career at the intersection of technology, leadership, and responsible innovation. Today, as Co-Founder and CEO of i-GENTIC AI and author of The AI CEO: How Women Leaders Win the Next Decade, she is helping organizations approach AI with greater transparency, accountability, and trust.

In this Member Spotlight, Zahra reflects on the experiences that led her to build i-GENTIC AI, what responsible AI leadership looks like in practice, the opportunity for women to shape the future of AI, and how her Lebanese roots continue to influence the way she leads and gives back.

Building AI with Governance at Its Core

Your career has taken you across healthcare, data, digital transformation, and now AI governance. What experiences along the way shaped your decision to build i-GENTIC AI?

My career has always lived at the intersection of science, technology, business, and regulation. I began in healthcare with a masters and doctorate degrees in biology and medical studies, where decisions involving data and AI can directly affect patients, and later led enterprise transformation and AI governance initiatives across highly regulated organizations working directly with regulatory bodies.

I repeatedly saw the same problem: companies had policies, regulations, and compliance teams, but those controls were disconnected from the moment an AI system made a decision or took an action.

That experience led me to build i-GENTIC AI where I patented the technology built on my 17 years of experience. We are creating a governance execution layer that translates regulations and internal policies into machine-readable controls that can be applied before an action occurs. I did not want to build another dashboard that explains what went wrong afterward. I wanted to help organizations prevent the wrong action in the first place, while preserving a clear and defensible audit trail.

Responsible AI by Design

As AI becomes increasingly embedded in how organizations operate and make decisions, what do you believe leaders need to understand about responsible AI and governance?

Leaders need to understand that responsible AI is not a document, a committee, or an annual risk assessment. It is an operating capability that needs to exist in real time. If governance is not embedded into the way AI systems access data, make decisions, and execute actions, it remains theoretical. It should be AI governance by design.

The greatest risk is not necessarily that AI will become more intelligent than people. It is that organizations will give increasingly capable systems authority without clearly defining their boundaries. Leaders must know what an AI system is permitted to do, which data it can use, which regulations apply, when a human must intervene, and how every decision can be explained.

Governance should not slow innovation. Done correctly, it gives organizations the confidence to deploy AI faster because the necessary guardrails, accountability, and evidence are already built into the process.

Women Leading the AI Era

In your book, The AI CEO, you explore how women leaders can succeed in the next decade. As a woman founder and executive in AI, what opportunities do you see for women to lead and shape the future of AI?

AI represents one of the greatest leadership resets of our lifetime. Many of the traditional advantages that shaped previous industries are becoming less important. You do not need to be the person writing every line of code, but you must understand how to ask the right questions, identify valuable problems, allocate resources, and use AI to multiply your judgment and reach. It is a powerful technology that we must leverage as a decision support system.

Women have an extraordinary opportunity to move from being users of technology to becoming owners, builders, investors, and decision-makers. We also bring perspectives that have historically been underrepresented in product design, capital allocation, healthcare, policy, and risk.

In my book, The AI CEO, my message is that women should not wait to be invited into the AI economy. We should build companies, own intellectual property, sit on boards, shape regulation, and participate directly in the wealth this transformation will create. This book is part of a series of master classes called Future Proof Her where women AI leaders come together to train and support other women in leveraging AI.

Staying Connected to Lebanon

What attracted you to LebNet, and what value do you see in being part of a global community of Lebanese professionals in technology?

What attracted me to LebNet was the opportunity to connect with Lebanese professionals who are shaping technology globally. There is extraordinary talent in our community, and LebNet creates a meaningful space to share knowledge, build partnerships, open doors, and support the next generation. For me, it is also about staying connected to my Lebanese roots while helping expand our collective influence in AI and innovation.

As a Lebanese leader building a career on a global stage, what does staying connected to Lebanon and the Lebanese community mean to you, and how do you hope to give back?

Lebanon is inseparable from how I approach leadership. Lebanese people learn resilience, adaptability, entrepreneurship, and global thinking very early. We know how to build across cultures, create opportunities under difficult circumstances, and keep moving even when the environment is uncertain. Those qualities have shaped every stage of my career and life.

Staying connected means more than celebrating where I come from. It means creating access for Lebanese professionals, founders, researchers, students and women who may have exceptional talent but limited exposure to global networks and opportunities.

I continue to give back through mentorship, investment, education, speaking, and practical connections that help Lebanese talent participate in the global AI economy without feeling that their origins limit their ambitions.

Building What the World Needs

What advice would you give to Lebanese professionals and entrepreneurs who want to build meaningful careers in AI and help shape where the technology goes next?

Do not enter AI simply because it is fashionable. Start with a meaningful problem you understand deeply, especially one rooted in a specific industry such as healthcare, finance, energy, education, or government. Technical tools will continue to change, but domain expertise, judgment, trust, and the ability to solve real problems will remain valuable.

I built and exited three AI companies over the span of 8 years because I capitalized on a market gap that would benefit from AI and innovation.

I would also encourage Lebanese professionals to think globally from the beginning. Build relationships beyond your immediate network, communicate your expertise publicly, learn enough about AI to challenge both its capabilities and its limitations, and protect your intellectual property.

Most importantly, do not wait for perfect conditions. Lebanon teaches us that perfect conditions rarely arrive. Start with what you have, remain curious, and build something the world genuinely needs.