Draft:Wasim Abu Salem

Wasim Abu Salem (Arabic: وسيم أبو سالم; Hebrew: וסים אבו סאלם; born 1991) is an Israeli entrepreneur and founder of Loop , an incubator and academy, and the co-founder of Altooro, an AI-based technical assessment platform. He is best known for building tech companies that are sustainable and socially conscious. As of April 2024, Loop had reached 25,000 participants worldwide.

Early life & education
Wasim Abu Salem was born and raised in Nazareth, Israel. At the age of 13, he developed an interest in technology and coding with aspirations of building successful tech startups.

In 2015, Abu Salem graduated with a dual degree of BSc in Computer Science and LL.B in Law from the University of Haifa.

Career
In 2014, Abu Salem started his legal internship in Tel-Aviv at the Israeli Ministry of Justice, focusing on cybersecurity and digital privacy issues. In 2016, he joined ISOC as Secretary of the Association and project manager. At ISOC, he was responsible for managing international partnerships and worked on various projects, including public policy recommendations for adopting IPv6.

In June 2015, Abu Salem was selected by the U.S. State Department to participate in the MEPI Student Leaders summer program at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana, United States.

In December 2015, Abu Salem founded Loop, which initially offered introductory computer science workshops to students in Israel. In 2016, after Loop had reached 2,000 students, he represented the company at multiple events worldwide, including the Amends Global Fellows program at Stanford University, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Silicon Valley, and One Young World in Canada.

In July 2017, Abu Salem opened Loop's first self-owned learning campus.

In August 2021, he co-founded Altooro, an AI-based tech assessment platform that enables companies to evaluate technical skills. As of August 2022, Altooro has raised $2.5M in pre-seed funding.

In January 2023, Wasim was selected among a small collection of civic society leaders to meet with United States Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken.

Recognition

 * MEPI Student Leaders Program Alumni, Montana State University (2015)
 * OYW Ambassador (2016)
 * AMENDS Fellow at Stanford University (2016)
 * Fellow at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (2016)
 * Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation America(ORF) U.S. Pavilion at EXPO 2020, sponsonerd by Pepsico, Dubai
 * TheMarker's 40 Under 40