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Farah Abdallah Akoum
Affiliate Instructor

Education

  • BSE ENSEEIHT (2006)
  • PhD EPFL (2010)

Expertise

AI product strategy, AI transformation and leadership, conversational AI, e-commerce and digital retail, e-governance and responsible AI deployment, generative AI and LLM applications, machine learning, natural language processing and search, product management leadership

Positions Held

  • Sr. Director, Digital Shopping, Nordstrom, February 2024 – Present
  • Affiliate Instructor, University of Washington Foster School of Business, [Sept 2026 date – Present
  • Sr. Director, AI product, Zillow, August 2019 – December 2023
  • Principal Product Manager, eBay Inc., November 2012 – August 2019
  • Senior Advisor, United Nations, March 2010 – September 2012
  • Teaching Assistant, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), 2006 – 2010

Selected Publications

  1. "Postal Service Innovation: New Value Propositions to Enable International e-Commerce."
    Abdallah, F. (2014). Postal Services in the Digital Age, Global e-Governance Series, Vol. 6.
  2. "Measuring the Postal E-Services Development: An Industry Perspective."
    Abdallah, F. & Shakurova, Y. (2012). UPU- United Nations.
  3. "Collaborating with Your Rivals: Identifying Sources of Co-opetitive Performance."
    Abdallah, F. & Wadhwa, A. (2010). Academy of Management Conference, Montreal.
  4. “Standards and Public Policy. Competition and Regulation in Network Industries”
    Abdallah, F. (2009).
  5. "The Co-opetitive Edge: Drivers for Rivals to Collaborate in Standard Setting Organizations."
    Abdallah, F. & Finger, M. (2009). ISPIM Symposium, New York.
  6. "Strategies in Networked Systems: Winning the Standard Game."
    Abdallah, F. & Wadhwa, A. (2008). Strategic Management Society Conference, Cologne.

Honors and Awards

Stage Speaker, Women In Product Conference & Grace Hopper Celebration 2024
"CEO Critical Talent" Award, eBay, 2016 (given to the top 1% of performers company-wide)
Global "Best of the Best" Employee, eBay Global Customer Experience, 2015
Speaker, World Summit on the Information Society Forum, Geneva (2011)
Scholarship of Excellence, French Government, 2001–2006

Industries

E-government
Non-profit
Postal & logistics
Real estate technology
Retail and e-commerce

Courses Taught

BUS AN 517: Machine Learning Methods & AI(MS in Business Analytics)
Technology Strategy and Entrepreneurship in Corporations (Prof. Christopher Tucci, 2006-2010)
Corporate and Business Strategy (Prof. Anu Wadhwa, 2006-2010)

Academic Department

Marketing & International Business

Academic Service

Founding Advisory Board Member, Product Management Center; University of Washington, invited lecturer.

eBay Liaison to the University of Washington (2016 – 2019): project mentor for the "Introduction to Entrepreneurship" course (Prof. Emily Cox Pahnke), and host to MBA students at eBay for sessions on the product management career path

External Services and Assignments

Mentor, Madrona Venture Labs Launchable Gen AI (2025)
Volunteer, National Institute of Standard and Technology (NIST), Generative AI Public Working Group (2023)
Co-founder and Co-Lead, Women In Product Seattle Chapter (2017 – 2023)