Mentor Profile

Naail Abul Rahman is a Maldivian technology leader and software engineer with over a decade of experience in the ICT and software industry. Based in Malé City, he has played a significant role in advancing digital innovation and technology infrastructure in the Maldives.

He is currently the Managing Partner of Intellea Partnership, a Maldives-based software development firm specialising in mobile application development. Under his leadership, Intellea has delivered some of the country’s most prominent customer-facing digital solutions, including applications for the Maldives Water and Sewerage Company (MWSC), Bank of Maldives, and Dhiraagu. The firm also supported the Department of Judicial Administration in deploying AI-based transcription services across courts nationwide — a milestone in digital transformation within the Maldivian judicial system.

In addition to his work at Intellea, Naail contributes to Research and Development at LottieFiles, a Maldivian-origin international startup focused on animation and design technology. He has been part of the company since its inception, contributing to innovation and product development on a global scale.

Naail currently serves as Chair of the ICT Sector Council at the Maldives National Skills Development Authority (MNSDA). He has also advised ICANN on the Root Zone Localization project and served as Co-Chair of the Thaana Root Zone Label Generation Rules (LGR) Panel, contributing to global internet governance and Dhivehi/Thaana script representation online.

His previous roles include serving as a sector representative on both the Small Business Council and Business Council under the Ministry of Economic Development, Academic Advisor to Villa College, and Country Representative to Mozilla for the Common Voice project. He is also an advisor to the Maldivian chapter of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).

A strong advocate for open-source collaboration, Naail was a founding member of the Maldives Open Source Society (MOSS), leading localisation efforts for major Linux distributions. He also co-founded Dhivehi.ai, an open-source collective focused on enhancing Dhivehi/Thaana support in AI applications. Through this initiative, he contributed his voice to the first viable Thaana text-to-speech (TTS) system, helping demonstrate the potential of AI in a local linguistic context.

Beyond industry and governance, Naail has dedicated five years to academia, serving as a part-time lecturer at Villa College, Clique College, and Cyrix, mentoring and shaping the next generation of Maldivian IT professionals.