Khalid El Ouazghi

Trust & Safety, Risk, and Operations leader with 15+ years building and running fraud, risk, and incident-management functions across APAC and EMEA at Apple, Airbnb, Twitter, and TikTok.

Background spans hands-on fraud investigation and chargeback dispute handling, regional team leadership and coaching, and PMO/strategy work building the frameworks, playbooks, and governance that scale operations across fast-growing organizations. Proven track record standing up functions from zero, managing vendor/BPO partnerships, and translating complex policy and operational issues into clear guidance for cross-functional stakeholders and senior leadership.

APAC Regional PMO Lead, Trust and Safety at TikTok (2023-08 – Present)

• Lead a regional PMO team (4 Program Managers) managing high-impact strategic programs across APAC and globally, supporting senior leadership in execution of global and regional priorities.
• Assess operational and risk readiness of new products and features ahead of regional launches, translating findings into clear standards and requirements for cross-functional teams.
• Design and implement operating frameworks and playbooks for incident response and risk readiness across unstructured, fast-evolving environments.
• Temporarily led incident response and regulatory-inquiry coordination for Southeast Asia (Jul–Oct 2025, team of 10 Program Managers), handling sensitive cases and serving as the direct point of contact for regulatory matters.
• Drive regional performance governance (OKRs, KPIs), aligning market-level execution with global strategy.
• Lead budget planning and cost governance for the regional organization.

Regional Head, Site Policy, Trust and Safety at Twitter Inc. (2020-10 – 2023-01)

• Led and managed a multi-disciplinary APAC team responsible for policy development, enforcement, high-risk escalation, and crisis response across APAC.
• Grew the organization from 6 to 18 team members, including managers and senior specialists, building team structure and operating cadence from the ground up.
• Designed escalation protocols and quality benchmarks that reduced rework and improved decision accuracy and consistency across the region.
• Owned regional execution of complex, high-visibility, sensitive cases, partnering closely with Legal, Communications, Public Policy, and global leadership.
• Drove regulatory preparedness and operational compliance initiatives in response to emerging content and platform regulation across APAC markets.
• Designed and implemented operating models for policy rollout, stakeholder consultation, and execution governance.

APAC Region Incident Management Lead, Trust and Safety at TikTok (2020-06 – 2020-09)

• Built and led a regional incident management function from zero, handling high-severity operational, regulatory, and reputational incidents — the first person to stand up this function for the region.
• Created end-to-end incident response processes and prioritization frameworks; stood up escalation channels and on-call rotations where none existed.
• Developed resource allocation models and surge staffing plans to preserve coverage during peak risk periods and global events.
• Authored onboarding and playbooks for cross-functional incident stakeholders to shorten ramp time and strengthen incident coordination.

Senior Operations Lead, Trust and Safety at Airbnb (2018-03 – 2020-03)

• Led multi-country operations teams across Singapore, Japan, and Korea, managing crisis response, claims operations, and strategic initiatives.
• Redesigned the regional claims process, reducing resolution time by 30% (22 to 15 days) and improving customer satisfaction (NPS) by 15 points.
• Designed and executed regional operational strategy supporting a $4M global insurance program, partnering with cross-functional stakeholders to scale processes.
• Implemented performance governance and continuous improvement programs that delivered $1M annual cost savings while improving resolution speed and service levels.
• Managed third-party vendors across five APAC countries, set KPIs and quality controls to meet SLA and compliance targets.
• Produced executive-level reporting on productivity, financial performance, and operational health for senior leadership.

Operations Lead, Trust and Safety at Airbnb (2015-05 – 2018-03)

• Managed a team of investigators handling high-severity and high-volume fraud and safety cases across multiple APAC markets.
• Designed scalable operating models, service delivery frameworks, and crisis-response strategies, enabling 200% team growth.
• Partnered with Product, Policy, Legal, Insurance, and Engineering teams to support new product launches and automation initiatives.
• Personally led complex, sensitive fraud and risk investigations, applying policy judgment to ambiguous cases and coordinating with international law enforcement agencies.
• Coached and developed team members, building leadership bench strength and supporting internal promotions.

Crisis Response Investigator, Trust and Safety at Airbnb (2014-04 – 2015-05)

• Personally investigated and resolved complex, ambiguous fraud and safety cases, applying policy judgment and identifying patterns and systemic risks across the platform.
• Authored internal fraud analysis reports that contributed to recovery of over $2M in losses.
• Collaborated with leadership to refine policies, tools, and investigative workflows.

Fraud Prevention Investigator, Fraud and OA at Apple Inc. (2012-06 – 2014-03)

• Personally handled the chargeback dispute and representment process, building evidence packages and submissions to card schemes to recover fraudulent transactions.
• Analyzed transaction and chargeback data to identify fraud trends and operational risk signals, feeding findings into preventive controls.
• Acted as subject-matter expert for escalations, tooling, and cross-team operational issues.
• Identified process and tooling improvements that increased team productivity and resolution speed.
• Partnered with global teams to standardize operational processes across regions.

License Center Specialist (Autodesk) at Arvato Digital Services

Customer Fulfillment Specialist (EMEA) at IBM

High Technician and Negotiation, Client Relationship Management in International Business Development / Business Administration Consulting – ADAST (2007-09 – 2008-06)

Higher National Degree (BTS) in Business Development and Customer Relationship Management – Lycée Nicolas Bremontier (2004-09 – 2007-06)