Mahmoud Mohieldin

Position: Minister of Investment

Biography: Mahmoud Mohieldin was appointed Minister of Investment at the newly formed Investment Ministry, which was established with a mandate to reform the investment environment in Egypt, in 2004. Since the ministry’s inception, major legislative and institutional reforms have been embarked upon, with a tangible impact on inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country. Since 2004 Mohieldin has overseen the introduction of mortgage finance to the Egyptian economy, implemented major reforms in the capital markets and restructured the insurance sector. From 1995 to 2004, Mohieldin worked as an economic adviser to the government. He also served as a board member for several banks including the Central Bank of Egypt and HSBC Egypt. Before his ministerial appointment, Mohieldin was a professor in financial economics at Cairo University.

Contact Tel: (+202) 4055 653/2/1

Maged Shawky

Position: Chairman, Egyptian Exchange (EGX)

Biography: Maged Shawky has been chairman of the EGX since July 2005, after holding the position of deputy chairman for almost a year. He has also represented the regulator, the Capital Market Authority, as a board member of the EGX for three years. During his tenure, Shawky has been praised for playing a crucial role in attracting new investors to the bourse, where trading volume has grown by nearly 1,000 per cent since 2004. Shawky oversaw the migration of the EGX in July 2008 to a new, state-of-the-art platform to boost liquidity and allow more trades each day. In November 2008, the EGX amended its listing rules to accommodate trading of more sophisticated financial instruments such as Islamic bonds (sukuk). The EGX is currently overseeing plans to launch a derivatives market to create a sophisticated, reliable tool for hedging, which Shawky says will be a key tool in helping institutions gain greater exposure to Egypt.

ContactTel: (+202) 2392 8698

Assem Ragab

Position: Chairman, General Authority for Investment & Free Zones (Gafi)

Biography: Assem Ragab has been chairman of Gafi since September 2007. In 2004, amendments were made to an investment law to give Gafi a more effective investment promotion role, with a specific mandate to encourage FDI. As chairman, Ragab is responsible for approving investors’ proposed projects. Before joining Gafi, Ragab was director of investment banking for the Middle East and North Africa region for the UK’s Barclays Bank. Prior to that, he was adviser to the chairman of National Bank of Egypt for three years. For four years before that, Ragab was senior partner of Fortune Consulting, an Egyptian boutique investment banking advisory firm, which he co-founded. He started his career as a consultant working at companies including Procter & Gamble and Accenture in the US, Gulf and Egypt. Ragab holds a degree from the American University in Cairo.

Contact Tel: + (202) 2405 5417

Ahmed Nazif

Position: Prime Minister

Biography: Ahmed Nazif has won many plaudits for the radical business reforms he has pushed through since coming to power in 2004. Nazif was a key architect in the successful consolidation of the country’s banking sector, which had long suffered from a legacy of non-performing loans and inadequate capitalisation. His regulatory reforms have resulted in an improvement in the health of banks’ balance sheets. This has led to significant improvements in the Egyptian business environment. In 2006, Egypt broke into the top 10 list of reformers in the World Bank’s annual Doing Business report. The vote of confidence by the international community was manifested in Egypt being declared the top reformer in the 2008 Doing Business report. Nazif’s reputation as an able technocrat has been bolstered by his successful reduction of the bloated bureaucracy for which Cairo was renowned.

Contact Tel: (+202) 2793 5000

Tarek Kamel

Position: Minister of Communications & Information Technology

Biography: Tarek Kamel was appointed Minister of Communications & Information Technology in 2004, after working as a senior adviser to the ministry for five years. He is known for his visionary strategy to drive public-private partnership schemes to develop Egypt’s technology sector. In recent years, Kamel has played a significant role in facilitating the boom in the business process outsourcing industry. Technology companies, most notably the US’ Microsoft and IBM, have set up software development centres in Egypt, while Microsoft, Alcatel, Oracle and the UK’s Orange and Vodafone have established technical support centres in the country. In 2008, Cairo broke into the global top 10 of emerging outsourcing cities for the first time, according to a study from US outsourcing adviser Tholons. Prior to working at the ministry, Kamel served on the board of Telecom Egypt from 2000 to 2004.

Contact Tel: (+202) 3534 1300

Youssef Boutros-Ghali

Position: Minister of Finance

Biography: Youssef Boutros-Ghali has been Egypt’s Minister of Finance since 2004. After graduating in 1974, Boutros-Ghali joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as an economist. In 1986, he was economic adviser to Egypt’s Prime Minister Atef Sedki, and to the governor of the Central Bank of Egypt from 1986 to 1993. He served as Minister of State for the Council of Ministers and Minister for International Co-operation from 1993 to 1996, before serving in the Economy and Foreign Trade ministries until 2004. Currently, Boutros-Ghali heads the ministerial committee in charge of overseeing the design and implementation of Egypt’s economic reforms. He is credited with implementing reforms that helped modernise and reinvigorate the Egyptian economy and deepen its global integration. He obtained a BA in economics from Cairo University in 1974, and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981.

Contact Tel: (+201) 0213 4312