Hisham Ezz al-Arab

Company: Commercial International Bank (CIB) Egypt
Position: Chairman and managing director

Biography: Hisham Ezz al-Arab was appointed chairman and managing director of CIB Egypt in 2002. He has overseen the expansion of the bank into Egypt’s largest private lender, with 105 branches currently. Prior to joining CIB in 1999 as deputy managing director, Al-Arab held several positions in Egypt, as well as in London, New York and Bahrain with financial institutions including Germany’s Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Mastercard and Merrill Lynch, all from the US. He led the bank during the 2008 financial crisis and last year’s uprisings in Egypt.

The unrest prompted rating agency Standard & Poor’s to downgrade CIB. CIB is recovering from the downturn and posted an 18 per cent rise in second quarter earnings. Al-Arab is a member of Mastercard’s South Asia, Middle East and Africa region advisory board and serves as chairman of the board of trustees of the CIB Foundation.

Contact tel: (+202) 3 747 2000
Website: www.cibeg.com

Q&A with Hisham Ezz al-Arab