The Middle East Institute (MEI) is pleased to host a panel discussion on the future of Egypt's economy. While Egypt’s recent economic reforms have made good inroads into improving the macroeconomic outlook, the pace of global development means that Egyptian businesses must work twice as hard to keep pace, and even harder if they want to pull ahead of the pack. Egypt’s state economy is huge, particularly in comparison with that of other emerging markets, but new reforms may give the private sector the opportunity to become Egypt’s growth engine.
Please join us for a panel discussion with Egyptian business leaders who will offer an on-the-ground perspective on the economic, developmental, legal and environmental challenges to achieving economic success.
Speaker biographies:
Sarah El-Battouty
Chairman and founder, ECOnsult
Sarah El-Battouty graduated from the University of Cambridge as an architect. After her studies, she went on to study sustainable development policy at the Centre of Economic Development and Environmental Policy at SOAS University. Her focus is on rural development and project management. El-Battouty has been an adviser to the Egyptian Presidency on development since 2014. In 2017 she was selected as a member of the Board of the American University of Cairo Department of Engineering School of Architecture. She is a RIBA award-winning architect, with a focus on green buildings. At ECOnsult, her vision is to create environmental portfolios for companies and raising sustainability awareness in businesses in Egypt and beyond.
Girgis Abd El-Shahid
Managing partner, Shahid Law Firm
Girgis Abd El-Shahid is the managing partner at Shahid Law Firm. He specializes in dispute settlement, with a particular focus on energy-related disputes, mergers and acquisitions, corporate and commercial agreements, joint venture arrangements, banking and finance, securities offerings, telecommunications, and intellectual property. Abd El-Shahid focuses mainly on commercial arbitration, investment treaty arbitration, and international law, and is renowned for his special expertise in complex multiparty arbitration. He is a member of the American Chamber of Commerce, the British and Swiss Business Associations, and the Egypt-U.S. Business Council. His expertise is built on solid ties to both the academic and the business communities. He regularly publishes articles and books in his various fields of practice and is a regular panelist and speaker in many local and international conferences on arbitration, energy and infrastructure projects.
Tarek Tawfik
Chairman, Cairo Poultry Group; President, American Chamber of Commerce
Tarek Tawfik currently serves as the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt. As vice chairman and managing director of the International Company for Agricultural Production & Processing, he is in charge of overseeing land reclamation, farming, food processing, and poultry divisions at the Americana Group in Egypt. Tawfik is a member of the Business Contact Group with the prime minister of Egypt, the Export Development Agency (Ministry of Trade and Industry), and the Poultry Committee (Prime Minister's Office). He is a member of the board of the General Authority for Investments and Free Zones (GAFI), and a board member of the Egyptian Countryside Development Company. He is also involved in numerous organizations and currently serves as vice chairman of the Federation of Egyptian Industries, secretary general of the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies, chairman of the Egyptian Franchise Development Association (EFDA), and chairman of the Egyptian Dutch Business Club.
Dalia Wahba
Chairman, CID Consulting
Dalia Wahba is a founding member and contributor for over 20 years to the growth and management of CID Consulting. She is largely involved in designing and managing public awareness and outreach programs as well as marketing communication strategies for government entities, international and multinational organizations, and companies in diverse sectors in Egypt. Wahba has great influences in the management of Business Associations in Egypt, assembling considerable fundraising to serve different organizations. She served as the chair of the marketing committee at the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) from 2015-2017, and is currently serving as vice president for membership at the Chamber. She was elected to the AmCham Board of Governors, and is the co-chair of the Dean’s Strategic Advisory Board at the American University in Cairo.
Mirette F. Mabrouk, moderator
Senior fellow and director of the Egypt program, MEI
Mirette F. Mabrouk is a senior fellow and director of the Egypt studies program at MEI. She was previously deputy director and director for research and programs at the Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East at the Atlantic Council. An Egypt analyst who was previously a nonresident fellow at the Project for U.S. Relations with the Middle East at the Brookings Institution, Mabrouk moved to D.C. from Cairo, where she was director of communications for the Economic Research Forum (ERF). Formerly associate director for publishing operations at The American University in Cairo Press, Mabrouk has over 20 years of experience in journalism. She is the founding publisher of The Daily Star Egypt, (now The Daily News Egypt), at the time the country’s only independent English-language daily newspaper, and the former publishing director for IBA Media, which produces the region’s top English-language magazines. She recently authored "And Now for Something Completely Different: Arab Media’s Own Little Revolution," a chapter in the new book on the Arab transitions, Reconstructing the Middle East.