Hesham Elsafty

Non-Executive Chairman

Elsafty was nominated as NDI’s Chairman in February 2019. Elsafty is currently the Group Head of Foreign Relations & International Financial Services at NBE. He joined NBE in August 2009 as Head of Financial Institutions & Country Risk Management, after 17 years with a major North American financial group. Previously, Elsafty was the Regional Manager of Trade Services & Financial Institutions (TS&FI), Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at Scotiabank Group. Formerly, Elsafty was Head of Corporate Banking at Scotiabank Cairo.

He also worked for Scotiabank’s Global Risk Management and Audit departments in Toronto, Canada. He has broad international experience, having worked in North America and the Middle East. His banking experience spans across commercial / corporate banking, audit, global risk management, trade services, financial institutions and international banking / international financial services.

Elsafty received an Honours BA (Cum Laude) in Economics from the American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt, and a Master of Arts in Economics from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. He serves on the board of a number of companies and charitable organizations.

Kareem Aboulnaga

Independent Board Member

Abouelnaga is the Chief Investment Officer of Al Ahly Capital Holding, NBE’s direct investment arm. Prior to that, he had served as the Investment Manager of Direct Investments at DIB Capital, the investment banking arm of Dubai Islamic Bank. His years of experience also saw him occupy positions at a number of reputable investment banks in Egypt and elsewhere, including HC Securities and Investments in Cairo and HSBC Investment Banking in London, where he was part of the European M&A team.

Abouelnaga serves on the board of directors of a number of reputable companies including Alexandria Mineral Oils Company (AMOC), The Egyptian Ethylene and Derivatives company (Ethydco), and Elwady for Phosphate Industries (Waphco).

He is a CFA charter holder with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the American University in Cairo. He earned an Executive MBA from IE Business School in Madrid.

Ehab Mekkawy

Board Member

Ehab Mekkawy’ is a non-executive board member at NDI. He currently holds the position of GM of the centralized department for support and development of external branches at Banque Misr (BM). Mekkawy’ has held this position since 2011. Prior to that, Mekkawy’ spent more than 26 years between Egypt and Kuwait where he oversaw various areas and departments within banks and financial institutions such as corresponding banking, treasury, trade finance and many others. He also holds board memberships at the Italian Chamber of Commerce and the Egyptian Russian Business Council.

Mekkawy’ holds a BSc degree in Accounting from Cairo University, an MBA from the Arab Academy for Management, Banking and Financial Sciences (AAMBFS) and banking diplomas from Fin Africa Foundation and Ain Shams University.

Hany Farahat

Board Member

Hany Farahat joined Banque Misr in 2019 and is currently the Division Head for Research, Strategy, and Quality assurance, capitalization on his 20 years of experience in economics and finance, covering Egypt and the MENA region. Before joining Banque Misr, Hany was the Chief Economist at CI Capital Group, where he was leading the team of economists which contributed significantly in expanding the company’s growth in the research business and onboarding multiple foreign investment clients in MENA, Africa, USA and Europe. Before that, Hany spent several years as Head of client portfolio management in Beltone Financial where he helped in structuring several equity and fixed income products, risk management, and investment strategies for the MENA region.Hany was the assistant Minister of Investment for economic and financial affairs, during which he participated in the formulation of several financial, economic, and investment reforms during the period between 2004-2009. 

Hany holds a master's degree in economics from the University of Essex, in the UK, a bachelor degree in political economy from the American University in Cairo, and is also a holder of the Pearson prize for his work on modern banking.

Sherif Samy

Independent Board Member

Sherif Samy is an experienced senior executive in the areas of investment, financial markets and corporate governance. He is the chairman of a real estate asset management company and serves on the boards of directors of the National Investment Bank, the Universal Health Insurance Authority, Orange, GB Auto in addition to several companies in the education and financial services sector. Additionally, he is a member of the Investment Board of the State Pension Funds and of the International Advisory Board of the UAE Securities & Commodities Authority.

Sherif has most recently completed a four-year term as head of Egypt’s independent non-banking financial regulatory authority (FRA) where he achieved a major legislative and regulatory leap in capital markets, insurance, mortgage, leasing, private pensions, factoring and microfinance.

He served on the board of the Central Bank of Egypt (2013 – 2017) and its Monetary Policy Committee, and a member of the board of the country’s National Payment Council. Prior to that, he was the managing director of Banque Misr’s investment arm “Miser Capital” and a board member of   Banque Du Caire. Starting from 2007 he was appointed for several consecutive terms to the board of the investment promotion agency (GAFI).

Omina Kelig

Independent Board Member

Mrs. Omnia currently holds the position of Deputy CEO at Al Naeem Holdings for Investments, in addition to her role as Chairman of the Board and Managing Director of Al Naeem Financial Investments. Mrs. Omnia has extensive experience in the banking sector as well as in issuing fixed income instruments in financial markets, along with direct investment in the Middle East and North Africa region over the past twenty years.

Before joining Al Naeem Group, Mrs. Omnia served as the CEO of Viveris Bright Company since 2009, a subsidiary of Viveris Management (France), responsible for managing investments worth 4 billion US dollars in Europe and North Africa. She was also responsible for developing and implementing the company's strategy and operations, in addition to her role as a fund manager. She participated in allocating $40 million for the Viveris fund and $100 million for the SMEs fund, as well as forming strategic alliances with investment banks and direct investment companies.
Prior to joining Viveris, Mrs. Omnia was a partner and manager at Structuring Investment Management, a company specializing in restructuring distressed companies through a closed fund contributed to by the International Commercial Bank Egypt, and regional investors such as Al-Futtaim Group and Al-Zamil. The company executed the first acquisition financing deal in Egypt structured as an Islamic lease in the petroleum services sector, which was later replicated in the iron and steel sector.
Before joining Structuring, Omnia held the position of Co-Head of Investment Banking at Barclays Bank from 2005, where she completed numerous financing and acquisition deals including:

• Executing the largest acquisition deal in the Middle East and North Africa in 2005 worth $73 million for Egyptian Fertilizers Company.

• Financing a $600 million project through a banking alliance for Egyptian Fertilizers Company.

• Organizing and executing Egypt's first securitization deal in 2005 for Contact Car.

• Issuing bonds worth 1.45 billion Egyptian pounds for OCI in 2005.

From 1999 to 2004, Mrs. Omnia worked in the corporate finance sector at the International Commercial Bank, participating in several initial public offerings, private placements, as well as mergers and acquisitions in various sectors including telecommunications (Egyptian Telecommunication Company IPO), real estate (expansions for Ameer Group), textiles, tourism, and food industries.
Mrs. Omnia holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Economics from the American University in Cairo. She also obtained the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) certification in 2005. She has given lectures in credit and investment fields at the American University in Cairo. Currently, Mrs. Omnia continues her research efforts in Islamic finance, and she published her first article titled "Islamic Finance and Its Role in Developing Small and Medium Enterprises" in the International Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation in August 2013. Mrs. Omnia holds an Executive MBA from London Business School (LBS) and was selected in Forbes Middle East's list of the top 100 businesswomen in the Middle East for the years 2023 and 2024.
 

Abdel Hamid Mortagy

Board Member

Since July 2022, Mr. Mortagy has been holding the position of Chief Investment officer- Head of Investment and Investment Trustees Sector at Banque du Caire. In this role, he is responsible for developing and implementing BDC's Investment Strategy and overlooks BDC's investments portfolio (AuM 12 Bn EGP). He developed and implemented funds development plans and revenue generation strategies, achieving 3x of revenue generation in HI-23 YoY.
Beside his investment expertise, Mr. Mortagy is a University Part-Time Lecturer at The German International University in the School of Business & teaches Capital Markets to the 3'd year students. A certified instructor in Portfolio Management and Investment courses at the Egyptian Banking Institute, as well.
In 2020 Mr. Mortagy assumed the Head of Debt Capital Market at Banque du Caire transforming the department in underwriting capacity from 250Mn EGP AuM to 5 Bn EGP AuM. He acted as a Bondholder representatives and underwriter in several Sukuk and Securitizations with size of more than 14Bn EGP.
In 2018, Abdelhamid assumed the Head of Investor relations & Strategy to ensure that the Bank is strategically well positioned with research analysts, investors, and all stakeholders & ready to go public.
Prior to 2018, he was the Head of Fund of Funds division in the Reserves Management Unit at the Central Bank of Egypt where he succeeded in managing the Investment portfolios with AuM $5Bn, maintaining and developing the Business Relationships with the World Bank and Wall Street Investment houses.
In 2011, Abdelhamid was in the Investments Products and services department at UBS- AG Wealth Management — Germany, developing asset allocation user- friendly investment tool with the team. In 2010, Mr. Mortagy earned his Master of Science in Finance and Investments from The George Washington University in Washington, DC. Mr. Mortagy attended many on the job training programs and courses at the most prestigious financial institutions in the world such as the World Bank, Goldman Sachs, Wellington, Bundesbank and many others.