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.

Osama Ezzo

Managing Director

Mr. Ezzo is a seasoned investment professional with over 19 years of Corporate Banking & Private Equity experience gained in the MENA region. In his latest post, Mr. Ezzo was the Advisor to the Minister for Investment & Restructure, Ministry of Public Business Sector.

Mr. Ezzo was responsible for eight holding companies in diversified industrial and economic sectors with 127 subsidiaries and responsible for setting strategies, performance KPIs, turnaround, restructure and expansion plans for each holding company and its related subsidiaries.

Member of the Centralized Investment Committees for the eight holding companies (Insurance, Metallurgical, Construction, Pharmaceutical, Tourism, Chemicals, Maritime & Land Transport, Cotton & Textiles).

Prior to that Mr. Ezzo was the Deputy Chief Investment Officer, Ekuity Holding - Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) responsible for all new acquisitions in addition to overlooking KIA portfolio in Egypt with an estimated BV of USD 2b.

Held the Chief Investment officer post during 2013-2015 at AMIC, a listed company on the Egyptian Stock Exchange with total assets of EGP 2.5 Billion and majority ownership to Dallah Albaraka Group.

Head of Private Equity for an EGP 1 billion PE Fund at Misr Asset Management MAM during 2010-2013. During 2006-2010 Mr. Ezzo was a Senior Manager- corporate Banking Group at Commercial bank of Qatar- Qatar, a Senior Credit Officer at National Bank of Kuwait- Kuwait during 2005-2006, and a Senior Credit Analyst at Commercial International Bank- CIB from 2000-2004.

Mr. Ezzo completed Mergers & Acquisitions, Strategy, Execution and Post-Merger Management Executive Education at Harvard Business School in 2017. He is a CFA Charterholder 2012, and Holds an MSc in Finance & Management from Cranfield School of Management—Cranfield University- UK in 2009. Completed Chase Manhattan Corporate Finance Course in 2002 and graduated from faculty of Commerce, English Section, Ain Shams University in 1999.

Mohamed Ragai

Board Member

Mohammed Ragai started his career in 1995 when he joined the Arab Bank, where he held various positions in different departments such as customer services, collection management, and credit department.

He moved to Naeem Holding in 2005 as Head of Risk Management; later, he joined Inertia Brokerage in 2007 where he served as Executive Board Member and Head of Risk. He has been the Head of Investment Sector at Banque du Caire since 2010. In addition, during his career, he has represented Banque du Caire as a board member in several major companies.

Ragai holds a bachelor's degree in commerce majored in accounting, and a diploma in finance & investment studies from Ain Shams University. He received the 1998 Chase Manhattan Credit Course from Arab Bank. He also participated in many training courses throughout his career, which were prepared and organized by regional and international banks and financial institutions.

Sherif Samy

Independent Board Member

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 sectors. 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.

Samy 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 “Misr Capital Investments” and a board member of Banque Du Caire. Starting 2007, he was appointed for several consecutive terms to the board of the investment promotion agency (GAFI).

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.