I’m joined this week by Malak El Baba, Egypt Country Manager for Visa, and a leader and role model for so many in her industry. We had a wonderful conversation that spanned different countries and phases of her life. Although she has spent nearly two decades in banking and finance, she actually started out wanting to become a diplomat. But destiny had other plans, shaping not just her career but who she married and where she lives today. Like a true marketer, Malak is very much a...

Hatem Alakeel is an award-winning Saudi designer, fashion entrepreneur and podcast host. He has designed for global icons including Mattel’s Barbie, Evian, Lexus, Fairmont, Raffles, and the Ritz Carlton among others, and he was among the first regional artists to create and celebrate Saudi traditions. With his first company, Toby Hatem Alakeel, Hatem brought the traditional thobe into the luxury fashion world, with displays at Harvey Nichols, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Boutique 1. Today, he runs...

Janan Shihadeh has made her mark creating bespoke pieces for clients all around the world—from murals in Washington D.C., to furniture and candles in Cairo, to transforming old handbags into little arm-candy jewels in Dubai. To say that Janan is versatile is an understatement. She brings passion, imagination and dynamism to whatever art medium she is working on and her eye for detail and colour is unsurpassed. Janan and I have known each other a long time, we even attended the same high...

His Excellency Amr Moussa has had a distinguished career in the world of international diplomacy and cooperation. He served as the Ambassador of Egypt to India for 3 years in 1983, he was the Permanent Representative of Egypt to the UN in 1990, he was the Foreign Minister of Egypt for 10 years until 2001, when he became Secretary-General of the League of Arab States.  He continues to leave an impact today as an elected member of the Panel of the Wise, a critical pillar of the Peace and...

A new season of What I Did Next begins March 5. I’ll be welcoming a new guest from our region every other Tuesday, and we’ll take a deep-dive into their lives’ pivotal moments. We’ll cross-cross the region and cut across a variety of industries to bring you conversations of success, failure, and everything in-between. This season, I’ll be talking to pioneers from the worlds of art, fashion, business, politics, sustainability, broadcasting and tech. Make sure to hit the follow button so...

We’re currently on a season break and will be back with new episodes in March. In the meantime, I wanted to share my conversation legendary ad-man, Tarek Nour. Tarek told me about the trials and tribulations of the advertising world, and how he continued to adapt to the constantly changing industry. Today Tarek is semi-retired, active in some aspects of his business but also able to take a bird’s eye view of the industry, his life and Egypt.  Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, X or on...

We’re currently on a season break and will be back with new episodes in March. In the meantime, I wanted to share my conversation with soprano sensation Fatma Said. Fatma talked to me about her incredible achievements, burning out and a lot more. You can find her album, El Nour on various streaming platforms here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re currently on a season break and will be back with new episodes in March. In the meantime, I wanted to share my conversation with Prince Abbas Hilmi, who told me about his unique life journey and the Egyptian royal family. Through his father, Prince Mohamed Abdel Moneim, he is a descendent of Mohamed Ali of Egypt, while his mother, Neslishah Sultan, was the granddaughter of Mehmed VI, the last Ottoman Sultan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re currently on a season break and will be back with new episodes in March. In the meantime, I wanted to share my conversation with journalist and author Kim Ghattas. Kim, who is half Lebanese and half Dutch, shot to prominence as a BBC reporter, first covering Lebanon and then reporting on U.S. foreign policy from the United States.  Lately, she has gained recognition as an author of bestselling books, The Secretary and Black Wave, a must-read for all those interested and concerned about...

Today’s episode is a deep-dive with our partners, EFG Holding. As a long-time sponsor of the show, EFG Holding have been avant-garde and frontier-breaking, keeping with their own ethos of being a trailblazing financial institution with a Universal Bank in Egypt and the leading investment bank in Frontier and Emerging Markets. This week, I’m sitting down Aladdin El Afifi, CEO of EFG Finance, an EFG Holding company - EFG Holding’s Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFI) platform. I also speak to...

This week, I’m joined by the show’s producer, Chirag Desai, to look back at the highlights of our latest season, some common threads among our guests, as well as general insights from our recent conversations. We also discuss the issue of crisis management. This is a big picture conversation that impacts all of us and comes on the heels of discussions I've had recently with friends about concurrent crises happening around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My final guest of this season is the one-and-only Youssra, who tells me about her life’s journey from key decisions that led to her breakout success to her ground-breaking acting career that took on societal taboos. With over 80 movies, countless serials and theatre performances, her career has spanned seismic shifts in society, culture and politics, and she has witnessed, interpreted and contributed to all of them.   Youssra is also a role model to younger actors and people in the industry...

I’m joined this week by Ramy Adeeb, founder and Managing Partner of 1984 Ventures, a firm that specialises in providing seed funding to start-ups. Ramy’s is a quintessential What I Did Next story, he moved to Canada for high school, went on to have early jobs at Microsoft and then as an investor in Silicon Valley, before launching his own start-up, Snip.It, which was acquired by Yahoo in 2013. He tells me how important risk taking has been for his career, and how his life’s journey led him to...

In case you missed my conversation with fitness entrepreneur Amina Naguib, here’s a quick clip from our conversation. You can listen to the full episode in your podcast app, and we’ll have a bonus episode out for our members soon! This episode was brought to you by: EFG Holding, a trailblazing financial institution with a universal bank in Egypt and the leading investment bank franchise in frontier and emerging markets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m joined this week by Amina Naguib, fitness entrepreneur and founder of B-URN. Amina always wanted to explore the human body and health—she studied sports science in Washington and then physiotherapy in Amsterdam before returning to Egypt. With B-URN, she has created a community of people looking to improve their health and wellbeing. Amina and I talk about how she’s been connecting the dots of her life, particularly a major pivot in 2020 that was also a pivotal moment for me. She’s a...

Mohammed Hefzy is the award-winning film producer behind mega hits such as Clash, Sheikh Jackson, Microphone, Paranormal, and Perfect Strangers, to name but a few of the films that make up his incredible catalogue of work. Hefzy began his career as a screen writer but made the transition to producing quite quickly, realising he wanted more control of the film-making process as a whole. This led to the formation of his company, The Film Clinic, where he not only develops his own movies but...

I’m joined this week by Sir Magdi Yacoub, ground-breaking cardiologist and founder of the Chain of Hope charity. Professor Yacoub has almost single-handedly revolutionsed cardiology from his early days as a junior doctor in London in the 60’s, to retirement from his beloved NHS in 2001. As someone who has been on my Top 10 list of dream guests since the show began three years ago, Professor Yacoub was a joy to interview and his breadth of his knowledge is incredible. Today, Professor Yacoub...

I’m joined this week by curator Nadine Abdel Ghaffar, founder of Art d’Egypte. From humble beginnings in 2017, their annual event has become a celebration of art, installations and global partnerships. Nadine is also an art curator with a passion for one of Egypt’s most celebrated artists, Mohamed Nagy, and manages their art estate along with his family. Nadine tells me how her childhood experiences led to her building a tremendously successful art platform and why her life’s mission is the...

Welcome to a new season of What I Did Next! I’m joined by fashion entrepreneur Imran Amed, one of the leading voices in fashion and CEO of The Business of Fashion. Today, BOF employs 75 people with a presence in London, New York, Paris and Shanghai. It also boasts a community of 800,000 email subscribers and 100,000 paying members across 120 countries. What I Did Next was a media sponsor at the first edition of Egypt Fashion Week, where I met & interviewed Imran in front of a live...

I’m excited to be bringing you a new season of the show starting September 6, with new episodes every second Monday. I’ve had incredible guests over the past five seasons, leaders in their fields from a wide range of industries such as business, art, design, fashion, medicine, and entertainment. These conversations keep reminding me that each person’s journey is unique to them, and I’m always floored by how honest and authentic my guests are. I’m also excited to introduce a new platform this...

We’re currently on a season break and will be back with new episodes in September. In the meantime, I wanted to share my conversation from last year with renaissance man Samih Sawiris. Samih and his brothers, Naguib and Nassef continue to be icons in the business world in Egypt and the Middle East. Samih is the founder of Orascom Development Holding which operates 33 hotels with over 7,000 rooms and controls approximately 100 million sqm of land. Samih is above all, a sort of renaissance man,...

We’re currently on a season break and will be back with new episodes in September. In the meantime, I wanted to share my conversation from last year with reconstructive surgeon Dr. Nadine Hachach-Haram, who told me about her shift to entrepreneurship with Proximie, to revolutionise the world of surgery.  Dr. Nadine saw the horrors war inflicts on people and communities during her formative years living in Lebanon after the civil war, and how difficult it is for individuals to re-build their...

We’re currently on a season break and will be back with new episodes in September. In the meantime, I wanted to share my conversation from last year with businessman, art collector, activist and academic Sultan Sooud Al Qaseemi. Sultan’s story starts out as a proud son of Sharjah in the UAE before he came to the attention of a wide audience around the world for his activism during the 2011 revolutions in the Arab World. His heritage, nationality and deep sense of what it means to be Arab...

We’re currently on a season break and will be back with new episodes in September. In the meantime, I wanted to share my conversation from last year with Amy Mowafi, a dynamo in the region’s media space, and an inspiring role model for the younger generation of empowered Egyptian and Arab women. Amy and her team are the digital publishers of CairoScene, ElFasla, StartUpScene, NFTYScene, NFTY Arabia, SceneNoise, SceneTraveller, SceneEats, CairoZoom & the SceneNOW App. They also house a...