Press Release
Orascom Development Holding appoints Omar El Hamamsy as new CEO as of 1 September 2020, and restructures its Executive Management team
Altdorf, 29 July 2020 - The Board of Directors of Orascom Development Holding (ODH) announced today the appointment of Omar El Hamamsy as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) effective 1 September 2020. El Hamamsy joins ODH from McKinsey & Company where he is a Senior Partner in the Middle East office and was previously in the Belgium office. In his 18 years at McKinsey, he led many practices including Travel and Transport. In his client work, his main focus was leading comprehensive transformations of multi-national companies in the Middle East and Europe. He also worked on a number of cross-border acquisitions and integrations for these companies. His clients at McKinsey spanned many sectors and he supported them on topics ranging from strategy, organization, sales and marketing, operations, and finance. Prior to joining McKinsey, El Hamamsy worked for six years at AT&T's Bell Labs in the US where he was managing a global engineering team for wireless product development. He holds a master's degree from Stanford University.
El Hamamsy also sits on the regional Board of Directors of "Injaz Al-Arab" (a member of Junior Achievement Worldwide), a non-profit organization focused on youth education where he leads the Board's Operations Committee.
Mr. Samih Sawiris, Chairman of ODH, said: "After a thorough and rigorous search process we are delighted to welcome Omar El Hamamsy on board as the new CEO. He has excellent business experience and the drive to help us continue our turnaround story and take ODH to the next level of growth and development. Omar's 18 years of service at McKinsey have been marked by outstanding performance. He has demonstrated remarkable talent and sound judgment in what he does. The Board and I have complete confidence that he is the right person to lead ODH into the future and we look forward to working with him and the Executive Team over the next few years to continue the exceptional growth of our business."
"I am excited by the opportunity to build on the great foundation and momentum achieved by the Orascom Development team and lead the company through the next stage of its strategic development and expansion," said El Hamamsy.
Changes to Executive Management
The appointment of the new CEO marks the end of the interim committee created in February 2020 for the transitional phase. Samih Sawiris, Jürgen Fischer and Naguib S. Sawiris will focus again on their roles as members of ODH's Board of Directors. Abdelhamid Abouyoussef will take up the new position as the Chairman of Orascom Hotels Management (OHM), the Group's hotels management company, and as a result will leave the Executive Management team. Ashraf Nessim will continue his role as the current Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Executive Management member.
Samih Sawiris stated: "On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Abdelhamid Abouyoussef and Ashraf Nessim along with the other interim committee members for their quick step in, hard work and commitment in leading and stabilizing the company during the most challenging of times, in the wake of the sudden loss of our previous-esteemed CEO coupled with the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic."
Furthermore, ODH's Board of Directors has approved the appointment of Karim Hassan, currently serving as the Group Head of Business Development, as a member of the Executive Management team. Additionally, the role of the Chief HR & Organization Development will no longer be part of the Executive Management team.
About Orascom Development Holding (ODH):
Orascom Development Holding (ODH) is a leading developer of fully integrated destinations that include hotels, private villas and apartments, leisure facilities such as golf courses, marinas and supporting infrastructure. Orascom Development's diversified portfolio of destinations is spread over seven jurisdictions (Egypt, UAE, Oman, Switzerland, Morocco, Montenegro, and United Kingdom), with primary focus on touristic destinations. The Group currently operates nine destinations: four in Egypt (El Gouna, Taba Heights, Fayoum and Makadi Heights), The Cove in the United Arab Emirates, Jebel Sifah and Hawana Salalah in Oman, Luštica Bay in Montenegro, and Andermatt in Switzerland. The shares of Orascom Development Holding (ODH) are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.
Contact for Investors:
Sara El Gawahergy
Head of Investor Relations & Strategic Projects Management
Tel: +202 246 18961
Tel: +41 418 74 17 11
Mob: +41 79 156 78 49
Email: ir@orascomdh.com
Contact for Media Relations:
Philippe Blangey
Partner
Dynamics Group AG
Tel: +41 432 68 32 35
Email: prb@dynamicsgroup.ch
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