Senior Management

Karim has 19 years of experience in the investment management and corporate finance fields. Prior to Aspire Holding, Karim was co-founder and Head of Investments at Sameem Capital, an investment and advisory firm based in Egypt covering the MENA region, where he led the investment team at Sameem to successfully undertake the Mena region’s first activist investment. Earlier, Karim worked at Gate Capital Limited in the capacity of an Assistant Director where he was instrumental in the initial set up of Gate Capital’s operations and led the company’s entire corporate finance and advisory services team into successfully closing several M&A transactions.

Prior to that, he served in the capacity of Vice President of the investment team at CORECAP where he was involved in numerous transactions within the MENA regional markets. Earlier, Karim worked at Al Mal Capital, a Dubai based investment bank, as an Associate in the Investment Banking Department providing corporate finance and M&A advisory to Al Mal Capital’s clients. He was involved in several transactions spanning across various sectors that included financial services, contracting, industrial, retail, real estate, and aviation industries.

Prior to that, Karim worked as an investment analyst with Al Ahly Development & Investments (ADI), an Egyptian Publicly Listed Private Equity and Venture Capital investment firm. During his tenure with ADI, he advised senior management on numerous investment deals and was an integral part of ADI’s post acquisition management team. Earlier, Karim was also a corporate finance analyst at DaimlerChrysler Egypt, where he handled the company’s funding requirements and currency hedging strategies.

Karim graduated from the American University in Cairo with an Accounting Major and is a CFA® charterholder.

Mohamed has over 20 years of experience in the risk management and corporate finance fields. Prior to Aspire Holding, Mohamed was the founder and Head of Operations at Sameem Capital, an investment and advisory firm based in Egypt covering the MENA region, where he successfully undertook several restructuring and risk management mandates for Sameem’s clients. Mohamed led the execution team at Sameem to successfully execute the Mena region’s first activist investment.

Mohamed’s solid expertise in risk management, internal control and financial management has been gained from top tier institutions in the region. He was the Vice-President of Risk management/ Internal Controls and SOX Officer at Siemens Technologies Egypt.

During his tenor with Siemens, he advised the management on enterprise risk management methodology, risk assessments and risk mitigation strategies for the firm’s four sectors (Energy, Industry, Infrastructure & Cities and Healthcare). In 2010, Mohamed implemented the new risk management and internal control integrated approach based on COSO I and COSO II framework. As SOX officer, Mohamed was responsible for the effectiveness of the 302 and 404 processes and related certification within Siemens. He was appointed as compliance officer, where he was responsible for executing the compliance program. Mohamed’s role was instrumental in leading Siemens to surpass the Monitor review appointed by the SEC. His role was also detrimental in the establishment of the cluster performance controlling function for the Middle East region.. Mohamed started his career in Siemens in the regional audit team and audited several divisions in UAE, Kuwait, Qatar and IRAN.

Before Siemens, Mohamed was the Group Internal Control supervisor for LaFarge-Titan where he supervised the SOX activities before the delisting of Lafarge. Prior to Lafarge-Titan, Mohamed served as senior consultant in PwC where he was exposed to several internal control, internal audit, secondments and special assignments. His main clients were PepsiCo, Chipsy for food industries, Orange, Alkan (ElThuraya), SunMicrosystmes, Nortel Networks, Sadko. Mohamed started his career in Alcatel Egypt in the finance department.

Mohamed holds bachelor degree in accountancy from Ain Shams University (French Section) and a Maîtrise de Sciences de Gestion from Poitiers University France.   .

Ahmed has more than 22 years of experience in the corporate finance and investment management fields. Prior to Aspire Holding, Ahmed led the corporate finance team at Sameem Capital, an investment and advisory firm based in Egypt covering the MENA region, where he advised many top regional and local clients on different M&A’s, financing and restructuring transactions, as well as successfully executing the MENA region’s first shareholders’ activism campaign.

Prior to Sameem, Ahmed was the Vice President of the Research Department at Cairo Financial Holding. He accumulated his work experience from advising investors on companies traded on the Egyptian Stock Exchange, where his main focus was on issuing recommendations and investment ideas on publicly traded companies, as well as issuing economic reviews on the performance of Egypt’s economy. He also worked as a senior equity analyst for well-known regional financial services firms, including Naeem Holding and Global Investment House.

Prior to covering stocks traded on the Egyptian Exchange, Ahmed was an Investment Analyst in the Kuwaiti conglomerate El Kharafi Group in the Direct Investment Department. He was responsible for defining potential investment opportunities, as well as evaluating investment proposals, besides assessing the Group’s subsidiaries performance and business strategies.

Ahmed started his career path as an auditor in RSM International, where his role was to audit the financial statements, in addition to reviewing and evaluating internal control procedures. He audited several companies operating in industrial, contracting, tourism and Healthcare sectors.

Ahmed is a CFA Charterholder and he was awarded the CFA designation in 2005. He holds a bachelor degree in Accounting (English Section) from Helwan University.

Essam has over 20 years of experience in the financial field, focusing on management of brokerages. Essam developed most of his career at Pioneers Securities. Prior to being appointed as Pioneers Securities Managing Director/ CEO in 2013 he acquired the role of the Head of Operations for 6 years. Throughout his post as Head of Operations enhancing the operational performance of the company, ensuring all departments are receiving the required support, and managing a team of over 80 employees. Previously, Essam acquired the role of a Chief Accountant during 2006. Prior to Pioneer Securities Essam worked at Citi Bank in the finance Department throughout 2005.

Essam holds a Graduate Degree in Accounting for decision Support from Faculty of Commerce and Business Administration, Helwan university, where he also received in bachelor of commerce and business of administration. In addition, Essam also holds several degrees and licenses including FATCA Regulations, Managing director license, and Head of operations license from the Financial Regulatory Authority