Hisham El-Khazindar is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Qalaa Holdings, a leading investment company in Africa and the Middle East. Established in 2004, Qalaa Holdings (formerly known as Citadel Capital) is an African leader in energy and infrastructure. Qalaa’s subsidiaries include Egyptian Refining Company, Taqa Arabia, and Dina Farms.
Prior to co-founding Qalaa Holdings, Mr. El-Khazindar was Executive Director of Investment Banking at EFG Hermes, where he advised on landmark M&A and IPO transactions in the region and began his career in 1996. During 1999–2000, he was on secondment to Goldman Sachs in London.
Mr. El-Khazindar has served on the boards of several leading international, regional, and Egyptian organizations and companies, including the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA), Children’s Cancer Hospital 57357, El Sewedy Electric, Sodic, and Magrabi Optical. He also serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American University in Cairo, a Fellow of the Aspen Institute’s Middle East Leadership Initiative, a member of Harvard Business School’s Global Advisory Board, and a member of the Young Presidents Organization.
In 2013, Mr. El-Khazindar was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and in 2014, he was named among the top 100 Young African Leaders by the Paris-based think tank Institut Choiseul.
He holds a BA in Economics from the American University in Cairo (1996) and an MBA from Harvard Business School (2003).