Mr. 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. 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 where he started his career in 1996. During 1999-2000, he was on secondment to Goldman Sachs in London. Mr. El-Khazindar serves on the boards of several leading regional companies including El Sewedy Electric and Magrabi Retail. He also serves as a Trustee of the American University in Cairo, and as a Fellow of the Aspen Institute’s Middle East Leadership Initiative. In 2013 Mr. El-Khazindar was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and in 2014 he was chosen 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).