Mr. Karim Awad

Mr. Karim Awad is Group CEO, Chairman of the Executive Committee, and a member of the Board of Directors of EFG Hermes Mr. Awad started his career at EFG Hermes in 1998 in the Investment Banking Department. He assumed managerial roles in the Firm thereafter, first as CEO of the Investment Bank in 2012 and then as Group CEO in 2013.

Working together with the EFG Hermes Holding senior management, Mr. Awad spearheaded a major shift in the Firm’s strategy that transformed EFG Hermes from a MENA-based investment bank to a frontier markets financial solutions house. To achieve this vision, the Firm focuses on six pillars: hiring the best people, improving the Firm’s positioning in markets it operates in, selectively expanding its geographical presence, enhancing its product offering, increasing profitability metrics, and ensuring that public responsibility remains front and center to all its operations.

During the past nine years, the Firm was able to enhance its market share in its core sell-side operations in its key markets of UAE, KSA, and Egypt while expanding its presence to seven new markets that span sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. The Firm was also able to significantly increase the suite of products it offers to clients by building a full-fledged non-bank financial institutions (NBFI) platform. In November 2021, EFG Hermes Holding finalized an acquisition of a commercial bank in Egypt, thereby completing its transformation into a universal banking platform. 

The strategic shift helped drive growth in the Firm’s revenues, which reached EGP 6.1 billion, and profits, which stood at EGP 1.45 billion in 2021, all while maintaining a strong commitment to the communities in which the Firm operates through a CSR policy and ESG standards.

Mr. Awad holds a degree in business administration (BBA) from the American University in Cairo.