A veteran of the regional financial industry, Dr. Mohamed Taymour founded and chaired EFG-Hermes and helped transform it from a start-up into the largest financial services firm in the Middle East. Prior to establishing EFG, Dr. Taymour headed the Projects Division at the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development in Kuwait. In 2006, Dr. Taymour established Pharos Holding with the aim of creating an innovative financial firm.

He serves as an active member of leading economic governmental and non-governmental bodies, and chairs the Egyptian Capital Market Association (ECMA) and the Egyptian Centre for Economic Studies (ECES). Qualified by an undergraduate degree in industrial engineering from Cairo University, Dr. Taymour completed a PhD in system analysis at New Hampshire’s Dartmouth College.

Co-founder of Pharos Holding, Elwy Taymour heads the firm's Investment Banking division, drawing on more than 18 years of experience at numerous first-rate investment and financial companies. Mr. Taymour served as vice-president of securities brokerage at EFG-Hermes, and sat on EFG’s board of directors for four years before accepting a post at Merrill Lynch International's investment banking division in London, England.

Mr. Taymour later joined Auerbach Grayson & Co. as vice president of sales, where he was responsible for selling and marketing Egyptian and Middle Eastern stock markets. Upon returning to Egypt in the early part of last decade, he established an online trading website, arabfinance.com, which was later acquired by LinkdotNet, a regional digital publishing and IT conglomerate. Withthis acquisition, Mr. Taymour became LinkdotNet's chief financial officer responsible for the company's legal, financial and logistical operations. Mr. Taymour also oversaw LinkdotNet's expansion and restructured the firm in preparation for an IPO. Mr. Taymour obtained an industrial engineering degree at the American University in Cairo before completing his MBA at New York University's Stern School of Business, with a specialisation in finance and management.

With more than 20 years of experience in banking and financial services Hussein El Sherbiny manages Pharos’ securities brokerage division. Mr. El Sherbiny launched his career at the World Bank's Private Sector Financial Operations Group in Washington DC, where he was involved in setting guidelines and strategy for the Egyptian government’s privatisation programme, as well as serving on a team that advised a number of countries.

Mr. El Sherbiny then spent more than two years at Citibank working on a team responsible for debt intermediation transactions and acting as assistant manager in the Credit and Marketing Department. In 1994, Mr. El Sherbiny joined HC Group, where he worked for 14 years prior to joining Pharos in 2008. He has held numerous posts in HC across its different divisions including investment banking, asset management and brokerage. He also served as a board director of the Egyptian Stock Exchange and Alwatany bank of Egypt and is currently a board director of Piraeus Bank Egypt. Mr. El Sherbiny received his MSc in economics from the London School of Economics & Political Science in 1992, and holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the American University in Cairo.

Since 1990, Marianne Ghali has managed endowments of the American University in Cairo, growing net assets under management of these endowments by an average of 30% per year. Ms. Ghali has successfully delivered lucrative exits on more than 60% of the portfolios she managed. In 2005, Ms. Ghali partnered with Cairo-based Citadel Capital to create what is today Sphinx Private Equity Management International. The private equity management company currently directs US$300 million in assets under management toward investments in SMEs in Egypt and the MENA region.

Sphinx recently launched the Sphinx Turnaround Fund to invest in Egyptian SMEs that are distressed and need restructuring. Ms. Ghali began her career at Manchester University and Kuwait’s Alghanim Industries. She later joined EDS where she automated the Kuwaiti Social Security System and led the country’s development of a financial disclosure system at the Institute for Banking Studies. Ms. Ghali holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the American University in Cairo. She is treasurer of the Citadel Capital Foundation, a fund that provides scholarships to talented Egyptian students.

Mahitab Orabi, managing director of Pharos’ Asset Management Division, has 15 years of experience as strategist and strategic planning director for a number of leading institutions. Ms. Orabi served as CEMEX Egypt’s economic and competitor analysis director, strategic planning, from 2004 to 2008. Prior to this role, she worked as a senior regional research analyst and strategist at EFG-Hermes between 1998 and 2004, after having worked on the investment bank’s trading desk for two years. Ms. Orabi holds a bachelor’s degree in economics, with honours standing, from the American University in Cairo, with a minor in business administration.

Hany Genena serves as head of Pharos Research as well as the chief economist and equity strategist for Pharos Securities. Mr. Genena, a chartered financial analyst, joined Pharos in September 2009 after working as a senior economist for a number of leading financial institutions in Egypt and the Gulf Arab region.

Qualified by almost 15 years of experience in research, Mr. Genena has held senior research positions at EFG-Hermes, National Commercial Bank in Saudi Arabia and Gulf Finance House in Bahrain. He has also worked for the Egyptian Ministry of Finance. Mr. Genena holds a bachelor’s degree in economics, with honours standing, from the American University in Cairo, and he completed an MSc in project analysis, finance and investment from York University in Britain.