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ELITE ISSUE 13, November 2019 Page 8

Businessman and Stock exchange Tycoon Hany Tawfik in an Interview with ELITE
THE BEST REGIME HAS A STRONG ARMY "ON

BORDERS" AND AN ACTIVE PARTY SYSTEM

Cairo : Ramy Magdy,Hana Zakareyya, Jasmin Nabil, and Israaa Awwad
Back then, due to the language barrier, I did not p repare a PhD but
In the following lines we will be reporting to you a briefing of the
another Master ’s degree and then returned to Egypt. By that time, the
interview conducted by Assistant Professor Ramy Mag dy and some of the
military enlistment law had been changed and thus I enlisted in the
students of the faculty of Economics and Political Science with the
army and worked in a bank at the same time. I found myself Head of
economic expert and the successful business man Mr. Hani Tawfik. First
Projects and getting paid in dollars. Eventually, I left the academic
of all we would love to greet you as one of the mos t renowned economic
field and continued to work in the banking sector u ntil I established
experts and businessmen in Egypt, which made you a role model for the
the economic group “EFG ” then “EFG Hermes. ”
youth and students specially the students of the fa culty of Economics and
How did academics influence your knowledge as an e conomist and a
Political Science. Thus, let us begin with asking about your academic life
business man? Sincerely, I adore Economics. Even wh en I conduct
and how it was.
interviews with people studying Accounting, Busines s Administration
Remembering my academic years, I was not an academi cally committed
and Economics I can sense the difference in the eco nomic way of
student up until my third secondary year. I got a 7 0% score in the general
thinking. The study of economics gives a vision and enables a person
secondary exams and was enrolled in the Faculty of Commerce Ain Shams
to predict what can occur in the world of economics . As such, my
University which was in El-Mounira back then.When t he student
study and passion for economics have been truly ben eficial in my
demonstrations erupted in the year 1968 –after the 67 defeat- the faculty
practical life. You are well known for your influen tial participation
was closed. Thus, I decided to join the Faculty of Agriculture, for which
and investment in the stock market and exchange sec tor
the Palace of Mohamed Ali was taken as the campus. I studied a wide
in your perception, what are the most salient challenges? The
array of subjects like Geology, Anatomy, land surve ying and Economics.
Egyptian stock market was establishe after the establishment of our
I did not find any of these subjects to be captivating or interesting except
corporation EFG and we were the only corporation back then. W e
for Economics. From here, my passion for economics started and I
gained tremendous amount of experience by establishing this
specialized in that field on my second year. What further ignited th is
corporation and were the first to work in the Egyptian exchange.
passion was my uncle, the former Minister of Tourism Fouad Sult an who
After that Hermes Corporation appeared and we mer ged with them.
worked back then in the National Bank, upon whom I always looked as a
What is interesting to mention, is the completely d ifferent mechanisms
role model and a second father. I excelled in the field to the extent that by
that the stock market had at the time. We used to g o to the stock
the time of my graduation I was ranked the second of m cohort and th e first
market every day and at the end of the day we would go and manually
in Economics.
do the clearance before exiting, which is completel y different from
After graduation, I was asked by Professor Ahmed Gawali to transfer with him to
how things work nowadays. Hence, I can say that we started in the
teach in the new branch of the faculty in Zagazig College, thus I prepared my
stock from the very beginning and I am grateful for that phase for
Master ’s thesis then travelled to the United States of America and joined the
University of California. opening up doors of opportunities before us.
ELITE ISSUE 13, November 2019 Page 8