WIDN with Malak Fouad

I'm joined on the show this week by Fares Akkad. Fares is currently Regional Director for Meta and has a long track record with the company formerly known as Facebook. Over the course of his career, Fares has had stints at KPMG, Booz Allen and media giant MBC, as well as going it alone as an entrepreneur.  As a son of a Syrian diplomat, Fares grew up in South America and Europe, before moving to t...

Mounaz and Aya Abdel Raouf are the sisters behind the global luxury brand, Okhtein. They have always had a love for fashion and accessories, and day-dreamed about working in the industry from when they were children.  In 2014, they turned their fantasy into a reality, launching Okhtein. Since then, they’ve had celebrities like Beyoncé, Emma Watson, Cardi B and Gigi Hadid photographed with their ac...

Ramy started out as a stand-up comedian, and is the star of the eponymous hit show, Ramy , which has won Golden Globes and Peabodies, as well as Emmy nominations. He's also the co-creator of Mo with Mo Amer, and can be seen later this year in Poor Things with Emma Stone, William Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo among other big wigs of the industry. I binged watched all 3 seasons of Ramy and am so happy we a...

This season we've partnered with the Egypt Fashion & Design Council, which is launching the first edition of Egypt Fashion Week from May 12 to May 15. I’m joined on this bonus episode by two of the Council’s co-founders, Paul Antaki & Susan Sabet. We talk about the mission behind the EFDC and what they’re hoping to achieve with the first Egypt Fashion Week. You can find out more on their w...

Omniya is an architect and a specialist in cultural heritage conservation, working between Cairo and London. She has worked on some landmark projects in the region, and now divides her time between the Egyptian Heritage Rescue Foundation (EHRF) in Cairo and the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. Omniya was also one of four co-curators of the Islamic Art Biennale in Jeddah.  Omniya tal...

I'm joined on this episode by Ali Shihabi. Ali is a businessman, an investor, a scholar, a writer, and a pundit. A few years ago, Ali left the management of his company, Rasmala Investment Bank, to focus on his passion for writing and commentary. Ali has published two books —  Arabian War Games  and  The Saudi Kingdom  — and also writes for outlets like The New York Times, The Atlantic and Foreign...

Welcome to Season 6! We're kicking off with a powerhouse broadcaster and journalist, Hala Gorani. Over a career spanning 25 years, Hala has covered natural disasters, wars, elections and interview key global leaders. Last year, Hala took a sabbatical from CNN and is currently working on her first book—a memoir that explores the subject of identity—which will be out in Spring 2024. We dig into her...

What I Did Next is back with a new season beginning March 6. On the show, we delve into people’s life journeys from the point of view of twists and turns, shifts and pivots. We’ve all had these moments in our lives that make us stop in our tracks, and course correct. Often we realize the importance of these moments only with hindsight, and this is what forms the underlying current of What I Did Ne...

I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to Season 4 of What I Did Next! It’s been an incredible season and we want to thank each of you for listening in and sending in your feedback and reviews. As always, we end the season with our wrap-up episode where I’m joined by our producer Chirag Desai to chat about some highlights from the season, and a special interview with Magued Sherif, Managing Director at o...

On our final episode of the season, I’m joined by a powerhouse business woman and role model, Neveen El Tahri. Neveen is the first woman to sit on the board of both the Egyptian Stock Exchange and the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority. More recently, she’s been associated with the world of entrepreneurship. As Chairperson of Delta Shield, Neveen is enhancing growth and employment with a foc...

I’m joined today by a living legend, Tarek Nour, who single-handedly revolutionised the advertising world in Egypt and the Middle East at large. He made household names out of major brands with catchy jingles and his signature voice-overs. Today Tarek is semi-retired, active in some aspects of his business but also able to take a bird’s eye view of the industry, his life and Egypt.  We also have m...

I’m joined on the show today by Caroline Louca. Carol is an art consultant and started out as a corporate lawyer in Paris and Cairo. In 2008, she moved to the UAE and joined the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority. In that role, she was intricately involved with the establishment of the Louvre, the Guggenheim and the Zayed national museums. She then joined the Middle East team at Christie's in...

My guest today is Ayman Mohyeldin, the Arab-American TV anchor on the NBC and MSNBC networks in the US. Ayman spent his formative years in the United States and gravitated towards journalism after he graduated. Over the years, he’s worked as a field producer and reported in the Middle East with CNN and Al Jazeera in addition to the NBC network of channels. A few years ago, he exchanged his flak ja...

Dr. Nadine Hachach-Haram joins me in the hot seat today to discuss her amazing, life-changing work. Dr. Nadine is a reconstructive surgeon working with the National Health Service in the UK. She's is also the founder of Proximie, a start-up revolutionising how surgery is conducted, with a technology platform that enables operating rooms across remote locations to virtually interact and conduct sur...

My guest on this episode is a giant in every field he’s ventured into, Mo Gawdat. Mo was Chief Business Officer at Google X, and is now the popular author of  Solve for Happy ,  Scary Smart , and more recently,  That Little Voice in Your Head , with more books to come. He is also behind the  One Billion Happy  movement which is inspired by his late son, Aly, who died tragically in 2014. Mo today i...

My guest on this episode is Amy Mowafi, who makes up one-fourth of the MO4 network of companies. Amy and her team are the digital publishers of CairoScene, ElFasla, StartUpScene, NFTYScene, NFTY Arabia, SceneNoise, SceneTraveller, SceneEats, CairoZoom & the SceneNOW App. They also house a digital creative agency and are leading the way in the Web3 universe as well.  Amy brings passion, authent...

We’re kicking off this season with Fadi Ghandour, an icon of the Middle East’s business and entrepreneurial landscape. After co-founding Aramex, Fadi became the poster-boy for Arab entrepreneurship success. Aramex went on to become the first Arab company to list on NASDAQ, not a small achievement by any means. We’re focusing our conversation on the pivot that followed, when Fadi decided to leave A...

What I Did Next is back with a new season, beginning September 5th. If you’ve heard the show before, you’ll know that the guests on our show are leaders in their fields from across the Middle East. This season we have entrepreneurs, doctors, designers, journalists, innovators and more! You’ll hear a new guest join me in the hot seat every other Monday until the middle of December. We’re also launc...

I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to Season 3 of What I Did Next! We’ve had an incredible line-up of guests, and want to thank each of you for listening in and sending in your feedback and reviews. Listen in to our wrap-up episode where I sit down with our producer Chirag Desai to talk about the highlights of the season, some learnings and a look ahead to Season 4.  We’ll be back soon — until then,...

I’m delighted to have Youssef El Deeb as my guest today. Youssef is a film-maker, photographer, writer, ad-man, broadcaster, foodie and even a sailor. A son of Alexandria, Youssef’s life has seen him move from Egypt to Canada, to Kuwait, and finally to Dubai where he currently resides.  In 2006, Youssef launched the food channel,  Fatafeat , a venture he calls ‘his baby’. Youssef created the Fataf...

I’m joined on this episode by Nadine Kanso, the ultra-chic and super-creative jewellery designer, photographer, purveyor of beautiful things and all ‘round influencer.  Nadine has taken the concept of what it means to be an Arab and translated it using her camera lens, calligraphy or by moulding gold into bold, strong letters to form her signature brand, Bilarabi. Over the years, she has become a...

Dr. Ahmed Heikal is today’s guest on the show. As chairman and CEO of Qalaa Holdings, Ahmed is well known to many in the business community across the Middle East. Prior to founding Qalaa Holdings, Ahmed was an integral part of the rise and dominance of EFG-Hermes bank. To some, Ahmed is a polarizing figure. We talk candidly about the trajectory of his career, his appetite for risk and how he view...

Clarissa is a multi-award winning journalist and Chief International Correspondent for CNN. She’s been reporting for over 15 years from various countries in the region, including Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. More recently, she covered the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, and she’s also been covering the Ukraine war. Clarissa is also the author of On All Fronts: The Education...

I’m delighted to welcome Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi to the show. Sultan is someone I have long-admired from afar; a man who has worn many hats over the decades—businessman, art collector, activist, academic. Sultan’s story starts out as a proud son of Sharjah in the UAE before he came to the attention of a wide audience around the world for his activism during the 2011 revolutions in the Arab World....

We have the gorgeous Hend Sabri on the show! Hend is the queen of our cinematic hearts, and a leading light of both the silver and the small screens. Although a lawyer by training, Hend went on to star in ground-breaking roles such as Asmaa, where she portrays an HIV-positive woman in rural Egypt, and Ola in Ayaz-Atgawez, whom she recently brought back Finding Ola, which is available on Netflix. H...