What I Did Next

I’m joined this week by curator Nadine Abdel Ghaffar, founder of Art d’Egypte. From humble beginnings in 2017, their annual event has become a celebration of art, installations and global partnerships. Nadine is also an art curator with a passion for one of Egypt’s most celebrated artists, Mohamed Nagy, and manages their art estate along with his family.Nadine tells me how her childhood experiences led to her building a tremendously successful art platform and why her life’s mission is the development of all things culture.Links: Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi on What I Did Next Forever is Now 2023 This episode was brought to you by:EFG Holding, a trailblazing financial institution with a universal bank in Egypt and the leading investment bank franchise in frontier and emerging markets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to a new season of What I Did Next! I’m joined by fashion entrepreneur Imran Amed, one of the leading voices in fashion and CEO of The Business of Fashion. Today, BOF employs 75 people with a presence in London, New York, Paris and Shanghai. It also boasts a community of 800,000 email subscribers and 100,000 paying members across 120 countries.What I Did Next was a media sponsor at the first edition of Egypt Fashion Week, where I met & interviewed Imran in front of a live audience at the Agricultural Museum in Cairo.This episode is brought to you by:EFG Holding, a trailblazing financial institution with a universal bank in Egypt and the leading investment bank franchise in frontier and emerging markets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m excited to be bringing you a new season of the show starting September 6, with new episodes every second Monday.I’ve had incredible guests over the past five seasons, leaders in their fields from a wide range of industries such as business, art, design, fashion, medicine, and entertainment. These conversations keep reminding me that each person’s journey is unique to them, and I’m always floored by how honest and authentic my guests are.I’m also excited to introduce a new platform this season! We’ve just launched our YouTube channel where you’ll find extended clips from our interviews. And of course, we’ll continue to have shorter clips and updates on social media. You can follow us on Instagram, X and on LinkedIn.I can’t wait to share some amazing conversations with you again.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re currently on a season break and will be back with new episodes in September. In the meantime, I wanted to share my conversation from last year with renaissance man Samih Sawiris.Samih and his brothers, Naguib and Nassef continue to be icons in the business world in Egypt and the Middle East. Samih is the founder of Orascom Development Holding which operates 33 hotels with over 7,000 rooms and controls approximately 100 million sqm of land.Samih is above all, a sort of renaissance man, and a person who doesn’t define himself by his career or profession. He has a multitude of interests and he consciously prioritises the work / life balance. Now that he is no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the company, he is spending time developing his passions and checking off his extensive bucket list. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re currently on a season break and will be back with new episodes in September. In the meantime, I wanted to share my conversation from last year with reconstructive surgeon Dr. Nadine Hachach-Haram, who told me about her shift to entrepreneurship with Proximie, to revolutionise the world of surgery. Dr. Nadine saw the horrors war inflicts on people and communities during her formative years living in Lebanon after the civil war, and how difficult it is for individuals to re-build their lives if proper health care is not available. Her story is one of perseverance, dedication and incremental change.We also have more from Dr. Nadine in a bonus episode exclusively for our members. You can listen in Apple Podcasts or subscribe on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re currently on a season break and will be back with new episodes in September. In the meantime, I wanted to share my conversation from last year with businessman, art collector, activist and academic Sultan Sooud Al Qaseemi.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. His heritage, nationality and deep sense of what it means to be Arab today is the thread that links all his work and interests. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re currently on a season break and will be back with new episodes in September. In the meantime, I wanted to share my conversation from last year with Amy Mowafi, a dynamo in the region’s media space, and an inspiring role model for the younger generation of empowered Egyptian and Arab women.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, authenticity and a sense that anything-is-possible to everything she does. She is a fierce proponent of what our generation used to call Girl Power, and is awed by how Gen Z women have given that voice full-throttle.We also have more from Amy in a bonus episode exclusively for our members. You can listen in Apple Podcasts or subscribe on our website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thank you for joining me on an incredible season 5 of What I Did Next, and for your feedback and comments. This week, I’m joined by our producer Chirag Desai to talk about my own life’s pivots and a few highlights from our season.We’ll be back with new episodes in early September. Until then, you can catch up on our previous episodes, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn for updates.Thanks to our partners EFG Hermes for their support of this season, and to Egypt Fashion Week for a lovely collaboration.Links: Frontlines of Journalism by BBC Radio 4 The Lost Manuscript by Cathy Bonidan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m joined on the show this week by the talented Lebanese/Iraqi chef, Hussein Hadid. If you’ve been lucky enough to attend his unique kitchen table experience in Beirut, you'll know that Chef Hussein conjures up magic not just for your taste buds, but also by giving a lot of thought to the atmosphere and decor. He actually started out working in finance, quickly discarding that career in favour of a chef's jacket and hat. Our conversation took many twists and turns, with amazing anecdotes from his time working for a top New York restaurant to his more difficult experiences in Lebanon over the last few years. Chef Hussein also told me how his business has weathered these storms, and what's to come.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’m joined this week by poet, author and radio host, Salma El-Wardany. Salma is the author of These Impossible Things, a best-selling novel that that breaks down barriers by looking at how a group of muslim girlfriends navigate love, friendship & sex. She also currently hosts The Breakfast Show on BBC Radio London, which reaches over half a million listeners daily. Salma is of Irish and Egyptian descent, combined with influences from the Pakistani community of Northern England and her current home in multi-cultural London. Questions of identity are at the core of who Salma is, and this is at the heart of much of her writing, public speaking and poetry. Salma has given voice to what many modern young women from Jakarta to Jeddah talk about behind closed doors. I find Salma's story fascinating, uplifting and hopeful. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices