Alumni

Eng. Islam Mohamed, a chemical engineering graduate from the BUE. He is the project manager of “Fekretak Sherketak” by the Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation. “Fekretak Sherketak” is the government’s arm to increase entrepreneurship awareness and provide packages of support to entrepreneurs and startups in different stages in Egypt. Islam is passionate about entrepreneurship and social impact. He founded several project and initiatives that have made huge impact on both the community and human development since 2007. Islam was very active in the students activities, he was the vice president of the university student union, represented the university in several events and conferences, and won several international competition during the university such as Enactus national competition and HultPrize regional competition. Islam now is mentoring and consulting startups and coach entrepreneurs to build successful startups that would impact the whole economy of our beloved Egypt. “BUE wasn’t just a university for me, it was that place that has the magic effect on shaping my future dreams, building my capacities and equipping me with necessary mindset and tools to achieve those goals” Islam quoted. Three months after Islam’s graduation, he proposed from the university management to start an entrepreneurship center at the BUE to implement several programs that will step-up with the university position among Egyptian universities and the competency of the BUE students, the management agreed and appointed him at the moment. We are very proud of Islam and what he is doing, for always providing guidance and setting good role model for many students at the BUE.

Ahmed El Attal,
Chairman of El Attal Holding,
BUE Graduate 2010.

On occasions where we appear to be overpowered with negative news, once in a while it’s very ideal to catch up with some positive news, particularly when it’s coming from one of our top pick and best Alumnus.

Ahmed El Attal, an experienced engineer with an exhibited history of working in the development business, Chairman of El Attal Holding, BUE graduate & Masters in Global Management. Ahmed was one of the graduates of the first cohort of the Faculty of Engineering, Civil Engineering Department, specializing in Project Management.

El Attal took the first step in building his career at the age of 16, where he started working at a very young age joining his family’s business in the real estate & construction field.
After his graduation, he took the initiative to build his own vision after studying in the BUE. He turned his business from a local company running 30 employees to an international corporation, running over 2000 employees and became one of the most successful real estate & construction companies locally & internationally

Discussing his journey of success which is booming right now, we first wanted to divulge his vision about education and how it impacted his life. He expressed that no one can reach his goal as he described that a  “unique part of experience unless they received well education” which was by all means offered by the BUE.

“It was a quite challenging journey”, he stated, since the beginning of his studying, Ahmed mentioned that he was really interested in the practical modules that allowed him to face the reality and the market challenges.  He believed that “education is one of the essential tools that frames and develops the personality, even in case you didn’t use what you have learned, in some unspecified time, in the future, it’s going to impact your life, and your way of thinking without knowing,  as it is stored your subconscious mind.”

Attal described the education system that is offered by the BUE, as a good mix of education and building the character which genuinely impacts how you express yourself with professionalism, thus providing its students with education and experience at the same time. Proving his point, he stated that “many people out there could have the experience but without getting the proper education support it on the long run.”

Mentioning the late Mr. Mohamed Farid Khamis, while recalling his memories in the University, El Attal described him as a “character that he always sought after.”
“I always admired this mentor, he was one of the most powerful pioneers and transformational leaders in the industry, leading his local company to an international chain called the Oriental Weavers, I remember how he generously shared his advice with the youth, how he believed that we are the future of Egypt, proving to the whole world that Egyptians can do it.”

Moving on by following his passion and Mr. Farid’s advice Ahmed started to dig his own path, internationally.  “It all started by pursing different path in real estate by building embassies and dorms which turned as a focal point in running the company and a turnkey operation, till I was rewarded up by being received by his Great Highness king of Malaysia.” El Attal mentioned.

When we asked Ahmed about the advice that he wants to share with our alumni & undergraduate students, he said that “education is a part of the human’s nature that can’t be separated, it’s a complete package and this package includes passion, good education, continuous working and developing yourself.  For sure, you will see the end result which be very rewarding.”

The Second advice Ahmed shared is that “work is an interaction; it is a lifestyle so you have to learn how to manage your time, I work for 16 hours per day and I wish I could have the time to work more.”

The Third Advice is that “effort is more important than talent, it’s about how you work on one’s self, how to innovate from yourself, how to put a targeted plan, and exert the effort as it is not just enough to be smart. If you have the passion, you can do it, so never underestimate yourself.”

My Name is Amr Abulnaga, I’m a graduate of the british university in egypt and I currently work at Silatech a Microsoft Partner coordinated by Microsoft Corporate Social Responsibilty Department as a Regional Technical Lead for one of the biggest Employability portals across the Middle East and Africa Region aka Ta3mal.

During my University I was more concerned on how to learn new Technologies and how to implement them with my studies which really helped me to go deep in cloud computing and how to develop solutions to help consumers using this technology.

I had a mission before I graduated which was to create a Source of knowledge transfer and it was one of the best things I did in my life learning and teaching others in an interactive way through Microsoft Technology Club in the BUE which empowers others in different Microsoft technologies and help them providing the tools and support needed.

After graduation I joined Microsoft Corporate Social Responsibility Department as technical lead for all the projects for 1 year which enhanced my Business analysis skills and improved my skills by giving me the oppurtunity to work with people from different countries on multiple Regional projects as well launch and support those projects.

Aya joined the BUE in 2005 from the IGCSE section of Dar El-Tarbia School. She was awarded a “High Achiever” certificate from Edexcel as she scored the highest score in Egypt in the Edexcel AL Accounting Examination, June 2005, and the eighth worldwide. That is when she decided to specialise in Accounting and Finance.

In 2009, Aya graduated top on her class with an excellent First Class Honours degree of Loughborough University in Business Administration, specialising in Accounting and Finance. Subsequently she has obtained an MBA in International Finance graduating with a Grade Point average of 3.92/4.

As a valedictorian, she was appointed as a Teaching Assistant (TA) in the Department of Business Administration in the BUE. She was awarded “Excellence in Teaching” certificate in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, she decided that it is time to have some real market experience so she moved to work for BP, first as a Planning and Performance Management (PPM) Specialist in the Procurement and Supply Chain Management (PSCM) Department. This role, although not related to Accounting and Finance, yet it involved some numeracy skills and analysis. Then in June 2014, she moved to another role within the same department; North Africa Risk and Assurance Specialist. This role involves some risk management activities as well as some quality assurance & compliance reporting.

Aya’s line managers clearly recognise her capabilities that her direct line manager says of her, “Aya is one of the best team members I have ever worked with. She acts with diligence, professionalism and demonstrates the right work ethics. Aya is a fast learner and has managed to build excellent rapport with other team members.” While another states, “Aya inspires people with her cheerfulness, helpfulness and honesty. At work she adds to that smartness, as she’s a bright young lady with great potential stimulated by her diligence and interpersonal skills.” And another manager describes her saying, “Aya is a patient and very conscientious individual. She appears cool under pressure. Her polite and restrained style belies her underlying drive however she still manages to transfer her sense of confidence and excitement. She is a resilient optimist who is constructively determined to learn and is motivated by achieving and getting recognized for enduring, value-adding improvements. She does this whilst respecting every colleague she works with. A significant motivator is a sense of helping people, directly or indirectly. Loyalty and respect for people are important values for her. She is ambitious for continued advancement. Interpersonally, she is socially skilled though only moderately gregarious. Her interpersonal style includes friendly body language, verbal fluency, active listening and sensitive choice of wording. Her positive intent and genuine desire to help quickly becomes apparent and she is able to establish and maintain good working relationships with a wide range of people. She cares for the people she works with and invests as much time as she can afford in direct contact with them; consulting and advising them as appropriate. She is customer-oriented in terms of being anxious to provide a good quality of service to her internal customers. She has a reasonably good understanding of her own personality and is insightful about how this influences her interpersonal style. She is immediately responsive to feedback in adjusting her behavior as appropriate. In terms of stakeholders that she gets to know, she seeks to understand their motives and concerns. She leverages this in managing or influencing them. She is insightful about cultural nuances and flexes her style sensitively in cross-cultural interactions. This ability to empathize is linked to her active listening skills and people values.”

Aya pins much of her success on her time at the BUE. According to her “My undergraduate studies at the BUE equipped me with all that is needed to enter the marketplace, starting from enhancing my interpersonal, presentation and leadership skills to developing my ability to analyse, work under pressure, work in teams and meet deadlines.”

As an Iraqi citizen, my story began since I was very young.

Having left the country when I was still 3 years old had a great impact on my life; I mean, who wouldn’t be sad to depart their home or leave their relatives behind at such an early age.

I moved to Yemen, a foreign country which I knew nothing about, not the culture, not the geography, not even the dialect which I had so much trouble to adapt to. During those 9 years I had some problems to adapt, but with my parents’ and kind-hearted people’s support I could adapt in less than two years; working my way up till I became the best student in class –El7amdulellah- I’ve stayed like that throughout the 9 years I spent there. What pushed me the most was the encouragement I received from my parents, the principal and the owner of the school I was in, as when we were about to move to another city, he met with my parents and asked them if we could stay if not absolutely necessary which made me more determined to work even harder; and I did.

That chapter ended and yet another chapter began when I moved to Egypt back in 2003 when I had my vision set on a certain goal. By the time I took a careful look around me, I realized that I wanted to do something that makes a difference! I want to make the world a better place; the question of “How?” was yet to be answered.

After finishing my secondary education I had to choose which faculty I am going to join and that’s when my eyes were set on computer science. I mean, what better way is there to change the world than through technology? Wasn’t that already proven since the early 2000s when technology started advancing and everything became more and more computerized?

During the first two years I used to develop applications from scratch even in my own free time just as a practice. Which made the practical parts a whole lot easier than they used to be; after all, practice makes perfect, right?

After the first two years, it became clearer and clearer to me that I wanted to join the core specialization of computer science; there was that something that fascinates me about the complexity of what computer scientists do, how they create solutions from scratch to make other people’s lives much easier than it used to.

So, I joined the specialization and passing it was no easy task (keep that in mind) as you have to work each day harder than the day before to reach your goal; then I decided to join the Microsoft Student Partners program in which I had to self-learn in order to share my knowledge to other students in universities across the country. That was the perfect opportunity to push me forward in learning aspects and to bypass my fears (stage fright) by conducting sessions in front of 150+ audiences.

After finishing my senior year and finalizing my graduation project on which I worked very hard under the supervision of Dr. Abeer Hamdy who helped me a lot throughout my four years at the university I was oddly lost; as a foreigner it’s hard to find a company that will hire you and provide a work permit while you’re still a fresh graduate, but that did not stop me (after a while)

lost felt strange, till I went to the university to receive my Bachelor’s degree from Loughborough; that was when I bumped into an old Dr. who had taught me before and asked me if I wanted to join the Web development team which I agreed to. After multiple interviews I was accepted and admitted to spend my first 9 months as an employee which I enjoyed very much; especially that we had developed a whole new website for the university.

When those 9 months were over I was supposed to travel to my home country to receive a callback and issued the work permit which was not accepted because the job description required no experience, so why bring a foreigner when an Egyptian can occupy such a position? (such a bummer)

I had