Shahira Zeid is Vice Chairman and CEO of MZ Investments, one of Egypt’s most enterprising private equity companies. She graduated from the American University in Cairo in 1982 with a BA in Business Administration.

MZ Investments Company is a private equity group with direct investments in over 50 companies involved in tourism, hotels, agriculture, marine services, oil and gas, transportation, insurance and IT. The company is the product of years of business evolution started by Ms. Zeid’s father, Mr. Magdy Zeid. The key to MZ Investments’ business strategy is diversification. As an example, Ms. Zeid is on the board of Maridive & Oil Services, which has become in thirty years the largest Egyptian marine and offshore oil services company and one of the largest regional players in terms of fleet size owned (ranked 17 worldwide). Ms. Zeid strongly believes that tourism is a major growth area for Egypt and could provide an answer to many education and employment problems.

Shahira Zeid was ranked among the 50 most influential Arab women by Forbes Magazine 2008. Ms. Zeid is board Member of Egypt’s International Economic Forum (EIEF) and its affiliate the Arab Global Forum, and head of the Forum’s Woman’s Strategy Group. She is active in the Suzanne Mubarak Women for Peace Movement, which was signatory to the Athens declaration against human trafficking, and deeply involved in the national project to build 100 schools under the auspices of First Lady Suzanne Mubarak. She is also a board Member of the Egyptian Food Bank and a participating Member of the Arab International Women’s Forum.

She is married and the mother of two children. Through extensive travel and living abroad, she has developed fluency in English, Greek, French, Arabic and Spanish. Her hobbies include walking, reading, listening to music, cooking and spending time with her children.