April 9, 2025 • 37 mins
From construction engineer to environmental researcher to destination visionary — Ibrahim El Missiri's career path defies conventional trajectories while offering profound insights into what makes extraordinary destinations thrive. As the CEO of Soma Bay Red Sea, El Missiri worked on the transformation of a stunning Red Sea peninsula into one of Egypt's premier destinations through strategic vision, innovative placemaking, and a deep understanding of both social and financial capital.
The conversation reveals how El Missiri's diverse background shaped his approach to development. His early work on iconic projects like the Four Seasons Giza laid a foundation in construction, while his environmental studies funded by a hard-won British scholarship (after three years of rejection) instilled principles of sustainability. His master's degree in Built Environment from UCL introduced him to placemaking concepts that would later define Soma Bay's distinctive character.
What truly distinguishes this interview is El Missiri's fascinating perspective on "social capital" versus "financial capital" and how relationships form the true currency of success in Egyptian business. After years working internationally, he recognized that maintaining strong local networks was crucial, explaining his decision to return to Egypt despite promising opportunities abroad in companies such as Dubai World and Expo 2020.
Today, Soma Bay hosts music festivals and international events such as Narrative PR Summit, bring ing together indouals form across regions and disciplines to come together on the Egyptian Red Sea peninsula of Soma Bay.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Action.
Welcome to the Curation a showfor the culturally curious.
This is your host, noor Hassan.
Each week, I'll guide youthrough a curated edit of the
finest in art, fashion, design,culture, luxury, wellness, tech
and more.
This is your go-to space fordiscovering trailblazing ideas,
untold stories and meaningfulconversations with innovators
(00:30):
and creators who are shaping ourworld.
There's no gatekeeping here, sosit back, tune in and let's
discover only the best together.
(00:52):
In this episode, I had thepleasure of interviewing Ibrahim
El-Mesedi, who is the CEO ofRed Sea destination Soma Bay.
Soma Bay is one of Egypt's topdestinations.
We spoke about Ibrahim's career, with twists and turns and plot
twists that brought him fromLondon to Dubai and then finally
to the Red Sea.
We spoke about how Soma Baystarted off as one of the
region's most beautifulpeninsulas and is now considered
a top regional destination,hosting music festivals,
(01:16):
incredible events and, of course, the Narrative PR Summit, which
is Lamia Kamel's project, aguest we've also had on the
podcast and one of our toplisten to episodes.
This episode is a lesson onentrepreneurship, resilience,
perseverance, education and somuch more.
I absolutely loved thisinterview and I think you will
(01:37):
get so much out of it.
So, without further ado, thisis my conversation with Ibrahim.
Okay, so right now I'm speakingwith Ibrahim Al-Maseri, the CEO
of Soma Bay, and, as I said,I've been doing this interview
(01:58):
for a year now, so I'm reallyhonored to have you on the
Curation podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Thanks for having me on board, Dani.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
It's my honor.
I'm really excited, honestly tobe here at the incredible
showroom in Capital where youhave such a nice setup over here
.
I want to talk a little bitabout you.
On the Curation, we start witha question and ask all the
guests what's your morningroutine, ibrahim?
This is the first question forme, because my audience
(02:29):
generally likes to knowsuccessful people.
What do they do in the morning?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, most people have the beautiful.
They wake up early and mymorning routine is a bit simpler
.
Usually I wake up at 7 am andmy kids are going to school, and
then I'll have breakfast.
Uh, not regular, but I'llprobably every now and then walk
the dog.
(02:53):
Uh, I've got a nice dockeramazing and and then just flick
through my email enterprise.
You know the regular stuffthat's coming in.
Check my calendar and then I'moff amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So um?
Are you a coffee person?
Do you usually have a coffee inthe morning?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
things like that definitely okay, I like to have
a.
I drink a specific brand.
It's actually a Nescafe, butit's a Nescafe espresso.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Okay, please share they.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Like details yeah it's Nescafe, have an instant
espresso.
Michel capsules, yes, which Ireally like the Arabica, that's
my special coffee and then I'll.
In terms of food, I always haveA cheese omelet for the morning
, amazing toast with orangejuice, that's my daily breakfast
(03:52):
very boring.
I do it every day.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I think you know honestly, repetition sometimes
is really the key, and Lamiashared with us.
For example, she likes to workout in the morning.
Do you, do you like, prefer towork out at all, in the morning
or in general?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
well in terms of working out, uh actually, uh, my
wife gets a personal traineramazing, so she's working out.
I try to join her two threetimes a week.
Usually we're working out.
I want my the kids get on thebus between 7 and 8, sometimes
it's 8 to 9.
(04:27):
Yes, we do that and this hasbeen a bit regular now for the
past year and a half.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Amazing.
So we're focusing on that GreatOkay.
So I want to hear a little bitabout your career before Soma
Bay.
You've been in real estate forso many years.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about the background before
coming into Soma Bay and whatbrought you into the world of
real estate?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Okay, my career was all over the place.
I'm a construction engineer bybackground.
Yes.
And then I quickly joined aconstruction company.
It's called Bechtel, and I wasworking on the Four Seasons,
giza which was a very nice job.
It was the building.
(05:12):
This was pre-Dubai, so that wasthe tower at least and it was a
very unique project.
Actually, I find it very weird.
Our generation, all the leadersof the construction industry,
most of them, graduated fromthat project.
We were all working on one site.
It was very unique.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Iconic.
It was something that is stilliconic to this day.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It's still iconic with the first mall.
Actually, the back story is itwas never a hotel, it was two
residential towers, and then wehad to.
The one on the Nile was selling, the one on the zoo wasn't.
And they converted itoriginally to a Ritz-Carlton.
And then it converted again toa Four Seasons.
(05:57):
And it opened as a Four Seasonsand there are lots of stories
about that project, Danny.
And there are lots of storiesabout that project, Annie.
We, actually we were digging andwe bumped into the hippopotamus
, the drainage of the hippolagoon of Tazoo.
Oh wow, we were drowned instench, but we actually
connected it to the treatmentnetwork.
(06:18):
Amazing To me, it was acritical job, it started my
career and it was really thenumber one construction
companies in the world and andfor me working with Bechtel at
the time.
It was, I think, the biggestcontractor on the planet.
It was a good start and then Ileft them.
(06:39):
I joined Orascom for a year,very early days, and then I left
and I said I'm not doingengineering.
And I decided I wanted to be aranger.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Oh, interesting for the career shift.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And I decided I'm going to be an environmentalist
and I'm going to studyoceanography.
And there was.
The EU had set up a program inEgypt to develop the national
parks of Egypt.
There was no equipment, yetthat wasn't there.
Before all this, really therewas nothing, yet there was
nothing and they were stillsetting up like Ras Mohamed and
(07:16):
stuff.
I was like, wow, I'd like to dothat and I got funding from the
British government to go andlive on an island in the
Philippines, South China Sea, tolearn about reefs and fish.
And I wrote a paper how we cantake that model and I would go
(07:37):
to the EU and they'd give me anisland in Hurghada.
Incredible, so that was myfirst connection and I did that.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
That was the first touch point with her gata I will
, I will, I will, sort of comingto this area.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Uh, yeah, there's a, there's a previous touch point
okay my one of my aunts.
She was the, I think, one ofthe first female divers in egypt
.
Yeah, amazing in the 80s and,uh, she took me to this unique
site called Sharman Naga, whichhappens to be just next to Soma
Bay today.
This was pre-Soma,pre-development in the Red Sea,
(08:13):
and that was my very, very firsttouchpoint in the Hurghada
region.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
How many years ago Bo .
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Zamen awiyal, you're very old, but the Hurghada and I
came back to Egypt after myPhilippines experience.
And I went to the.
They were setting up the WEAA,the environmental agency, and it
was it became a governmentinstitute.
The EU left and they told mesorry.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I was like I just quit my job.
I went, I did this training,I'm coming.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
I'm going to set up they're not.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
You're not in this project anymore what did you do
from there?
I was very depressed, so I Idecided to apply for a
scholarship okay so I decided togive up my environmental dream.
Uh, I was going to originallygo to Miami and I applied for
(09:09):
the British SheveningScholarship.
The government, gives theBritish government gives this
scholarship every year and Iapplied for three years.
I got rejected.
Wow.
And then I heard, after theytold me the news, I'm not going
to be doing the project of thenational parks.
I took my paperwork, Iphotocopiedied it, signed it in
blue and I submitted it amazingso I was called in to the
(09:32):
British embassy, a Britishcouncil and I.
I went in for the interview andit was the people who funded me
for my Philippines experience.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
That that is so interesting, full circle.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Full circle and the lady who paid for my training I
had no money, but they gave methe money she was sat there.
She was like what are you doing?
I told her I sent you a report,thank you for your funding, but
the government in Egypt doesn'twant me.
What do I do?
Are you going to do environment?
No, I want to study.
What do I do?
Are you going to do environment?
No, I want to study.
Go back to development.
(10:06):
And this is where I started theshift to what's called built
environment.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yes, of course, but at that time, all the fields and
all these things, you're apioneer.
You're still a first mover inthis area, right?
I mean, there's still no onewho's very involved in this area
.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
There wasn't even the concept of developer, didn't
exist.
In Egypt, there were nocompounds.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
This was the 90s but it's very interesting how the
progression was very fast fromthen on, I believe yes, they
decided to give me thescholarship because I didn't
like it it's a lesson inperseverance.
It's a lesson in perseverancethree four years.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
So three years they tell me no.
And then the time I didn'twrite the essay, they gave me
but ibrahim to apply again wow I.
I was like I I need to get outof here and it was it was sort
of I need a solution, uh.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So that's Amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
It was sort of I need a solution.
That's very inspiring, so I gotaccepted in UCL LA University
College London and in theBartlett School of Architecture.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Incredible.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
And this was a new course called Built Environment
I didn't even know what it was.
So I went to the UK, I did mymaster's and it was and uh.
So I went to the uk, I did mymaster's and it was mind-blowing
yes we were what?
Maybe some of I don't know thepeople who listen to your
podcast, but germany was twocountries right?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
yeah, a lot of people don't, yes, know that anymore.
Yeah, but if he was germany.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
in east germany berlin was two cities of, so we
were studying how to mergeBerlin.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
And this was the very early days of VR.
Okay, and they were doing testsLike a student who wanted some
extra cash and you get fivepounds, so they test the machine
on your head and you getseasick.
And it was really weird, but wewere trying to see how do you
(12:10):
tie up the city and how do you?
This is where I got introducedto the concept of placemaking.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Okay, yes, of course, and placemaking now is a huge
buzzword in the industry.
Years later, that's incredible.
What did this entire degreereally teach you about how the
future of this industry wasgoing to pan out?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Well, it was all about.
How do people relate to places?
How placemaking is thedefinition?
Why do you go to these cities?
How do you walk around the cityDistances?
We never thought about thesewhen we were studying
engineering.
It was civil.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Build the building.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
How everything interconnects, how people
interact with spaces, how do youidentify landmarks, walkable
distances, very early themesthat we were looking at and uh.
So when I came back I was like,okay, that's really cool, but I
, I got, I got to work on aproject which was uh, there was
(13:15):
a project that's being developedport galip in marsalam a kid
and it was done by the kuwaitisand uh.
So I went there and I lived inKusir.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
So that was my return to the Red Sea so would you say
, you're not exactly a cityperson like that.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I love the city.
Yeah, I've always lived incities on the contrary, but I
always had this attachment tothe Red Sea yes and actually
even more so to Sinai yeah andmy daughter's name is Sina.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I love that name, I mean that's how I got.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Many people will take that name, but actually I see
that there's a pattern and youreturn regularly to the Red Sea
area.
There's a constant return.
Right now, what came next?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Nothing I went back to.
It was very interesting when Iwas in Kosea.
That was my first the firsttime I go to Soma Bay, actually
wow.
I heard this place had openedso.
Soma Bay actually opened in 98.
I was there in 2000 okay and soI went to check it out and
there was just two hotelsSheraton and Robbins yes and it
(14:20):
was because we were bored.
We were bored, we were roamingaround the Red Sea and the Red
Sea is very, very interestingand then I decided that I want
to leave and I got anopportunity to go back to the UK
.
I moved to the UK in 2001.
And I stayed there all the wayto 2006.
Amazing, and I was working onhigh-speed trains, which was an
(14:44):
incredible experience very, verycool experience at eurostar,
the second stage.
So we were moving the stationfrom waterloo uh to uh, st
pancras in the north of london.
That was cool.
I worked on doha airport.
I worked on um uh, there wassomething called the west coast.
So the the the high-speed trainfrom uh, it was a high-speed,
(15:06):
it was semi-high-speed fromLondon to Glasgow Amazing, this
was sort of what I was doing.
And then I moved to Abu Dhabiin 2006.
I was working on a port projectthere and then I had sort of a
turning point, which was myfather passed away and I felt I
(15:28):
needed to go back to Egypt.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Okay, it was a feeling, not a job opportunity.
You wanted to go back to Egypt.
I wanted to go back.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I was always conscious when my because my dad
, I was telling you he worked inSaudi and the UAE.
And he returned on retirement.
Okay, and at that time, therelationships he had with his
friends became distant.
He's always in touch, but notreally.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
And so he wasn't very happy.
When he came back and I spoke,I was speaking to my mentor.
Uh, I had a great mentor calledjeremy beaton he's the guy who
took me to to london wow andthat's a whole story on its own.
Um, but?
And he was telling me look, ifyou're gonna make any serious
(16:17):
move, you need to do beforeyou're 40 oh really oh no yeah,
type guys we have uh 10 years, Idon't know.
I said that once on a podcastand.
I got like hate mail.
That's what he said.
I think it wasn't about the age, it was about how how you know
(16:38):
the way these kind of mentorswork.
They don't want to tell you thedecision right, they want you
to come to the decision.
So he was trying to push me.
I was like 38 at the time.
He's like make a freakingdecision.
you know, it was like I thinkthat's where the number came
from, and so I said okay, I'mgoing to come back to rebuild my
(16:59):
relationships with my friendsand everybody rebuild my
relationships with my friendsand everybody.
I used to come to Egypt likeevery three months to really
establish long-term relations,and Masr is the kind of
community where it's.
I made up this term.
Yeah, I think there are twokinds of capital.
Okay.
There's financial capital andthere's social capital.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Oh interesting, omri Masmatahani, this is a trademark
patent, uh so in places.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
It's everywhere in the world, but in a place like
egypt, your social capital isprobably stronger and more
important than your financialcapital I 100 agree it's your
club if you were in a club.
It's your school, it's your uni, it's where you work.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
And these relationships that you establish
are the ones that are going toopen doors for you forever and
ever.
For sure, but when I was abroadand I built all those relations
around the world, I was erodingmy Egyptian social capital.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
And so coming back was important.
That's sort of how it tookplace in my head.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I love this idea.
I think Begadda my audiencewould really benefit from it,
because there's a lot of expatsand they are scared of Al-Fiqra.
But, ana Aiza Arif, I want toknow how you got to Soma bay,
because I think it will reallyinspire a lot of people to
understand and know.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
The biggest and best opportunities are not always
abroad, you know yeah, well it's, and uh, when I let, when I
decided to come back to egypt, Imoved into development and it
was to me was the dream job.
I got hired by dubai world.
They were the thing they weredoing the palms and they were
said you know, come and be incharge of development in north
(18:49):
africa yes, wow, dream literally, yeah and uh.
So I joined in june 08.
Amazing september 08 worldfinancial crisis lost my job.
Oh so, after 15 years workingfor a company, so that's really
your fear barrier, right?
I don't want to leave my jobbecause it might not go well, it
didn't okay but I have to sayit took by the time I sort of
(19:15):
moved out to get it.
It took me like six months,okay, and then I stayed at home
for like three, another threemonths months.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
You were in Egypt, I was in Egypt.
This was 2008.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Okay, so I went back to Egypt, got the perfect job.
Right Lost my job in six months.
Wow.
Okay, and let's say it was outof hand.
But I had learned about realestate development and from the
Emiratis, and they're very goodat it.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
And so I was going to hand over documentation in a
hotel in the Dubai Marina.
I was sitting there overbreakfast and someone walks in a
friend of mine from uni.
Okay.
Totally random and it's likewhat are you doing here?
Yeah, it was like 20, it waslike 10 years later.
(20:07):
Uh, he's like we just acquireda company in egypt.
You want to come work with us,so why not?
I just lost my job and and uhand I joined.
This was the beginning of theacquisition of Tableton, so they
were still more of a governmententity and we created an
(20:30):
amazing team.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
And we helped transform that company.
This is pre the current Medinaof Egypt stage and I did four
years there and then at acertain point I felt there was
no growth opportunity.
After four years I thought I'ddone enough.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
It wasn't clicking with the owners at the time, and
again, I was on a trip in Dubai.
I don't know why it's alwaysDubai.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
For a lot of people it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
And I bumped into another friend.
So this is how it comes.
And he's like what are youdoing?
I'm like I'm done, I think Idid a lot with MNHD and looking
for another job.
So he's like, well, you tookthis company and you transformed
it.
I was like, yeah.
So he's like I, you took thiscompany and you transformed it.
I was like, yeah.
So he's like I have anothermess for you, oh, wow.
So I'm like so I'm the guy whohas to figure out the mess.
(21:27):
Like we have this old companywhich was Soma Bay, started in
91.
And it's a bit of a mess.
Why don't you go help us out?
Oh, wow, and that was it.
And I was going to help themout for three months, really,
and it was post-revolution, sothere was a lot of problems with
land documentation.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Like this Helped them out.
The three months, the yearended, and then I quit.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Oh, this is a plot twist, okay.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
So, because it was we rescued the land.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
But at the time there no uh determination to push
things forward yes yes and uh,and so I left and I went back to
dubai.
Oh, wow and uh, I worked with acompany that was bidding for
expo oh, of course yeah, so webid for expo.
We won expo amazing and uhworked there for like a year and
(22:23):
then the same guy called me upand he said okay, we solved our
problems.
You want to take over and leadthe company the first time?
I wasn't yes, yes, yes so I said, yeah, let's give it a shot.
And that's how I joined SomaBay and transformed Soma Bay
that was the beginning, yeah,that was the think.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Okay, so I think this is one of the most interesting
stories I've heard.
It's so, so fascinating.
I thought of what was like whenyou first came to Soma Bay.
What was the vision for SomaBay, because I mean, the amount
of transformation that'shappened in the past couple of
years is astounding.
Basaraha and we'll get intojust all of the events that
(23:06):
happened there, includingnarrative summit just it's
become a real hub in I would saynot.
I mean, what a decade.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah yeah, decades yeah took a lot, yeah, but I
mean still for for a destinationof that size incredible it
takes time.
Um, we'll see it's, it's, it'sa, it's a story of, I would say,
stages.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
So the first stage was we need to solve the problem
.
Tourism was really suffering inEgypt yeah, financially and
everything Of course.
Hotel assets were, their statuswas eroded and there was no
real estate.
Yeah, we weren't Guna.
(23:46):
Guna had Lissa, Guna had.
I mean, we started nearly thesame time as Guna by the way,
yes, yes.
But we took the tangent ofhotels.
Pre-my time.
It was all about building thosefancy hotels.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Right, so we have Luxury hotels.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Robinson, sheraton, cascades, we weren't doing real
estate.
Yeah.
And I came with the real estateexperience from MNHD and from
Dubai World.
And how do you start buildingthat?
And you have to keep in mindwe're an hour further south.
The distance between us andGuna is the distance between
(24:23):
Atamea and Sukhna.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yes, well, a lot of people feel like it's more, but
it is an hour.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
It's 45 minutes.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Oh, exactly.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
But I mean we're in a different zone.
Yeah definitely we're thesouthernmost real estate
developer in Egypt, I'd say.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Incredible.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yeah, we're.
We had to realize that we'remore frontier, but we had two
fantastic points.
Number one I think Somabay hasthe best land plot in Egypt.
It's a peninsula.
A lot of people don't realizethat we have our own peninsula.
(25:01):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Okay, there are a lot of people don't realize that we
have our own peninsula.
Wow, okay, I feel like thereare a lot of people who don't
grasp how unique that is.
It's a really hard thing tofind.
It's a peninsula.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
It doesn't exist.
We are the Ras Mohamed of theHurghada side, right, exactly.
That was very, very unique.
We have our own dive site andwe have a beach yes you need
that.
That's it.
You don't need a boat in Somaany for now.
They have this pristine sandybeach and it's a bit of the
Sahel experience on the.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Red Sea yes, which is different to everything else
which is what people crave, thenorth coast, yani, people crave
it throughout the year, but theydon't find it throughout the
year.
For who would I in F itthroughout the year?
So this is the idea that youcan be in Soma throughout the
year.
Yeah.
And so you brought in the idealet's provide people with
compounds, let's provide peoplewith developments, not just
hotels.
Let's make it more than that.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
More than just like a luxury destination where you
think of going on vacation.
Your vision was people can livehere, right?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Definitely where you think of going on vacation.
Your vision was people can livehere, so definitely.
But so there was another thing,and I was there when guna was
starting yes yes, and I missedout.
I was too young, I didn't havemoney.
It was like, yeah, I couldn'tafford it and in a way, I
thought my generation and myfriends and I were all living
all over the world.
We used to actually meet up inGuna definitely for Easter, but
(26:29):
we wanted a place where we'd allhuddle and we actually couldn't
afford Guna.
Yeah, that was it.
Yet we had this plot of landwhich was further south.
We could afford it, andactually we.
It's a nice plot, it is, for.
That's sort of how it happens.
You know, there used to besomething called google circles.
Didn't succeed, but googlecircles was built on the notion
(26:52):
of, and every person isconnected to a circle and these
circles sort of are concentric.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
And then if you get a series, of people, then it will
all connect and it's not enoughto pick it in six degrees of
separation, something like thatand so that's how it sort of
worked and evolved.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
And then we started slowly introducing the Rezi
concept.
But we wanted it to bedifferent and we felt that our
edge was going to be design, yes.
So we wanted to come up withsomething striking, and that's
where we came up with theconcept of the lodge.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
I don't know if you've seen that.
Yes, looking at it, look, youknow something that's.
That's an innovation, though,and this gets boring and people
have different tastes.
Yeah, for the lodge, and I feltyou also brought this creative
aspect to destinations, and notjust in, uh, not just in the way
(27:46):
you communicate, but in themarketing and the images and the
photography then.
So my baby became famous forthose, the images that are
behind us, which is the water,the sunsets yeah, all of this
brought you to becoming adestination where people will go
for a race, where people willgo for a summit.
Um, so with this I want to getinto how did you start hosting
(28:09):
these large-scale events likenarrative summit?
well, originally and bringingpeople back to soma bay.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
We we started thinking okay, why would people
come?
Yeah yeah and uh and we.
We started with music, so wewanted to do something different
yes uh, we started getting someof the nostalgic bands.
Yeah, we had the somethingcalled the dire straits
experience.
We got ace of bass, we got any,a lot of oldies and it was
(28:37):
interesting, it was attracting acertain crowd.
So people yanni, look, ifsomeone is going to drive four
and a half hours yes, then booka hotel to listen to a band that
was interesting, so that had alot of power and we focused on
that and then we went on.
Okay, what about that?
(28:58):
We create a strategy wherebythe Red Sea becomes the
destination of choice for thenormal holidays like the the.
Eid, the Easter and New Year's.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
We don't have to go to Egypt, we don't have to
travel to Egypt.
You have these large events.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
In the Red Sea.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Driving distance.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
By the way, people in the past used to party New
Year's in Cairo.
That's what we used to do.
People used to go to villas andhave parties.
That's how it Nobody used to do.
Yes, there are people who movedto a villa and do parties.
Right, that's how it Nobodyused to go to the Red Sea for
New Year's.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Interesting, and now it is the place to be.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Yeah, and it happens not just here.
Now it's become Us Ahlal-Hashish, right Guna, that's
the go-to destination 100% New.
Year's was actually low seasonfor Red Sea.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Oh, that's really interesting.
Now it's become high season.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Ghariba with Eid as well.
It's a strategy and Eid.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Eid, everyone, everyone in Eid.
Their first option is like whywould I travel abroad and why
not just go to the Red Sea?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Yeah, and so we slowly worked these strategies.
These are things that didn'tjust happen, by the way just
happened, by the way.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yes, and we used to coordinate.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Okay, that and I is out of by it's not by
coincidence, no, it was by bythe way.
A lot of people think it justhappened it was all by design.
Yes, and there was a lot ofcollaboration can feed uh the
guy in charge of guna at thetime of course and he was a
colleague from ac and we talkedabout it, uh, and we were
talking about how do we startcreating those events and not
(30:31):
stepping on each other's toes.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Interesting.
This is really importantbecause I think, being
collaborative in this part, itcreates an entire region as a
destination, not just one place.
And then therefore you have Imean, I know so many people who
stay in Soma Bay, for example,and then hop into Guna, relax,
okay.
So now you have a destination,you brought all of this
(30:54):
experience and you createdsomething that is one of the
biggest destinations in theregion now Soma Bay.
So I want to talk now aboutNarrative Summit, because I
think it's really interesting tohost a pr summit at soma bay.
What made you decide that thiswas the place to host it and
have this summit there?
Because it's bringing peoplefrom all industries look we.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
We have a very long-standing relationship with
uh both lamia camel and ah AhmedAbid.
Rmc.
Ahmed was the person who weworked with on all those in the
early days, the concerts and themusic and the events, and so we
were always brainstorming aboutwhat do you do, what do you
(31:40):
bring, and Lamia had hernarrative which she had run a
few years earlier and she wasseeking for a destination that
will host yes and uh, and I waslike you know what?
Uh, this aligns with our vision.
We are trying to change the waypeople approach destinations
(32:01):
okay, you know development inegypt was all about resorts on
the beach right.
Yes.
What we call sun and fun.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Sun and fun.
I love that.
That's what the market's about.
That was really the only wayfor a very long time.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
You go in the morning early, put your foot on the sun
.
That was it.
It wasn't about destinations.
Guna of course, led the way withdestinations, but it was like
Egypt needs a multitude ofdestinations 100% destinations
but it was like egypt needs amultitude of destinations 100
and and so we were looking forour niche.
And soma bay has dna of adifferent kind of destination, a
(32:36):
destination that you need.
Our different design it's builton sustainability.
Uh, we're developing the firstglobal sports hub in Egypt and
now we're hosting all sorts ofevents and things that are
happening, and Egypt wassuffering from the big tourism
problems that we were having.
(32:57):
So, okay, let's talk about a newnarrative for Egypt, that idea
aligned with us, because Ibelieve Soma Bay is a new
narrative in terms of what is adestination?
Where do you want to live?
We want to make it a year-rounddestination that is conscious
about all the things we talkabout but we don't do Exactly
(33:20):
Really thinking about theenvironment.
When we started getting ourlicenses, it was quite
interesting.
The environmental authoritiesalways looked at the developer
as a violator.
We went to them and we saidpolice us.
Maybe that came from my rangerdays I changed the perspective
completely.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
I made it help us, help you basically.
And let's work together.
This is the last question Ihave for you, because I could
really talk to you for hours, sowe'll need a part two.
Okay, so nation branding Ithink essentially the work that
you've been doing with Soma Bayand kind of creating a
destination and bringing insomething like first, music and
(34:03):
art and fashion and luxury, andthen narrative summit, which is
a PR summit, bringing in peoplefrom all of those fields.
This is a form of nationbranding, kind of reshaping the
way people see Egypt as adestination.
I feel like you said or thepyramids, and that's about it,
even though there's so much more.
(34:23):
So was the nation branding partof what you were thinking about
, going back to all of yourexperience?
Speaker 2 (34:30):
definitely look, yeah , this is the problem for egypt.
Believe it or not, people stillthink, I don't know, we live in
tents or in pyramids and weride camels until today and
that's the perception of a lotof people, unfortunately.
We talk to each other so wethink everybody knows, but they
don't.
And the best experience Ialways have is when I get a
(34:52):
guest or a client who comes andsays I've come to Somabay and I
haven't even seen the pyramids,and like, wow, this is Egypt.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yes, and I would fly straight in and people don't
even think it's part of Egyptand no, we are part of Egypt.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
And, by the way, sahel is incredible and Cairo is
transformed, and look at howlife now in Egypt is totally
different to 20 years ago, ofcourse.
So how do we bring thatnarrative abroad?
How do we take any?
Let's think okay is, egypt hasa very strong brand, it's the
any we were talking.
I was talking with Lamia.
We have the pyramids, guys,every kid born on planet Earth
(35:36):
has the pyramids in theirtextbook, so the 8, 9 billion
people on the planet know us.
There's no other country likethis, by the way.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
It's true.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
But we cannot be locked into the pyramids.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Egypt is so much different.
We're I don't know now 115million people.
Probably there's 10, 15 millionabroad.
We're one of the biggestnations on earth.
Everywhere you go there'sEgyptians.
Yes.
And they're now succeeding inall sorts of fields and we have
something to say in all thefields marketing, advertising,
uh, whatever, pr anddestinations amazing.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
I honestly think you wrapped it up for us perfectly
and I'm really excited for anarrative summit to come to soma
bay, with all of the incredibleinternational individuals that
are going to be joining.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
So thank you so much, ibrahim, for your time thank
you for having me and andlooking forward to a great
summit.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Thank you for listening.
Don't forget to follow at theCuration Pod on Instagram, as
well as at Soma Bay, red Sea, tostay updated on all of the
upcoming events, podcastepisodes and more, and I'll see
you on our next episode.
Action.
Welcome to the Curation a showfor the culturally curious.
This is your host, noor Hassan.
Each week, I'll guide youthrough a curated edit of the
finest in art, fashion, design,culture, luxury, wellness, tech
and more.
This is your go-to space fordiscovering trailblazing ideas,
untold stories and meaningfulconversations with innovators
(00:30):
and creators who are shaping ourworld.
There's no gatekeeping here, sosit back, tune in and let's
discover only the best together.
(00:52):
In this episode, I had thepleasure of interviewing Ibrahim
El-Mesedi, who is the CEO ofRed Sea destination Soma Bay.
Soma Bay is one of Egypt's topdestinations.
We spoke about Ibrahim's career, with twists and turns and plot
twists that brought him fromLondon to Dubai and then finally
to the Red Sea.
We spoke about how Soma Baystarted off as one of the
region's most beautifulpeninsulas and is now considered
a top regional destination,hosting music festivals,
(01:16):
incredible events and, of course, the Narrative PR Summit, which
is Lamia Kamel's project, aguest we've also had on the
podcast and one of our toplisten to episodes.
This episode is a lesson onentrepreneurship, resilience,
perseverance, education and somuch more.
I absolutely loved thisinterview and I think you will
(01:37):
get so much out of it.
So, without further ado, thisis my conversation with Ibrahim.
Okay, so right now I'm speakingwith Ibrahim Al-Maseri, the CEO
of Soma Bay, and, as I said,I've been doing this interview
(01:58):
for a year now, so I'm reallyhonored to have you on the
Curation podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Thanks for having me on board, Dani.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
It's my honor.
I'm really excited, honestly tobe here at the incredible
showroom in Capital where youhave such a nice setup over here
.
I want to talk a little bitabout you.
On the Curation, we start witha question and ask all the
guests what's your morningroutine, ibrahim?
This is the first question forme, because my audience
(02:29):
generally likes to knowsuccessful people.
What do they do in the morning?
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, most people have the beautiful.
They wake up early and mymorning routine is a bit simpler
.
Usually I wake up at 7 am andmy kids are going to school, and
then I'll have breakfast.
Uh, not regular, but I'llprobably every now and then walk
the dog.
(02:53):
Uh, I've got a nice dockeramazing and and then just flick
through my email enterprise.
You know the regular stuffthat's coming in.
Check my calendar and then I'moff amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
So um?
Are you a coffee person?
Do you usually have a coffee inthe morning?
Speaker 2 (03:18):
things like that definitely okay, I like to have
a.
I drink a specific brand.
It's actually a Nescafe, butit's a Nescafe espresso.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
Okay, please share they.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Like details yeah it's Nescafe, have an instant
espresso.
Michel capsules, yes, which Ireally like the Arabica, that's
my special coffee and then I'll.
In terms of food, I always haveA cheese omelet for the morning
, amazing toast with orangejuice, that's my daily breakfast
(03:52):
very boring.
I do it every day.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
I think you know honestly, repetition sometimes
is really the key, and Lamiashared with us.
For example, she likes to workout in the morning.
Do you, do you like, prefer towork out at all, in the morning
or in general?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
well in terms of working out, uh actually, uh, my
wife gets a personal traineramazing, so she's working out.
I try to join her two threetimes a week.
Usually we're working out.
I want my the kids get on thebus between 7 and 8, sometimes
it's 8 to 9.
(04:27):
Yes, we do that and this hasbeen a bit regular now for the
past year and a half.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Amazing.
So we're focusing on that GreatOkay.
So I want to hear a little bitabout your career before Soma
Bay.
You've been in real estate forso many years.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about the background before
coming into Soma Bay and whatbrought you into the world of
real estate?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Okay, my career was all over the place.
I'm a construction engineer bybackground.
Yes.
And then I quickly joined aconstruction company.
It's called Bechtel, and I wasworking on the Four Seasons,
giza which was a very nice job.
It was the building.
(05:12):
This was pre-Dubai, so that wasthe tower at least and it was a
very unique project.
Actually, I find it very weird.
Our generation, all the leadersof the construction industry,
most of them, graduated fromthat project.
We were all working on one site.
It was very unique.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Iconic.
It was something that is stilliconic to this day.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
It's still iconic with the first mall.
Actually, the back story is itwas never a hotel, it was two
residential towers, and then wehad to.
The one on the Nile was selling, the one on the zoo wasn't.
And they converted itoriginally to a Ritz-Carlton.
And then it converted again toa Four Seasons.
(05:57):
And it opened as a Four Seasonsand there are lots of stories
about that project, Danny.
And there are lots of storiesabout that project, Annie.
We, actually we were digging andwe bumped into the hippopotamus
, the drainage of the hippolagoon of Tazoo.
Oh wow, we were drowned instench, but we actually
connected it to the treatmentnetwork.
(06:18):
Amazing To me, it was acritical job, it started my
career and it was really thenumber one construction
companies in the world and andfor me working with Bechtel at
the time.
It was, I think, the biggestcontractor on the planet.
It was a good start and then Ileft them.
(06:39):
I joined Orascom for a year,very early days, and then I left
and I said I'm not doingengineering.
And I decided I wanted to be aranger.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Oh, interesting for the career shift.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And I decided I'm going to be an environmentalist
and I'm going to studyoceanography.
And there was.
The EU had set up a program inEgypt to develop the national
parks of Egypt.
There was no equipment, yetthat wasn't there.
Before all this, really therewas nothing, yet there was
nothing and they were stillsetting up like Ras Mohamed and
(07:16):
stuff.
I was like, wow, I'd like to dothat and I got funding from the
British government to go andlive on an island in the
Philippines, South China Sea, tolearn about reefs and fish.
And I wrote a paper how we cantake that model and I would go
(07:37):
to the EU and they'd give me anisland in Hurghada.
Incredible, so that was myfirst connection and I did that.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
That was the first touch point with her gata I will
, I will, I will, sort of comingto this area.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Uh, yeah, there's a, there's a previous touch point
okay my one of my aunts.
She was the, I think, one ofthe first female divers in egypt
.
Yeah, amazing in the 80s and,uh, she took me to this unique
site called Sharman Naga, whichhappens to be just next to Soma
Bay today.
This was pre-Soma,pre-development in the Red Sea,
(08:13):
and that was my very, very firsttouchpoint in the Hurghada
region.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
How many years ago Bo .
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Zamen awiyal, you're very old, but the Hurghada and I
came back to Egypt after myPhilippines experience.
And I went to the.
They were setting up the WEAA,the environmental agency, and it
was it became a governmentinstitute.
The EU left and they told mesorry.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
I was like I just quit my job.
I went, I did this training,I'm coming.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
I'm going to set up they're not.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
You're not in this project anymore what did you do
from there?
I was very depressed, so I Idecided to apply for a
scholarship okay so I decided togive up my environmental dream.
Uh, I was going to originallygo to Miami and I applied for
(09:09):
the British SheveningScholarship.
The government, gives theBritish government gives this
scholarship every year and Iapplied for three years.
I got rejected.
Wow.
And then I heard, after theytold me the news, I'm not going
to be doing the project of thenational parks.
I took my paperwork, Iphotocopiedied it, signed it in
blue and I submitted it amazingso I was called in to the
(09:32):
British embassy, a Britishcouncil and I.
I went in for the interview andit was the people who funded me
for my Philippines experience.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
That that is so interesting, full circle.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Full circle and the lady who paid for my training I
had no money, but they gave methe money she was sat there.
She was like what are you doing?
I told her I sent you a report,thank you for your funding, but
the government in Egypt doesn'twant me.
What do I do?
Are you going to do environment?
No, I want to study.
What do I do?
Are you going to do environment?
No, I want to study.
Go back to development.
(10:06):
And this is where I started theshift to what's called built
environment.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Yes, of course, but at that time, all the fields and
all these things, you're apioneer.
You're still a first mover inthis area, right?
I mean, there's still no onewho's very involved in this area
.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
There wasn't even the concept of developer, didn't
exist.
In Egypt, there were nocompounds.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
This was the 90s but it's very interesting how the
progression was very fast fromthen on, I believe yes, they
decided to give me thescholarship because I didn't
like it it's a lesson inperseverance.
It's a lesson in perseverancethree four years.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
So three years they tell me no.
And then the time I didn'twrite the essay, they gave me
but ibrahim to apply again wow I.
I was like I I need to get outof here and it was it was sort
of I need a solution, uh.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
So that's Amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
It was sort of I need a solution.
That's very inspiring, so I gotaccepted in UCL LA University
College London and in theBartlett School of Architecture.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
Incredible.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
And this was a new course called Built Environment
I didn't even know what it was.
So I went to the UK, I did mymaster's and it was and uh.
So I went to the uk, I did mymaster's and it was mind-blowing
yes we were what?
Maybe some of I don't know thepeople who listen to your
podcast, but germany was twocountries right?
Speaker 1 (11:36):
yeah, a lot of people don't, yes, know that anymore.
Yeah, but if he was germany.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
in east germany berlin was two cities of, so we
were studying how to mergeBerlin.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
And this was the very early days of VR.
Okay, and they were doing testsLike a student who wanted some
extra cash and you get fivepounds, so they test the machine
on your head and you getseasick.
And it was really weird, but wewere trying to see how do you
(12:10):
tie up the city and how do you?
This is where I got introducedto the concept of placemaking.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Okay, yes, of course, and placemaking now is a huge
buzzword in the industry.
Years later, that's incredible.
What did this entire degreereally teach you about how the
future of this industry wasgoing to pan out?
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Well, it was all about.
How do people relate to places?
How placemaking is thedefinition?
Why do you go to these cities?
How do you walk around the cityDistances?
We never thought about thesewhen we were studying
engineering.
It was civil.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
Build the building.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
How everything interconnects, how people
interact with spaces, how do youidentify landmarks, walkable
distances, very early themesthat we were looking at and uh.
So when I came back I was like,okay, that's really cool, but I
, I got, I got to work on aproject which was uh, there was
(13:15):
a project that's being developedport galip in marsalam a kid
and it was done by the kuwaitisand uh.
So I went there and I lived inKusir.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
So that was my return to the Red Sea so would you say
, you're not exactly a cityperson like that.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
I love the city.
Yeah, I've always lived incities on the contrary, but I
always had this attachment tothe Red Sea yes and actually
even more so to Sinai yeah andmy daughter's name is Sina.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I love that name, I mean that's how I got.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Many people will take that name, but actually I see
that there's a pattern and youreturn regularly to the Red Sea
area.
There's a constant return.
Right now, what came next?
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Nothing I went back to.
It was very interesting when Iwas in Kosea.
That was my first the firsttime I go to Soma Bay, actually
wow.
I heard this place had openedso.
Soma Bay actually opened in 98.
I was there in 2000 okay and soI went to check it out and
there was just two hotelsSheraton and Robbins yes and it
(14:20):
was because we were bored.
We were bored, we were roamingaround the Red Sea and the Red
Sea is very, very interestingand then I decided that I want
to leave and I got anopportunity to go back to the UK
.
I moved to the UK in 2001.
And I stayed there all the wayto 2006.
Amazing, and I was working onhigh-speed trains, which was an
(14:44):
incredible experience very, verycool experience at eurostar,
the second stage.
So we were moving the stationfrom waterloo uh to uh, st
pancras in the north of london.
That was cool.
I worked on doha airport.
I worked on um uh, there wassomething called the west coast.
So the the the high-speed trainfrom uh, it was a high-speed,
(15:06):
it was semi-high-speed fromLondon to Glasgow Amazing, this
was sort of what I was doing.
And then I moved to Abu Dhabiin 2006.
I was working on a port projectthere and then I had sort of a
turning point, which was myfather passed away and I felt I
(15:28):
needed to go back to Egypt.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Okay, it was a feeling, not a job opportunity.
You wanted to go back to Egypt.
I wanted to go back.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I was always conscious when my because my dad
, I was telling you he worked inSaudi and the UAE.
And he returned on retirement.
Okay, and at that time, therelationships he had with his
friends became distant.
He's always in touch, but notreally.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
And so he wasn't very happy.
When he came back and I spoke,I was speaking to my mentor.
Uh, I had a great mentor calledjeremy beaton he's the guy who
took me to to london wow andthat's a whole story on its own.
Um, but?
And he was telling me look, ifyou're gonna make any serious
(16:17):
move, you need to do beforeyou're 40 oh really oh no yeah,
type guys we have uh 10 years, Idon't know.
I said that once on a podcastand.
I got like hate mail.
That's what he said.
I think it wasn't about the age, it was about how how you know
(16:38):
the way these kind of mentorswork.
They don't want to tell you thedecision right, they want you
to come to the decision.
So he was trying to push me.
I was like 38 at the time.
He's like make a freakingdecision.
you know, it was like I thinkthat's where the number came
from, and so I said okay, I'mgoing to come back to rebuild my
(16:59):
relationships with my friendsand everybody rebuild my
relationships with my friendsand everybody.
I used to come to Egypt likeevery three months to really
establish long-term relations,and Masr is the kind of
community where it's.
I made up this term.
Yeah, I think there are twokinds of capital.
Okay.
There's financial capital andthere's social capital.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Oh interesting, omri Masmatahani, this is a trademark
patent, uh so in places.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
It's everywhere in the world, but in a place like
egypt, your social capital isprobably stronger and more
important than your financialcapital I 100 agree it's your
club if you were in a club.
It's your school, it's your uni, it's where you work.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
And these relationships that you establish
are the ones that are going toopen doors for you forever and
ever.
For sure, but when I was abroadand I built all those relations
around the world, I was erodingmy Egyptian social capital.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
And so coming back was important.
That's sort of how it tookplace in my head.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I love this idea.
I think Begadda my audiencewould really benefit from it,
because there's a lot of expatsand they are scared of Al-Fiqra.
But, ana Aiza Arif, I want toknow how you got to Soma bay,
because I think it will reallyinspire a lot of people to
understand and know.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
The biggest and best opportunities are not always
abroad, you know yeah, well it's, and uh, when I let, when I
decided to come back to egypt, Imoved into development and it
was to me was the dream job.
I got hired by dubai world.
They were the thing they weredoing the palms and they were
said you know, come and be incharge of development in north
(18:49):
africa yes, wow, dream literally, yeah and uh.
So I joined in june 08.
Amazing september 08 worldfinancial crisis lost my job.
Oh so, after 15 years workingfor a company, so that's really
your fear barrier, right?
I don't want to leave my jobbecause it might not go well, it
didn't okay but I have to sayit took by the time I sort of
(19:15):
moved out to get it.
It took me like six months,okay, and then I stayed at home
for like three, another threemonths months.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
You were in Egypt, I was in Egypt.
This was 2008.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Okay, so I went back to Egypt, got the perfect job.
Right Lost my job in six months.
Wow.
Okay, and let's say it was outof hand.
But I had learned about realestate development and from the
Emiratis, and they're very goodat it.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
And so I was going to hand over documentation in a
hotel in the Dubai Marina.
I was sitting there overbreakfast and someone walks in a
friend of mine from uni.
Okay.
Totally random and it's likewhat are you doing here?
Yeah, it was like 20, it waslike 10 years later.
(20:07):
Uh, he's like we just acquireda company in egypt.
You want to come work with us,so why not?
I just lost my job and and uhand I joined.
This was the beginning of theacquisition of Tableton, so they
were still more of a governmententity and we created an
(20:30):
amazing team.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
And we helped transform that company.
This is pre the current Medinaof Egypt stage and I did four
years there and then at acertain point I felt there was
no growth opportunity.
After four years I thought I'ddone enough.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
It wasn't clicking with the owners at the time, and
again, I was on a trip in Dubai.
I don't know why it's alwaysDubai.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
For a lot of people it's interesting.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
And I bumped into another friend.
So this is how it comes.
And he's like what are youdoing?
I'm like I'm done, I think Idid a lot with MNHD and looking
for another job.
So he's like, well, you tookthis company and you transformed
it.
I was like, yeah.
So he's like I, you took thiscompany and you transformed it.
I was like, yeah.
So he's like I have anothermess for you, oh, wow.
So I'm like so I'm the guy whohas to figure out the mess.
(21:27):
Like we have this old companywhich was Soma Bay, started in
91.
And it's a bit of a mess.
Why don't you go help us out?
Oh, wow, and that was it.
And I was going to help themout for three months, really,
and it was post-revolution, sothere was a lot of problems with
land documentation.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Like this Helped them out.
The three months, the yearended, and then I quit.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Oh, this is a plot twist, okay.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
So, because it was we rescued the land.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
But at the time there no uh determination to push
things forward yes yes and uh,and so I left and I went back to
dubai.
Oh, wow and uh, I worked with acompany that was bidding for
expo oh, of course yeah, so webid for expo.
We won expo amazing and uhworked there for like a year and
(22:23):
then the same guy called me upand he said okay, we solved our
problems.
You want to take over and leadthe company the first time?
I wasn't yes, yes, yes so I said, yeah, let's give it a shot.
And that's how I joined SomaBay and transformed Soma Bay
that was the beginning, yeah,that was the think.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Okay, so I think this is one of the most interesting
stories I've heard.
It's so, so fascinating.
I thought of what was like whenyou first came to Soma Bay.
What was the vision for SomaBay, because I mean, the amount
of transformation that'shappened in the past couple of
years is astounding.
Basaraha and we'll get intojust all of the events that
(23:06):
happened there, includingnarrative summit just it's
become a real hub in I would saynot.
I mean, what a decade.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
Yeah yeah, decades yeah took a lot, yeah, but I
mean still for for a destinationof that size incredible it
takes time.
Um, we'll see it's, it's, it'sa, it's a story of, I would say,
stages.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (23:25):
So the first stage was we need to solve the problem
.
Tourism was really suffering inEgypt yeah, financially and
everything Of course.
Hotel assets were, their statuswas eroded and there was no
real estate.
Yeah, we weren't Guna.
(23:46):
Guna had Lissa, Guna had.
I mean, we started nearly thesame time as Guna by the way,
yes, yes.
But we took the tangent ofhotels.
Pre-my time.
It was all about building thosefancy hotels.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Right, so we have Luxury hotels.
Speaker 2 (24:02):
Robinson, sheraton, cascades, we weren't doing real
estate.
Yeah.
And I came with the real estateexperience from MNHD and from
Dubai World.
And how do you start buildingthat?
And you have to keep in mindwe're an hour further south.
The distance between us andGuna is the distance between
(24:23):
Atamea and Sukhna.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yes, well, a lot of people feel like it's more, but
it is an hour.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
It's 45 minutes.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Oh, exactly.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
But I mean we're in a different zone.
Yeah definitely we're thesouthernmost real estate
developer in Egypt, I'd say.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Incredible.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Yeah, we're.
We had to realize that we'remore frontier, but we had two
fantastic points.
Number one I think Somabay hasthe best land plot in Egypt.
It's a peninsula.
A lot of people don't realizethat we have our own peninsula.
(25:01):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Okay, there are a lot of people don't realize that we
have our own peninsula.
Wow, okay, I feel like thereare a lot of people who don't
grasp how unique that is.
It's a really hard thing tofind.
It's a peninsula.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
It doesn't exist.
We are the Ras Mohamed of theHurghada side, right, exactly.
That was very, very unique.
We have our own dive site andwe have a beach yes you need
that.
That's it.
You don't need a boat in Somaany for now.
They have this pristine sandybeach and it's a bit of the
Sahel experience on the.
Speaker 1 (25:34):
Red Sea yes, which is different to everything else
which is what people crave, thenorth coast, yani, people crave
it throughout the year, but theydon't find it throughout the
year.
For who would I in F itthroughout the year?
So this is the idea that youcan be in Soma throughout the
year.
Yeah.
And so you brought in the idealet's provide people with
compounds, let's provide peoplewith developments, not just
hotels.
Let's make it more than that.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
More than just like a luxury destination where you
think of going on vacation.
Your vision was people can livehere, right?
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Definitely where you think of going on vacation.
Your vision was people can livehere, so definitely.
But so there was another thing,and I was there when guna was
starting yes yes, and I missedout.
I was too young, I didn't havemoney.
It was like, yeah, I couldn'tafford it and in a way, I
thought my generation and myfriends and I were all living
all over the world.
We used to actually meet up inGuna definitely for Easter, but
(26:29):
we wanted a place where we'd allhuddle and we actually couldn't
afford Guna.
Yeah, that was it.
Yet we had this plot of landwhich was further south.
We could afford it, andactually we.
It's a nice plot, it is, for.
That's sort of how it happens.
You know, there used to besomething called google circles.
Didn't succeed, but googlecircles was built on the notion
(26:52):
of, and every person isconnected to a circle and these
circles sort of are concentric.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
And then if you get a series, of people, then it will
all connect and it's not enoughto pick it in six degrees of
separation, something like thatand so that's how it sort of
worked and evolved.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
And then we started slowly introducing the Rezi
concept.
But we wanted it to bedifferent and we felt that our
edge was going to be design, yes.
So we wanted to come up withsomething striking, and that's
where we came up with theconcept of the lodge.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
I don't know if you've seen that.
Yes, looking at it, look, youknow something that's.
That's an innovation, though,and this gets boring and people
have different tastes.
Yeah, for the lodge, and I feltyou also brought this creative
aspect to destinations, and notjust in, uh, not just in the way
(27:46):
you communicate, but in themarketing and the images and the
photography then.
So my baby became famous forthose, the images that are
behind us, which is the water,the sunsets yeah, all of this
brought you to becoming adestination where people will go
for a race, where people willgo for a summit.
Um, so with this I want to getinto how did you start hosting
(28:09):
these large-scale events likenarrative summit?
well, originally and bringingpeople back to soma bay.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
We we started thinking okay, why would people
come?
Yeah yeah and uh and we.
We started with music, so wewanted to do something different
yes uh, we started getting someof the nostalgic bands.
Yeah, we had the somethingcalled the dire straits
experience.
We got ace of bass, we got any,a lot of oldies and it was
(28:37):
interesting, it was attracting acertain crowd.
So people yanni, look, ifsomeone is going to drive four
and a half hours yes, then booka hotel to listen to a band that
was interesting, so that had alot of power and we focused on
that and then we went on.
Okay, what about that?
(28:58):
We create a strategy wherebythe Red Sea becomes the
destination of choice for thenormal holidays like the the.
Eid, the Easter and New Year's.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
We don't have to go to Egypt, we don't have to
travel to Egypt.
You have these large events.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
In the Red Sea.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
Driving distance.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
By the way, people in the past used to party New
Year's in Cairo.
That's what we used to do.
People used to go to villas andhave parties.
That's how it Nobody used to do.
Yes, there are people who movedto a villa and do parties.
Right, that's how it Nobodyused to go to the Red Sea for
New Year's.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Interesting, and now it is the place to be.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
Yeah, and it happens not just here.
Now it's become Us Ahlal-Hashish, right Guna, that's
the go-to destination 100% New.
Year's was actually low seasonfor Red Sea.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
Oh, that's really interesting.
Now it's become high season.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
Ghariba with Eid as well.
It's a strategy and Eid.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
Eid, everyone, everyone in Eid.
Their first option is like whywould I travel abroad and why
not just go to the Red Sea?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
Yeah, and so we slowly worked these strategies.
These are things that didn'tjust happen, by the way just
happened, by the way.
Speaker 1 (30:07):
Yes, and we used to coordinate.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
Okay, that and I is out of by it's not by
coincidence, no, it was by bythe way.
A lot of people think it justhappened it was all by design.
Yes, and there was a lot ofcollaboration can feed uh the
guy in charge of guna at thetime of course and he was a
colleague from ac and we talkedabout it, uh, and we were
talking about how do we startcreating those events and not
(30:31):
stepping on each other's toes.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Interesting.
This is really importantbecause I think, being
collaborative in this part, itcreates an entire region as a
destination, not just one place.
And then therefore you have Imean, I know so many people who
stay in Soma Bay, for example,and then hop into Guna, relax,
okay.
So now you have a destination,you brought all of this
(30:54):
experience and you createdsomething that is one of the
biggest destinations in theregion now Soma Bay.
So I want to talk now aboutNarrative Summit, because I
think it's really interesting tohost a pr summit at soma bay.
What made you decide that thiswas the place to host it and
have this summit there?
Because it's bringing peoplefrom all industries look we.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
We have a very long-standing relationship with
uh both lamia camel and ah AhmedAbid.
Rmc.
Ahmed was the person who weworked with on all those in the
early days, the concerts and themusic and the events, and so we
were always brainstorming aboutwhat do you do, what do you
(31:40):
bring, and Lamia had hernarrative which she had run a
few years earlier and she wasseeking for a destination that
will host yes and uh, and I waslike you know what?
Uh, this aligns with our vision.
We are trying to change the waypeople approach destinations
(32:01):
okay, you know development inegypt was all about resorts on
the beach right.
Yes.
What we call sun and fun.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Sun and fun.
I love that.
That's what the market's about.
That was really the only wayfor a very long time.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
You go in the morning early, put your foot on the sun
.
That was it.
It wasn't about destinations.
Guna of course, led the way withdestinations, but it was like
Egypt needs a multitude ofdestinations 100% destinations
but it was like egypt needs amultitude of destinations 100
and and so we were looking forour niche.
And soma bay has dna of adifferent kind of destination, a
(32:36):
destination that you need.
Our different design it's builton sustainability.
Uh, we're developing the firstglobal sports hub in Egypt and
now we're hosting all sorts ofevents and things that are
happening, and Egypt wassuffering from the big tourism
problems that we were having.
(32:57):
So, okay, let's talk about a newnarrative for Egypt, that idea
aligned with us, because Ibelieve Soma Bay is a new
narrative in terms of what is adestination?
Where do you want to live?
We want to make it a year-rounddestination that is conscious
about all the things we talkabout but we don't do Exactly
(33:20):
Really thinking about theenvironment.
When we started getting ourlicenses, it was quite
interesting.
The environmental authoritiesalways looked at the developer
as a violator.
We went to them and we saidpolice us.
Maybe that came from my rangerdays I changed the perspective
completely.
Speaker 1 (33:41):
I made it help us, help you basically.
And let's work together.
This is the last question Ihave for you, because I could
really talk to you for hours, sowe'll need a part two.
Okay, so nation branding Ithink essentially the work that
you've been doing with Soma Bayand kind of creating a
destination and bringing insomething like first, music and
(34:03):
art and fashion and luxury, andthen narrative summit, which is
a PR summit, bringing in peoplefrom all of those fields.
This is a form of nationbranding, kind of reshaping the
way people see Egypt as adestination.
I feel like you said or thepyramids, and that's about it,
even though there's so much more.
(34:23):
So was the nation branding partof what you were thinking about
, going back to all of yourexperience?
Speaker 2 (34:30):
definitely look, yeah , this is the problem for egypt.
Believe it or not, people stillthink, I don't know, we live in
tents or in pyramids and weride camels until today and
that's the perception of a lotof people, unfortunately.
We talk to each other so wethink everybody knows, but they
don't.
And the best experience Ialways have is when I get a
(34:52):
guest or a client who comes andsays I've come to Somabay and I
haven't even seen the pyramids,and like, wow, this is Egypt.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yes, and I would fly straight in and people don't
even think it's part of Egyptand no, we are part of Egypt.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
And, by the way, sahel is incredible and Cairo is
transformed, and look at howlife now in Egypt is totally
different to 20 years ago, ofcourse.
So how do we bring thatnarrative abroad?
How do we take any?
Let's think okay is, egypt hasa very strong brand, it's the
any we were talking.
I was talking with Lamia.
We have the pyramids, guys,every kid born on planet Earth
(35:36):
has the pyramids in theirtextbook, so the 8, 9 billion
people on the planet know us.
There's no other country likethis, by the way.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
It's true.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
But we cannot be locked into the pyramids.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Egypt is so much different.
We're I don't know now 115million people.
Probably there's 10, 15 millionabroad.
We're one of the biggestnations on earth.
Everywhere you go there'sEgyptians.
Yes.
And they're now succeeding inall sorts of fields and we have
something to say in all thefields marketing, advertising,
uh, whatever, pr anddestinations amazing.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
I honestly think you wrapped it up for us perfectly
and I'm really excited for anarrative summit to come to soma
bay, with all of the incredibleinternational individuals that
are going to be joining.
Speaker 2 (36:22):
So thank you so much, ibrahim, for your time thank
you for having me and andlooking forward to a great
summit.
Speaker 1 (36:34):
Thank you for listening.
Don't forget to follow at theCuration Pod on Instagram, as
well as at Soma Bay, red Sea, tostay updated on all of the
upcoming events, podcastepisodes and more, and I'll see
you on our next episode.
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