Home lists Top 100 most powerful Arabs 2022 Karim Awad Group CEO and chairman of the Executive Committee, EFG Hermes Holding Origin: Egypt Residence: Egypt Sector: Finance Awad, who started his career 24 years ago with EFG, has risen to the top to become a board member. He became group CEO in 2013 and undertook a massive restructuring of the firm, an exercise whose outcome is evident considering it reported a net profit in 2021 after tax and minority interest of EGP1.5bn, a 12 per rise cent year-on-year. It is figures such as these which has led the UAE’s First Abu Dhabi Bank to make an offer to buy a controlling stake in Egypt’s biggest investment bank. With Awad at the helm, EFG has earned itself a position as a leading adviser on initial public offerings across the region, and even entered Egypt’s commercial banking sector last year with a 51 per cent acquisition in Arab Investment Bank (aiBank).