Abir Leheta, CEO of Egytrans: For a special Ramadan edition of our weekly My Morning Routine column that we are running through the holy month, we spoke to Abir Leheta (LinkedIn), CEO of Egytrans. We asked Leheta the usual questions to find out how a successful member of the community starts their day and threw in a few more to find out how she adjusts to Ramadan and what she looks forward to in the holy month.

My name is Abir Leheta, I’m the CEO of the Egyptian Transport and Commercial Services Company (Egytrans) and a mother to two daughters aged 18 and 23. My family has a long legacy of working in transport and logistics and Egytrans was established 50 years ago by my father, who really had a vision that the sector could be an engine to transform and facilitate business and bring in income for the economy. Today, Egytrans is an EGX-listed company in which the family still holds a minority stake.

At Egytrans’ core is freight forwarding, but we also do project logistics and work on major infrastructure projects that require heavy lifting, engineering studies, and specialized equipment, such as transporting the Siemens power plants in 2016 and 2017. Recently, Egytrans has been focusing on the renewable energy sector and has transported over 90% of the wind farms that have been built in Egypt in the past 20 years.

I studied computer science at university and didn’t initially intend to work for the family company, but my graduation coincided with the beginning of Egytrans automating its operations, leading me to work in software development. Since then, I’ve spent my career at Egytrans working within many different departments from quality and strategy to organizational development — and in 2015, I was asked to become the CEO of the company.

As CEO, my responsibilities lie within working with the executive team and board to set Egytrans’ strategy and make sure that everyone in the company is working towards that. I also focus on internal and external communication, networking, and developing the business as well as organizational development and improvement — how we can adopt new technologies, streamline our processes, or improve employee engagement.

Transport and logistics is a vibrant, changing sector with no single trend: As one of the more emission-intensive industries, I think we’ll definitely see a lot of focus on the reduction of carbon emissions moving forward, with firms considering the introduction of electric vehicles and studying the potential use of biofuels and hydrogen as energy sources. Technology will also play an increasing role in the sector, whether in the creation of digital marketplaces or the use of AI to optimize fleet operations and route planning.

Up next? Egytrans is in the process of merging with the National Transport and Overseas Services Company (NOSCO), which was approved last year. Although we acquired the company, I view it as a merger as we’re setting up new management and structures. NOSCO also focuses on land transport and project logistics, so there are many synergies between us and we are working on diversification and new investments.

Saudi expansion: We’re taking our first steps to grow regionally and are in the process of entering the Saudi market by establishing a new entity, a process that should be finished soon. Even if we are a local company, we really see ourselves becoming a regional leader and competing with the big multinational transport and logistics companies.

Sleep is sacred: My day starts between 6:30-7am, depending on how much sleep I got that night — I prioritize eight hours. I generally get up and spend time meditating, eat my breakfast, drink coffee, and then walk in the sun and do some reading. I love to walk and if I had the time, I would probably walk for hours.

My routine stays pretty much the same during Ramadan, except of course breakfast and coffee. I really love Ramadan, I tend to be more focused, awake, and productive, and it's a month to focus on work, people, and some spiritual time. During the day I often work all the way up to iftar, after which my ideal evening would be to eat some food around 10pm and then sleep from 11pm until the morning. I’m not someone who wakes up in the middle of the night to eat as it disrupts me, but then there’s a lot of social and business events that happen during Ramadan, so I don’t always manage to follow that routine.

The work week: Work begins around 9:30-10am and I divide my days between working at the office and from home where I tend to have less interruptions. I tend to collect all my meetings into two or three days during the week and work from home for tasks that require more focus. The work day comes to a close around 5-6pm.

The one constant in my day is spending time with my daughters: Even if it’s just for half an hour, we share our days and our challenges, or just have a laugh. During Ramadan, we are each following our own schedules, so iftar serves as one time we can all sit at the dining table and have one meal together.

Health and family are my personal priorities: Personally, I want to give a little bit more time and focus to aging well, my health, energy, mobility, and all the different things that allow us to lead a vibrant life, as well as supporting my daughters’ growth as they start on their own lives.

Reading and walking: I’m an audiobook addict and tend to listen to something light and entertaining as I walk in the afternoon or evening. I prefer to read business or self-development books in print so that I can mark things and make notes. I read Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen ten or eleven years ago and probably wouldn’t have been able to handle my work without it.

The best piece of advice I’ve received is a Quranic verse from Al-Baqarah that translates as “perhaps you dislike something which is good for you and like something which is bad for you. God knows and you do not know.” I think this idea really helps me to keep an even keel and not be reactive in a crisis.

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