Mohamed Amer, CEO of El Gouna: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is El Gouna CEO Mohamed Amer (LinkedIn). Edited excerpts from our conversation:

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I’m Mohamed Amer, the CEO of El Gouna. I’ve held this role for the past three years. Previously, I spent over two decades at Xerox, where I most recently served as VP and Region General Manager for the Middle East and Africa before leaving London and settling here in El Gouna. Weeks ago, my role expanded beyond El Gouna. I joined the Executive Board of Orascom Development Egypt and took on the role of managing director for commercial activities. While I continue to lead El Gouna as CEO, my focus includes driving commercial growth across the group’s destinations, building on the success we’ve created in El Gouna.

I wake up around 6-6:30am and take my time making my morning coffee. I’m a bit of a coffee enthusiast — I have all the coffee-making gadgets at home. I usually take my cup of coffee outside and go for a walk around the lagoon, where I spend 10-20 minutes reading the news and going through EnterpriseAM. I then spend another 10-15 minutes in a near-meditative state where I’m not using my phone and just taking in the view and calmness of El Gouna in the morning.

I go to the gym on most days. For a year now, I’ve been trying to switch up my morning workouts. Some days I try to learn golf, other days I go horseback riding. We have a couple of stables here that let you ride along the beach.

I usually come to the office around 9am, but my workdays aren’t necessarily tied to the office. One of El Gouna’s biggest perks is that the longest commute is around 10-12 minutes. I can easily come into the office, head over to Fanadir Marina or a kite center for a meeting, come back, and carry on with work. I appreciate being able to break up my day without losing much time.

My job is partially corporate because it involves managing a company, but it’s also partly municipal. I oversee a town of 25k residents, along with its utility companies and the talent that keeps them running — that’s the most interesting part of the job to me. My primary responsibility is to make sure the town runs smoothly every day. Beyond setting the vision and strategy, aligning teams, and recruiting the right talent, I make sure we’re delivering high-quality services consistently.

One of the town’s main pillars is real estate development and sales. I visit our construction sites at least twice a week to monitor their progress. Another pillar is hospitality. The town has 18 hotels — all part of the Orascom Hotels brand — and I regularly drop by these properties to ensure we’re extending high-quality services to our guests. Then there are other town operations, which encompass 600-700 retail outlets, F&B, an airport, and a football club that competes in the Premier League, among other things. I keep an eye on all these areas to make sure they are running according to plan.

What I do after work depends on the level of energy I’m left with at the end of the day. That’s why I prefer to play sports in the morning — the evenings are unpredictable. I usually get off work around 7pm. If I have the energy, I’ll play a game of squash with a colleague or a friend. Other times, I’ll grab a bite somewhere by the marina while I enjoy the view. And if I’m low on energy, I just go home and watch TV.

My assistant helps me tremendously in organizing my day, making sure my meetings are well-structured and that I don’t leave important tasks unfinished. Without her, I don’t think I would be as efficient. I’m generally quite structured in the way I think and work, but my role involves a great amount of detail, which means some tasks must be delegated. I’m very fortunate to have a strong senior team that consistently delivers on delegated tasks.

When it comes to work-life balance, I’m lucky I live here. Work and daily life blend together naturally. Even something as simple as taking meetings outdoors helps reduce the stress of work. There’s been a global shift toward remote work since the pandemic, and El Gouna has become a magnet for people embracing that lifestyle. We have one of the fastest internet connections in the country and coworking places like GSpace. All services like hospitals, schools, and wellness centers are close and accessible. We like to flip the term and call it “life-work balance” because life takes precedence.

I think El Gouna’s next chapter will be even more exciting, and I’m really looking forward to being part of that journey. With most jobs, it typically takes two to three years before you start to feel like you’ve hit a plateau — but that’s definitely not the case here. I feel incredibly energized and motivated by the remarkable progress we’ve made and the opportunities that lie ahead. When I look at our plans, I see so much potential. El Gouna has established itself as a model on many fronts, and it’s continuing to grow beautifully.

What has helped El Gouna remain a favorite over the years — even amid shifting trends and declining purchasing power — is staying relevant to our target market. Unlike some destinations that boom for a season and then fade, we can’t afford to follow trends at our scale. We’ve taken a long-term view with a town that spans nearly 38 mn sqm. It’s a year-round destination with permanent residents, which creates stability and consistency. It’s up to us to keep the town vibrant and appealing, and I think we do that well. We’re always bringing in bigger and better events, activities, and enterprises. Because El Gouna is privately owned, we have the agility to quickly respond to our target market’s needs without the usual bureaucracy.

On a personal note, I hope the coming period brings my family closer. My kids are currently living in the US for their studies, and while I’d love for us to be reunited more often, it’s a bit of a challenge since they’re planning to stay there.

I listen to a variety of podcasts, especially ones about wellness, but I also enjoy podcasts that discuss far-ranging topics like The Joe Rogan Experience, which is one of the most popular ones globally. I’m also into The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast ; I like the way Peterson thinks even if he’s a little bit controversial. I just started a book called Human Compatible by Stuart Russel, which explores how we might coexist with AI — it’s a really thought-provoking read. One of my all-time favorite books is The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb.

The single best piece of advice I’ve received is that what’s right isn’t necessarily what’s wise, and timing is extremely important. Early in my career, I treated everything as equally important and fought for perfection in every detail. That changed when a mentor, who gave me my first managerial role and played a major role in my career, taught me otherwise. Passing on the insight, I now often tell others “context is for kings” — it’s become my favorite saying.

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