Azzam to head new four-year FRA board through 2030

The Financial Regulatory Authority’s (FRA) board has been reconstituted for a four-year term running October 2026 to October 2030, keeping Chairman Islam Azzam (LinkedIn) at the helm, according to a decree by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly. Azzam is joined by two vice chairs, Mohamed Al Sayyad (LinkedIn) and Tarek Seif (LinkedIn), and one of the Central Bank’s two deputy governors, to be chosen by the governor.

Five outside experts round out the board:

• Mohamed Sami Abdelsadek (LinkedIn), president of Cairo University;
• Mohamed Awad (LinkedIn), CEO of the General Authority for Investment and Freezones (Gafi);
• Ehab Abdel Rahman (LinkedIn), provost of the American University in Cairo (AUC);
• Jasmin Fouad (LinkedIn), professor of finance at AUC;
• Amany Samir Abdel Fattah, a banking expert specializing in credit and investment.

Why it matters: The four-year term hands Azzam a stable runway through 2030 to carry out the FRA’s busiest rulemaking stretch in years, including the short-selling framework, the pending market-maker mechanism, and the newly launched derivatives and hedge fund rules. Azzam already sits on almost every government body that engages the private sector — Gafi’s board, the Cabinet’s Economic Group, and the Ministerial Committee for Entrepreneurship — alongside his Iosco vice-chair seat. Gafi’s CEO now takes a seat on his board, mirroring that overlap.

Concrete Fashion Group appointed former Investment and Foreign Trade Minister Hassan El-Khatib as an independent board member, according to a company statement. El-Khatib brings more than three decades across investment, private equity, infrastructure, and public policy. He established and led the EBRD Equity Group’s investment platform across 38 countries, chaired the Sovereign Fund of Egypt, and held senior roles at The Carlyle Group and EFG Hermes Private Equity.