zenithTALK Cairo

Mona El Sayed is a social entrepreneur and Fair Trade expert with a background in marketing and finance. She studied Business Administration and started a career in finance, then 16 years ago used her education and work experience to make a shift to the development sector.

For the last 14 years, she has been managing Egypt’s first Fair Trade organisation. Throughout this time, she has put all her effort and energy into trying to positively influence the economic, social and cultural conditions of the thousands of Egyptian artisans she has worked with through Fair Trade Egypt.

Although serious about the success and sustainability of the business and trade she manages, El Sayed is passionate about her work having a positive social impact rather than simply being a means to maximise profit. The challenges she has faced, and there have been many, have only driven her to strive harder to sustain, develop and expand her work.

El Sayed has been a World Fair Trade Organisation board director for six years, elected twice as both the first North African and the first Arab to hold this position. She is among the most active African members and is an initiator of the Fair Trade movement on the Arab level.