Shamel Aboul Fadl
Founder and Chairman
In 2010, Shamel Aboul Fadl founded Compass and grew the company to become one of the leading private equity firms in Egypt. Prior to establishing Compass, Shamel Aboul Fadl was a Managing Partner at Pharos Holding, which he helped transform from a boutique investment firm into a full-fledged investment bank. During his tenure at Pharos Holding, Mr. Aboul Fadl launched Pharos Asset Management, where he served as Chief Executive Officer. In 2005, he co-founded Paragon Asset Management, an independent asset manager headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland with AUMs of USD 950 million. Previously, Mr. Aboul Fadl worked with Citigroup in Geneva as Vice President, where he was mandated to grow assets under management with a focus on Egypt and the wider North Africa region. Mr. Aboul Fadl started his career in 1999 with Mansour-Maghraby Investment and Development Company where he specialized in Telecom and IT investments.
Mr. Aboul Fadl holds a B.Sc. in Construction Engineering from the American University in Cairo and an MBA from The Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania.
Tarek Abdel Rahman
Managing Partner
Prior to joining Compass in 2018, Mr. Abdel Rahman was the Chief Executive Officer of Palm Hills Development where he led the successful turnaround of the company. Prior to Palm Hills, Mr. Abdel Rahman spent over 20 years within the financial sector. He was a founding partner of Akanar Partners, currently Arqaam Egypt, which is a dedicated corporate finance and M&A advisory firm having served as its Managing Director. Mr. Abdel-Rahman also held the post of Director and Co-Head of Beltone Investment Banking and was an Associate in the infrastructure and energy finance department with Citigroup based out of London. Prior to that, he held key posts with EFG Hermes Private Equity and the Corporate Banking department of HSBC Egypt, where he had begun his career.
He holds a BA in Business Administration from the American University in Cairo and an MBA from London Business School.
Dr. Mohamed Farouk
Non-Executive Partner
Dr. Farouk is Chief Executive of ADES, a Tadawul-listed Egyptian oil and gas company that provides offshore and onshore drilling services for the MENA region, and has been a member of its board since inception in 2012. During his time with ADES, he led its expansion into new markets and services, transforming ADES into a leading international rig operator. Dr. Farouk joined the Group from Invensys Operations Management (IOM), a FTSE 100 company, where he was most recently senior vice president for global delivery and operations based in Texas. He served earlier with Invensys as Director of Invensys Global Engineering Excellence Centres in Egypt, India, China and Argentina, prior to which he was the General Manager of Invensys Engineering and Services in Egypt. He began his career in 1991 as a Project Engineer at ConiSys Egypt, a provider of control and instrumentation systems technology.
Dr. Farouk holds a Bachelor of Science and a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University. Dr. Farouk completed his Ph.D. in Systems Engineering and Control at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio.
Ayman Abbas
Non-Executive Partner
Mr. Abbas is Founding Chairman of ADES, a Tadawul-listed oil services company he founded and played a key role in transforming it into a regional player. He has held managerial positions within the oil and gas industry since 1998, where he co-founded and served as managing director and board member of the Egyptian Chinese Drilling Company (ECDC). Mr. Abbas also founded Advansys Systems, a group focusing on the provision of solutions for the oil and gas industry. Beyond oil and gas, Mr. Abbas has led investments in industries including real estate, trade and commercial representation, food and agriculture, and automation engineering.
Mr. Abbas holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts and Mass Communications from the American University in Cairo.
Karim Zahran
Non-Executive Partner
Mr. Zahran is the Chief Executive Officer of Zahran Group, a diversified group with interests in supermarket retail chain and importer of household goods. He spearheaded the restructuring and positioning of Zahran in the Egyptian market. Prior to that, he served as a private equity director at Compass Capital. Mr. Zahran has held roles with HSBC Securities in New York where he focused on US based hedge funds and mutual funds investing in the EMEA region.
Mr. Zahran holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance and a B.A. in Economics from Boston University
Yasser El Halabi
Mr. El Halabi has 15 years of experience in the financial services industry, including investment banking, private and public equity investments and structured finance.
Prior to joining Compass, Mr. El Halabi served as the Enterprise Finance Director at Contact Financial Holding, as well as head of corporate development at Kleiner Perkins-backed, DIFC HQed, Rain Financial.Mr. El Halabi spent most of his career in New York, as an investment banker at Jefferies where he advised companies on M&A, debt financing, equity offerings and restructurings, and as a principal investor at two equity funds, Juniper Investment Company and Moon Capital.
He has a Bachelor of Arts from Princeton University and is a CFA Charterholder.
Ahmed Hussein
Ahmed is the Co-CEO & CIO of C3 Capital, Compass’ onshore private ownership investment Fund, joint venture with CI Capital. Prior to which he was a director of private equity at Compass Capital with over 14 years of experience in the fields of Private Equity, Investments and Banking. He led multiple M&A advisory transactions for the firm as well as third parties, with a combined value of over EGP 25 bn. Prior to joining Compass, Mr. Hussein held posts in Arab Bank plc. including Deputy Treasurer, Head of Capital Markets Desk, Head of Foreign Exchange Desk and partook in the Bank’s Management Committee.
He holds a BA in Finance and MBA with concentration in Finance both from the American University in Cairo and is a certified ACI dealer.
Fady Rafaat
Prior to joining Compass in 2018. Mr. Rafaat worked as an Investment Banking Analyst at CI Capital Holding where he worked on several buy-side and sell-side Merger & Acquisition and Equity Capital Markets transactions across various industries. He was an adviser to CI Capital on its EGP 1.7 bn Initial Public Offering and to Dr. Oetker, a leading German F&B Player, on the acquisition of Tag El Melouk, one of the leading Egyptian F&B players.
Mr. Raafat holds an B.Sc. in Finance, Accounting and Management from the University of Nottingham and a M.Sc. in Finance from Hult International Business School.
Joseph George
Mr. George covers Alternative Investments and M&A advisory.
Previously was a VP at Masar where he advised on several M&A, project finance, and DCM mandates. Prior to that he was part of the investment banking teams at Sigma Capital and Cairo Financial Holding.
Mr. George holds a BA in Economics from Fordham University in New York and has successfully completed the Banking Credit and Risk Management Professional Diploma from The American University in Cairo.
Michael Hebeish
Prior to joining Compass, Mr. Hebeish was a Senior Analyst at MASAR for Economic and Financial Advisory where he worked on Project Finance, Debt and M&A transactions across numerous industries including IT Infrastructure, Real Estate, Hospitality and FMCG.
Mr. Hebeish holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of South Florida.
Ahmed Emad
Mr. Emad has worked on several acquisitions of multiple real estate assets to enhance the Compass real estate portofolio, while overseing a multibillion real estate portfolio. In addition, he has worked on several PE and M&A Transaction. Prior to his post at Compass Capital, he was the Business Development Manager at Redcon Construction, where he was the strategic advisor to the board, maintained relations with over 50 recurring clients and exceeded the required KPIs of over EGP 8 bn turnover for the company.
Mr. Emad holds a Bsc in Construction Management from the American University in Cairo and has succesfully passed level 1 in CFA.
Ramzy Abdelrahman
Mr. Abdelrahman joined Compass as an analyst. Prior to that he worked as an investment banking analyst at Beltone Financial Holding where he worked on mergers & acquisitions, debt capital markets, as well as equity capital market deals across multiple industries.
Mr. Abdelrahman holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois
Karim Aboul Fadl
Mr. Aboul Fadl joined Compass as an analyst. Before joining Compass, he worked in the investment banking department at EFG Hermes. During his tenure at EFG Hermes, he actively participated in mergers & acquisitions and equity capital market deals across diverse industries.
Mr. Aboul Fadl holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from the University of Surrey and successfully completed the EFG Hermes Investment Banking Program in 2022.
Sarah El Shahed
Sarah is the CFO of Compass Capital. She successfully headed the sellside and buyside advisory transactions of the Alfa Medical and Bariq M&A transactions, respectively. Ms. El Shahed was also a dynamic contributor to the consortium that managed the acquisition of Rameda, worked closely with management on the company’s transformation and was on the advisory team for Rameda’s IPO on the EGX. Prior to joining Compass, Ms. El Shahed worked at Pharos Holding, where she played a vital role in setting up the asset management division and contributed to capital raising during the first year of operation.
Ms. El Shahed holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the American University in Cairo.
Mohamed Helmy
Mr. Helmy is a seasoned financier with over 20 years’ experience in financial services across the region. His focus is relationship management and advising for private clients, Institutions and family offices. Prior to joining Compass, Mr. Helmy amassed years of experience in International Wealth Management as VP at Credit Suisse and Deputy GM at BM off-shore UAE arm. Previously he was managing the sell-side foreign business desk at HCSI, Business Development Manager for GCC clients at EFG-Hermes and previously to that Head Trader of the International Equities Desk at EFG-Hermes.
Mr. Helmy holds an MBA in Finance and Banking from Maastricht School of Management, a BA in marketing and communications from AUC and is a certified DIFX trading manager.