Ayman Ismail ‘95, ‘97, the Abdul Latif Jameel Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship, associate professor in the Department of Management and founding director of the AUC Venture Lab, and Heba Elsewedy, founder and chair of Ahl Masr Foundation, will be speakers at AUC’s midyear commencement ceremonies. Ismail will be speaking at the graduate ceremony on February 15, and Elsewedy will be speaking at the undergraduate ceremony on February 18.

Watch all commencement speeches live here. 

Ayman Ismail

Ismail is an international expert in entrepreneurship and venture capital with a focus on economic development in the Middle East. He leads a research team that analyzes global entrepreneurship across more than 100 countries and is designing programs to promote entrepreneurship in the Middle East. 

Ismail encourages an entrepreneurial spirit in Egypt as the founding director of the AUC Venture Lab, Egypt’s first university-based startup incubator and accelerator. The Venture Lab was recognized as a high-impact university business incubator in Africa (2014) and MENA (2015) by UBI Global. Under his leadership over the past eight years, the lab has accelerated more than 250 startups, raised more than EGP 3 billion in investments collectively and created more than 8,000 jobs. 

Ismail is a former research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School and received a PhD in international economic development from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he also received a master’s degree in city planning and geographic information systems. He earned a bachelor’s in engineering and an MBA from AUC. 

Heba Elsewedy

Elsewedy founded the Ahl Masr Foundation in 2013 with the goal of treating, preventing and researching trauma and burn injuries. With a background in business and entrepreneurship, Elsewedy was inspired to begin community service work after witnessing an increased number of injuries during the events of January 25, 2011. 

Elsewedy’s foundation is the biggest nonprofit of its kind in the Middle East and Africa –– a testament to her dedication to civil service and humanitarianism. Elsewedy has helped more than 4,000 victims in Egypt and assisted families of victims from conflicts in Libya. In 2016, she began building the Ahl Masr Hospital as the first specialized nonprofit treatment and research center for burn and trauma injuries in the Middle East and Africa. 

Elsewedy holds a bachelor’s in English literature from King Abdul Aziz University and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Cape Breton University, Canada, in 2016.

“MICT has granted me opportunities in almost all fields of a successful business. Whether it is sales, supply chain, marketing, HR, or IT they all depend on analyzing data. It has given me opportunities to do internships in FMCGs such as PepsiCo, as well as the office of the Minister of Youth and Sports. The major has given me the capabilities of being a Project Manager, which requires you to understand both the business and the technical aspects of the project. I am currently a graduating senior in my last semester, and I can’t wait for the opportunities yet to come.” - Ahmed Yakout, MICT undergraduate student.

Since 2009, the AUC School of Business has been offering the Bachelor of Business Administration in Management of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) in collaboration with the AUC School of Sciences and Engineering. The program provides its students with a balanced blend between business and technology – something that the School saw as incredibly vital for the job market and the economy of this day and age.

Graduating senior Yakout recounted the story of how he ended up majoring in MICT.

“At the beginning of my journey in AUC, I declared computer science as I have been a technology and gaming fanatic since a very young age,” he began. “But, as time passed by, during my sophomore year I realized that I was also interested in business, and I wanted to explore that field, especially as AUC School of Business has the Triple Crown Accreditation and is considered among the top 1 percent of business schools in the world.”

He recalled: “I remember the day when a friend of mine, an MICT graduate, introduced me to professor Dina Rateb, one of the pioneers of the MICT major at AUC and who jointly introduced the major in the academic year 09/10. I met her at a time where I was lost in terms of what I want to do in my career and what major I wanted to study. She introduced me to the world of MICT, and I realized that it perfectly combines business administration and computer science. It made me utilize my passion for technology and start thinking of it from a business perspective, which opened for me a lot of doors and opportunities in both fields.”

Hana ElMalky, also a graduating senior majoring in MICT, shared a similar vision.

“MICT is a great major that bridges between business and computer science. It provides students with an array of diverse skills that are vital for today’s business from programming, using sophisticated programs to promote business objectives, understanding and analyzing customers and business needs, up to launching projects,” she explained. 

“I chose this major because the knowledge and skills being taught open up many opportunities in my career. I am not constrained in working in certain jobs but rather free and equipped to work in many different areas,” she underlined.

The combination of two disciplines allows the students to tap into different fields. For Hana, MICT provided her with the advantage of understanding different perspectives from both the business and the developers’ points of view.

“In one of my past internships, I had to use both my business knowledge and technical computer  skills to create a new management system for a company. At another internship, I used my business knowledge to create a marketing plan for a launch of a new product,” she told us, adding: “In terms of career, this major equips me with a sound foundation, in which I am free to explore different opportunities.”

“Technology has become a vital part of business in order to adapt and survive in the increasingly competitive market. Thus, it has become more and more important for students to have a basic understanding of technological advancement before entering the workforce,” highlighted ElMalky.

Ahmed also echoed this thought: “I believe that the MICT major is crucial in this day and age as almost all businesses rely on information systems and data analytics. Without data analytics, it is extremely difficult to make a well informed business decision, especially for big corporations.” 

“I believe that those who grasp both the business and technical aspects are those who will become the leaders of successful businesses of the future,” he concluded.

Learn more about the Management of Information and Communication Technology major at AUC School of Business here.