Speaker Presentation: Sabah Hamamou

Sabah Hamamou is deputy business editor at the Egyption newspaper Al-Ahram. She started her career, in 1994, as a general assignment trainee reporter at one of Al-Ahram publications, the monthly Al-Shabab magazine, while at the same time attending Cairo University .

After Hamamou obtained a BA in Arabic and literature in 1997, she decided to dedicate her career to news media, in addition to working for Al-Shabab, she began to write pieces for the Saudi Al-Jazeera, a world famous daily newspaper, the Emirati Al-Maraa Al-Youm, an independent weekly magazine, the Egyptian Al-Qahira, a government owned weekly newspaper, as well as other publications.

The turning point in Hamamou's career came in 2003, when she was offered a permanent position at Al-Ahram daily newspaper, as a staff writer in the business section. Despite having no previous experience in business journalism Hamamou decided to accept the challenge, for she strongly believes in the crucial role that serious and dedicated business reporters can play in shaping their countries' future, particularly for countries undergoing economic transition.

In 2005, after spending over ten years reporting in the Arabic language, Hamamou decided to accept a new challenge: She began to write in English, and her English language articles have been published in Cairo Magazine,Cairo Magazine, an independent weekly publication, The Daily News Egypt, and Al-Ahram Weekly.

Hamamou has been chosen to represent Al Ahram as well as Egyptian journalism on the international level, and has received several awards and fellowships for her work in journalism, including:

Best Journalist Certificate of Merit from Al- Ahram Regional Institute For Journalism, 2003.

Middle East and North Africa Media Fellowship from Northwestern University, 2006.

Knight Wallace Fellowship, University of Michigan, in 2010, Hamamou was the first Egyptian journalist to be awarded this prestigious Fellowship.