The CEO-HR Partnership: People & Culture Meetup
Join us for our first meetup as humns. Community, and our final event of the year for the People & Culture space!
People & Culture is no longer a support function on the sidelines. It sits at the center of how companies build teams, engage their people, and keep their best talent, and it’s being asked to deliver real business impact.
That’s why we’re bringing the community together for a day built around three conversations: a talk on turning Internal Communications from fun activities into a strategic driver of purpose and performance, and a session on retaining top talent in a borderless, remote-first market, and a closing panel with two CHROs and a CEO on who really builds the team. And as always, plenty of space for genuine networking.
Details
Location: Kamelizer Spaces, District 5, New Cairo.
Date: Saturday, November 28th, 2026
Time: 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Agenda
Registrations & Networking
humns. Community & Antal Welcome Note
Beyond Engagement: Connecting People to Purpose
by Mahmoud Abdelhamid, Regional Senior Manager, Internal Communications & Employer Branding at MAGRABiRetaining Talent in a Borderless Market
by Ahmed Saleh, Managing Partner MEA at Antal InternationalPanel Discussion: The CEO-HR Partnership: Who Really Builds the Team?
- Moderator | Ahmed Safwat, Regional Snr. Director, People & Culture at Geidea
- Panelist | Sherif Amin, General Manager & CEO at GSK
- Panelist | Walid Tayel, Group CHRO at Elsewedy Electric
- Panelist | TBA
(Full agenda will be shared with all attendees later)
Follow our LinkedIn Page for all speakers and talk announcements!
Registration
Attendance is free. However, there are limited seats available, and to keep the event focused and relevant for everyone attending, registrations are subject to approval.
If the event is full, you can sign up for the waitlist, and you'll be notified when a spot is open!
Please make sure to CANCEL your ticket if you can't attend anymore so that someone else can join instead. If you didn't show up and didn't cancel your ticket, we'll unfortunately have to block you from attending the next event.
Speakers
Sherif Amin is Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of GSK Egypt. He joined in April 2026, returning to the company where he started his career in Kuwait. He brings more than 20 years of pharmaceutical experience, including 15 years in leadership roles across the Middle East and Africa.
Before GSK, Sherif spent many years at Novartis. He served as President for Levant & Iran and as Country President for Egypt, leading one of the company’s largest regional operations. Earlier, he held senior oncology roles across MEA and launched innovative cancer therapies throughout the Gulf and North Africa.
His work has earned awards including the Oncology President Award and the CEO Innovation Award. He has also chaired the Pharma Group of the Egyptian Foundation for Pharmaceutical Research.
Walid Tayel is Group Chief Human Resources Officer at ElSewedy Electric. Since 2021 he has led HR for more than 30,000 employees of 52 nationalities, spread across 7 business sectors and 37 manufacturing facilities. He is a member of the Group Executive Committee and sits on several subsidiary boards.
Over 27 years, Walid has worked across FMCG, energy, banking, education, and government in North Africa, the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Western Europe. His previous roles include Global HR Director for Supply Chain at Unilever and Executive Board member at Olympic Group. He sees HR as a value creator that is accountable for growth and profitability. He leads ElSewedy’s AI-powered HR agenda on the belief that AI will unlock people’s potential rather than replace them.
He is a TEDx speaker and holds master’s degrees in financial management and human resources from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Ahmed is Regional HR Senior Director at Geidea. They lead strategic people initiatives and build an inclusive, high-performance culture at one of the region’s leading fintech companies.
Over more than two decades, Ahmed has worked with global organizations including PepsiCo, Barclays, IBM, and Cargill. Their expertise covers talent acquisition, employee engagement, leadership development, total rewards, and culture and change management. They have consistently delivered HR solutions closely tied to business goals.
He's passionate about creating environments where employees don’t just succeed but thrive, and about keeping people at the heart of Geidea’s mission to empower businesses through technology.
Mahmoud is the Regional Senior Manager of Internal Communications & Employer Branding at MAGRABI Retail, bringing over 15 years of experience across the government, telecommunications, and retail sectors.
Prior to joining MAGRABI Retail, he spent over nine years at Orange Egypt, where he progressed through several leadership roles.
Throughout his career, he has led strategic initiatives focused on shaping organizational culture, strengthening internal communications, driving employee engagement, and building authentic employer brands that create meaningful connections between people and their organizations.
Ahmed is the Regional Managing Partner for the Middle East and Africa at Antal, the international executive search and HR consulting firm. He leads teams in Cairo and Dubai.
Ahmed brings more than 25 years of multinational experience across pharmaceuticals, life sciences, entertainment, pay TV, and executive search. He began his search career at Antal’s London headquarters 17 years ago. Since then, he has helped thousands of professionals across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa take their next career step.
Today, he partners with more than 500 multinational and leading local clients. He specializes in C-suite executive search, executive career coaching, outplacement, and talent mapping.
This event is sponsored by Antal International.