I am the the co-founder and CEO of the MO4 Network, one of the Middle East’s leading media companies and digital creative agencies with a portfolio that includes a diverse array of impactful news and lifestyle digital publications in both English and Arabic including CairoScene, ElFasla, CairoZoom, SceneNoise, StartupScene, SceneEats, SceneHome, SceneStyled, SceneTraveller, SceneStyled, SceneNowFuture and SceneNow. Spotlighting the people, places and movements shaping the region today, the stories produced and published by MO4’s portfolio of new media publications reach millions of readers per day across the Arab world and Arab diaspora. Meanwhile MO4 works with hundreds of the world’s leading brands including the likes of Coca-Cola, P&G, Nestle, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts (and the list goes on!) to shape their digital strategies while creating engaging, exciting and innovative market-leading content for global distribution. A mother of two, I was born and raised in the UK where I graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Business Administration from the University of Bath before moving to Egypt in 2002. I spent the first decade of my career as a writer and eventually managing editor of a leading lifestyle publication before publishing two regionally bestselling books detailing the trials and tribulations of being a young (back then!) third culture woman straddling the cultural, social and religious divide between East and West. I moved to Egypt from the UK out of a desire to tell the stories I wasn’t privy to growing up, inspiring stories that showcase and represent a side of the Middle East beyond Western-mediation. My passion evolved into a media company that acts as a powerful platform for the extraordinary people and developments that are shaping the future of the region from arts, culture, music and design to entrepreneurship and tech – and most recently the possibilities unleashed by Web3 with MO4 already working to create media for and build creative spaces in the metaverse. In the process, my partners – who happen to be my three brothers hence the name MO4 (!) – and I have created a uniquely inclusive company (of over 200 people) that celebrates differences often stigmatized in region and one that provides an empowering space for all to realize their creative potential.
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