SEKEM Board of Directors

Helmy Abouleish (Chair & Managing Director)

Mr. Helmy Abouleish (*1961) is serving as Chair of the Board and Managing Director of SEKEM. He is member of the Board of the German-Arab Chamber of Commerce, member of the Board of Trustees of the Egyptian Junior Business Association. Helmy Abouleish is also a member of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), the World Future Council, the International DEMETER Organization (IDO) and Social Entrepreneur Council (Schwab Foundation).

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Ahmed Abu Ali (Member)

Mr. Ahmed Abou Ali is a founding partner of Hassouna & Abou Ali law firm (since 1988), with a LL.M. degree from Harvard Law School (1984) and LL.B. (1980) and Diploma in Private Law (1982) from Cairo University. He practiced law in the US with Sidley Austin law firm in the banking and corporate areas (1985-1987). Acting on behalf of multinational companies and international agencies, he has expertise in the areas of banking, capital market, corporate, investment, mergers and acquisitions, project finance and restructuring, and legislative and economic reforms. He acts both as a transactional and litigator attorney.

Elfrieke van Galen (Member)

Ms. Elfrieke van Galen, LL.M, has a background in law and broad managerial experience in the logistics and service industry. She held positions as Managing Director of KLM Cityhopper and CEO of KLM UK, and as Senior Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility at KLM. Elfrieke serves on SEKEMs Corporate Governance & Remuneration Committee and currently holds a number of non-executive positions. She is also partner and co-founder of TheRockGroup.

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Heather Henyon (Member)

Ms. Heather Henyon is a socially motivated finance professional with 18 years of experience in entrepreneurship, emerging markets, angel investing, financial technology, crowd-funding, micro-finance and impact investment. Her recent responsibilities include management and/or founding roles with Athena CFO, Eureeca, Balthazar Capital, Grameen-Jameel, Dubai Angel Investors and the Women’s Angel Investor Network. She has lived and worked in the UAE, Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine. Heather’s training is from Wall Street, where she was a corporate bond ratings analyst. Heather serves on SEKEMs Audit and Risk Committee.

Jakob Müller (Member)

Dr. Jakob Müller (* 1984) is a German born economist and manager with many years of experience in the renewable energies and organic food sector. Today he is a Member of the Board of GLS Beteiligungsaktiengesellschaft with focus on equity financing and investment management. Since April 2020, he serves on SEKEM’s Board of Directors and on SEKEM’s Audit & Risk Committee.

Konstanze Abouleish, Executive Member, nominated by SEKEM

Mrs. Konstanze E. Abouleish (*1963), born in Germany, grew up in Greece and moved to Egypt in 1976. With one year interruption for final education, she has lived in Egypt and been involved in SEKEM since 1982. Since then, she has been active in SEKEMs developments, in particular in the educational initiatives, and cultural activities, as well as in NatureTex, where she has been the managing director until 2021. She is a board member of the Heliopolis University for sustainable development, and a member of SEKEMs Future Council.

Rembert Biemond (Member)

Mr. Rembert Biemond, M.Sc. (*1958) is a Dutch born management consultant and cultural entrepreneur now based in Sweden. He has hold executive positions at the Goetheanum, Switzerland, was CEO of Lehmann Natur, a major player in the field of trade, packaging and distribution of organic fruit and vegetables in Germany and managing board member of the Vidar Foundation in Sweden. He serves on SEKEMs Corporate Governance & Remuneration Committee and holds also number of non executive board positions in the field of finance and real estate but also in the field of culture, education and NGO´s.

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