Top Management

A publisher for more than 50 years, Ibrahim El Moallem is co-founder and Chairman of the Shorouk Group, one of the most successful and independent, privately-owned publishing and media companies in the region. The Shorouk group comprises several companies, covering publishing, distribution, media production, printing, packaging and paper production with a workforce exceeding 3500 employees.

• In 1968, along with his father, a long-time publisher and political activist, Ibrahim co-founded Dar El Shorouk in Cairo. This marked the Moallem family commitment to liberal, private-sector publishing, as it came in the wake of the nationalization of Shorouk’s predecessor and the detention of its owner, El Moallem senior. It was not long before Shorouk managed to acquire its reputation and set its cultural imprint in the publishing scene.
• In 1969, Ibrahim co-founded Dar El Shorouk, Beirut and then Shorouk Printing, Cairo, in 1978.
• In the 1970s, Ibrahim took the lead in acquiring the rights of a wide selection of foreign titles and publishing quality translations, thus setting a precedent and a model for respect for intellectual property rights at a time when this was still a little-understood novelty in the region. During this period, he also focused on developing high quality children’s books, a task which required the search for and development of authors and illustrators, as well as high technical production skills.
• In 1980, Ibrahim became chairman of Shorouk, Beirut, and in 1992 he became chairman of Shorouk Cairo. Under his leadership, the company experienced significant growth.
• Ibrahim led Shorouk to become the only publisher in its region to win several international publishing awards, thanks to its successful collaboration with some of the most notable authors and artists, many of whom were renowned not only for their talent, but also for their global outlook, liberal thinking, and advocacy of the confluence of cultures. Capitalizing on this success, several Shorouk titles were translated into more than 30 languages.
• In the 1990’s, Ibrahim established a company for digital publishing, another for media production, and a third for the periodicals publishing. In 2000, he launched the first Book Review magazine, to be followed in 2009 by Shorouk Newspaper, a daily “independent” in-print and online newspaper. In little over one year, it has made its mark in the public debate and gained respect, as well as considerable market share, from long-standing state-owned newspapers.
• In 2007, Shorouk Bookstores was established, to help meet the challenge of lack of distribution networks serving the trade aspects of publishing. It is now Egypt’s leading bookstore chain.
• An ardent proponent of freedom of expression and a strong advocate of intellectual property rights, through his career he has held the positions of elected President of the Egyptian Publishers Association (1996-2008), elected President of the Arab Publishers Association (1995-2007), as well as elected member of the Executive Committee of the International Publishers Association (IPA), the Freedom to Publish Committee, and elected Vice President of IPA (2008- 2015).
• As a young athlete, Ibrahim El Moallem represented Egypt in many international and regional swimming championships. He was later elected Secretary of the Swimming Federation 1980-84, he was also a member of the supreme organizing committee of the All-African Games 1992 and the chairman of the organizing committee of the 2007 centennial celebration of Al Ahli, Africa’s club of the century.