Mr. Omar Islam Shalaby

A serial entrepreneur and an avid investor in diverse businesses mainly in travel, aviation, airport
services, cargo, logistics, food & beverage & real estate investments (private family fund).
Omar Joined his family-owned business group in 1990 right after he graduated from the American
university in Cairo, he started training at the Aviation company which was the largest exclusive G.S.A
for airline representations in the territory of Egypt for legacy carriers like United Airlines, Gulf Air,
Malaysian Airlines, Turkish Airlines, and many more. A few months later Omar moved to the Travel
Business company and was placed at the Corporate incentives department which gave him a good
exposure and great contacts within the business community having to deal daily with the largest
cooperations in town.
1992 food import was finally allowed into Egypt; Omar was one of the pioneers in importing luxury
food brands and was successful in acquiring the exclusive distribution rights to represent some of the
world mega organizations within the F&B industry for instance; Hershey, Haribo, Tabasco, Keebler, Hunt
Wesson, segafredo Zanetti coffee and succeeded to represent the rights of distribution for exclusively
around 20 international brands within 12 months covering the territory of Egypt.
1994 Added a new division for Inbound Tourism and was able to acquire the majority of the newly
opened Scandinavia market directed to new destinations at that time Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh
with Charter Flights from Europe representing the newly launched Maersk Airlines owns by the largest
Shipping Company in the World with 4 flights a week and it was a great success .
1997 Trianon was introduced, as the first Cafe, Brasserie & Bakery franchise in Egypt opening outside a 5
stars Hotels. Trianon was considered a national treasure in Denmark having been appointed to the
Royal Danish Crown since early sixteen centuries. The transaction was the 1st deal for DANIDA in Egypt
for transfer of knowledge, knowhow, environmental protection implementation in a factory and women
empowerment and protection on the Job.
2000 Omar opened his 5 stars Hotel (Sheraton Royal Gardens) the hotel that his father started building
but unfortunately passed away 2 years before completion , it was the first privately owned Sheraton
Hotel in Egypt by an Egyptian family since all other Sheratons where government or gulf conglomerate
owned properties at the time .The Hotel has been the 1st 5 stars where true international Luxury
Dinning experience was introduced for the 1st time in Egypt way a decade before any current hotel
implements it in the recent years with Trader Vic’s ( the renown San Francisco high end casual dining
brand and Izakaya of San Francisco (first Sushi brand in the country at that time 1999) and Senior PICO
Mexican Grill All at the Sheraton Royal Gardens luxury hotel built on 4 acres around the villa of Youssef
Wahbi the founder of the Egyptian theatre early 1950’s .
2002-2010 Omar concentrated on growing the food franchise business and introduced the famous
Hollywood brand “ The Coffee bean & Tea Leaf” , “Popeyes Fried Chicken” & ”Carnivor the famous
Kenyan Steak concept “ “ Tamarind seafood from Mombasa”, “Orchid Thai” and acquired “Segafredo
Zanetti” chain in Egypt to grow COFFEE BEAN & TEA LEAF fast , and reached to nearly 100 stores and
2000 employees including a state of the art Bakery & Confectionary Factory integrated with a central
kitchen and managed by Danish expertise to ensure top quality products .
In parallel , Omar continued growing the business that he inherited from his father ( Imperial Travel
Center ) which was specialized in the Airline sector and was mainly representing 5 Airlines as exclusive
GSA in Egypt ( Gulf Air , United Airlines , Air Canada , Turkish Airlines & Malaysian Airlines ) and double it
to more than 8 Airlines adding regional low cost carriers to the legacy carriers .
2002 Omar & a friend cofounded YPO (Young President Organization) in Egypt and Omar was appointee
the 1st Egyptian on the international board, 2006 he successfully chaired the Mena retreat hosted by his
HRH Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashed with 360 mega investors.
2006 IAS Imperial aviation services was launched big with more than 80 flights a week serving 5 airports
nationwide and also launched same year (Imperial Cargo Company) handling the 1st Cargo freighter
between Egypt & Turkey with 70 tones capacity besides handling Gulf Air and Malaysian Airlines Cargo.
2011 days before the EGYPTIAN revolution ITC Group employed around 3500 People and Business was
thriving on all levels.
After the revolution Jan 2011, ITC Group scaled down on all levels and exited the Real estate
development from Maras Allam development Company where it was owning 28% from the mega
Development with Kharafi Group, also exited the Hotel Business and Sold Sheraton Royal Gardens to
MBS and closed the Trader Vices and Exited the majority of Food Retail to Citadel Capital Mainly Trianon
cutting its debt ratio to zero and working from its cash reserves as a new strategy anticipating rough
waters to come and ensuring sustainability and standing on solid grounds which has proven prudent by
time .