Against All Odds: Fatma Ghaly, CEO, Azza Fahmy Jewellery "Every few years, some crisis will happen, but it is how you handle them, and how you adjust to new circumstances that matters."
By Entrepreneur Middle East Staff Edited by Tamara Pupic
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Fatma Ghaly, CEO of Azza Fahmy Jewellery, recently appeared as a guest on the Entrepreneur Middle East Live webinar series, Against All Odds, to offer a glimpse into how she helped turn her homegrown Egyptian brand into an international luxury designer jewellery house that today employs over 250 people.
"One of the biggest achievements for me is Azza Fahmy Jewellery today being recognized as a leading jewelry brand out of the Middle East," Ghaly said. "Another thing that I was very proud of was when we opened our shop in London, because it had been our dream for a long time to establish Azza Fahmy beyond the Middle East. Last but not the least, I am proud of our team and culture in the company, because I truly believe that if we didn't have this spirit in the company, we wouldn't have been able to achieve any of our targets."
Ghaly's enterprise came into being when her mother, Azza Fahmy, set out in 1969 to design jewellery collections that would, years later, count world leaders, royalty, celebrities, and jewellery connoisseurs among its clients. When asked about the biggest challenges she had faced along the business' trajectory, Ghaly replied, "Two major crises that we faced was the Egyptian Uprising, which was a very turbulent time from 2011 to 2013, and the COVID-19 crisis in 2020. For me personally, COVID-19 was tougher than the revolution, but because we had built strong business structure, team, and culture, we had been able to overcome all of these. Every few years, some crisis will happen, but it is how you handle them, and how you adjust to new circumstances that matters."
Check out the full video for more highlights from our conversation with Ghaly!
