Over a 20-year career at his family’s business, Sherif Toulan has been an actively engaged participant in both informal and formal roles. Sherif has held a number of leadership roles, including launching multiple enterprise-wide transformation initiatives, expanding the company’s core business activities and representing the company both nationally and internationally.

Before being named CEO in 2011, Sherif was IDFTA’s Business Development Director, responsible for all of the company’s sales and operations, including end-to-end management of IDFTA’s supply chain, sales activities, and service and support in all markets.

He began diversifying the family’s business into new business lines and territories and played a key role in the continued development of strategic clients and supplier relationships, ensuring flexibility in response to an increasingly demanding marketplace. Between 2000 and 2017, he successfully acquired several airport retail concessions for the company.

Sherif has also expanded the company’s business portfolio successfully establishing a wider presence in different fields, such as tobacco, food production, and trade.

He is founder and director of Global Brands, a leading FMCG distribution company. In 2013 Sherif was appointed Chairman of Heinemann Egypt, a joint venture between Global Brands and Heinemann.  During his tenure as a Board Member with Global Trading & Technology since 2013, he has organised the supply of tobacco machinery and tobacco leaves to the Egyptian and other African markets. He also co-founded Progoodness foods for healthy food manufacturing in 2019.

Sherif is the President of the Middle East & Africa Duty-Free Association with headquarters in Dubai and sits as a member on the boards of multiple organisations, including the Entrepreneurs Organisation in Cairo (EO). He is also a member of the American and German Chambers of Commerce in Egypt.

Sherif earned his EMBA from Northwestern Kellogg University and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the American University in Cairo.