Helmy Abouleish was born in Austria, came as teenager to Egypt, is married and has 4 grown-up daughters. He studied Business Administration, Marketing and Finance and has been Managing Director and Vice Chairman of the SEKEM Group for 16 years. He is (co-) founder of many organizations and has been or still is
serving on 29 boards including the IFOAM Mediterranean and Anglophone African Group.
Helmy Abouleish is a most competent and brilliant speaker and is therefore in high demand worldwide. Besides talking at the UN , FAO and UN DP he
meets with world leaders and promotes the organic and sustainable agenda all around the world. Recently, he was invited to a presidential conference with US President Obama and a meeting with Prince Charles on sustainability and organic agriculture.
Some years ago,
Sekem has been recognized as
“Outstanding Social Entrepreneur” by the Schwab Foundation in Davos and was awarded the Right Livelihood Award. Helmy Abouleish describes his personal mission: “To raise awareness for the urgency of a more sustainable development path in Egypt and around the world; to lobby for related policy changes, and to drive and support initiatives for sustainable development both in the public and private sector”. SEKEM was founded 33 years ago by Ibrahim Abouleish, Helmy’s father,
as a small, bio-dynamic farm on the edge of the Sinai desert. Today, the farm totals more than 500 hectares. Every work day starts with a morning circle where the different work teams, companies and schools come together greeting each other and getting inspiration from a “text of the day” while holding hands.