Abdelhameed El-Wakeel

University of Manchester’s Alliance Manchester Business School

Hometown: Alexandria, Egypt

Fun Fact About Yourself: My first half marathon was by the river Nile in Aswan. It was just a few Kilometres away from the iconic Pharaonic temple of Philae.

Undergraduate School and Major: Alexandria University, B.Sc. Electrical Engineering

Most Recent Employer and Job Title:  Engineering & Projects Manager, Henkel

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of Alliance Manchester’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school? Why was it so important to you? The selection of the AMBS MBA program was an obvious choice for me. An MBA for me is not just about the academics. It is also about having a practical simulation of the business world and knowing that the school applies the concept of “learning by doing” made me sure that I would fulfil what I want.

This was demonstrated once I started the program by being exposed to a number of consultancy group projects that AMBS facilitates. Embracing a perfect model through which I was able to understand new types of industries and business models enabled me use my transferable skills from other industries on those projects.

I had the opportunity to start from the first day of the MBA journey to be on client-faced consultancies, addressing complex business issues, and making sure to deliver impactful business results. This was a perfect and exhilarating experience that is not provided by many business schools – especially with it being done with diverse, multicultural groups whose various backgrounds make it a 360 degree learning experience.

What club or extracurricular activity excites you most at this school? Being a part of the Alliance Manchester Business School MBA has provided me with access and exposure to different clubs such as consulting and finance. This for me was an eye-opener to new parts of the business that I had minimum contact with before.

However, the best part of the extracurricular activities for me is being a part of the Pharma and Retail Club as the VP of Alumni events. Being able to connect with alumni and organizing events at which they are able to share their experience and advice for different sectors and industries is an amazing experience. Being able to facilitate those events for the whole class is truly exciting!

The experiences that this great network of international alumni shares in their talks are remarkable. I find it truly sensational that, although they have graduated, they still have the passion to network with the new class and share their advice for the future that is yet to come for us!

What makes Manchester such a great place to earn an MBA? How have you taken advantage of Manchester to further your business education? Having been in the UK twice before joining my MBA, I was amazed by Manchester as a city, how it is a true representation of diversity and how it’s at a central part of the UK that’s close to all cities here. Also, as a football fan, I loved how the city has two of the biggest football clubs in the world.

On the business side, Manchester has an industrial heritage and a thriving start-up innovation culture. It has a very high rate of startup businesses per capita in the UK, which makes it a very important potential business hub. For me personally, whether it is the business side or its people, I find this city as an incredible place to study.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far? My career’s biggest accomplishment was at SC Johnson, where my first assignment as the site engineering head at the age of 27. Here, I was assigned to lead various projects affecting the site strategy and it was expected to be delivered in a very short duration. I will be forever thankful to this incredible team and supportive managers.

I suppose I was very fortunate with the amazing teams and managers I had through my journey and thankful for all the other opportunities I received during it.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career?  I had the opportunity to work in three of the leading companies in the FMCG industry in the past seven years. I got the chance to explore operations, supply chain, and site projects within the sector. Nevertheless, being part of this consumer-focused industry has always intrigued me in the business from an end-to-end perspective. I wanted to better understand the “why factor” of the business decisions and the strategic and tactical impact of the decisions. This curiosity has made it a standing ambition of mine to do an MBA and move into a more international career.

I believe having an MBA – especially during this critical time of COVID-19 – will boost my career forward. With the high calibre of clients I am dealing with in the consultancy projects, I am gaining new adaptability in a variety of industries and fields. I am looking into the client challenges through different lenses and apply a strategic approach to find an optimal result. This is helping me gain the all-around business experience that I was always looking for.

What was your defining moment and how did it prepare you for business school? My defining moment was when I joined Unilever at the start of my career in 2013. As I come from a technical background, the business side was easily missed. However, joining the operations with such a great company gave me exposure to the numbers, made me understand the factors affecting the cost of each product, and directed me to understand how each action can affect the customer. This, in turn, made me more customer-centric.

From this moment, I was captivated by the strategic side of the business world. I find that one of the most rewarding things of being part of this MBA program in Alliance Manchester Business School is that I am able to capture this strategic side in the other industries as well.

DON’T MISS: MEET ALLIANCE MANCHESTER’S MBA CLASS OF 2022