Neveen Omran El Shafei was appointed Vice Chairman of GAFI in charge of Policy Advocacy and Economic Performance in September 2005, after acting as investor relations advisor to the Chairman.

Ms. El Shafei brings nearly twenty years of investment and commercial banking experience to her role as Vice Chairman. Prior to GAFI, Ms. El Shafei was Executive Director of Corporate Finance at Fleming CIIC, a joint venture investment bank. Operating within the newly formed Investment Banking joint venture between CIIC and Flemings, UK, Ms. El Shafei headed the Corporate Finance Private Sector Team. Among the main assignments conducted was the US$ 10m acquisition deal of Menanet by Africa Online, the largest Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the area of Sub-Saharan Africa in December 2000.

She previously spent ten years as an investment / corporate banker at Commercial International Bank (CIB), where, among other responsibilities, she took an active role in participating in Egypt’s privatization program. This covered valuation assignments on behalf of corporate clients in various industries in addition to several proposals for CIB equity investments in local companies. In 1996, she acted as key coordinator in CIB's Global Depository Receipt (GDR) offer of $120m, representing 20% of CIB equity. The GDR represented the first GDR transaction in Egypt and was completed in July 1996.

Born in New York, Ms El Shafei is a graduate of the American University in Cairo and has been trained in the Chase Manhattan Credit Training Program. She speaks English, French, and Arabic.