MANAGEMENT
Samia Farid Shihata, Chairman
What can I say? I returned to Egypt after 20 years in Washington DC, thinking it was time for me to retire and take it easy. Little did I know I would be swept away into the eniGma magic! Yasmine, the dynamo behind the magazine and all its offshoots, cleverly gradually drew me into eniGma’s world and of course, she knew I would become addicted. I became addicted to watching an amazing group of talented Egyptians who are determined, day in and day out, to give it their all! Just being around this amazing team makes you confident that the future is bright for our beloved Egypt. The eniGma team shows how much you can achieve when you are dedicated, willing to take risks, ready to take the initiative and are always innovating. They are really unstoppable, no matter what the odds. I salute every one of them for the achievements of the past 15 years and am confident that the best is yet to come!
Mohamed Abdel Moneim, Chief Operating Officer
Understandably the last few years have been some of the most difficult in the magazine’s history. During this period, my main priority was to keep people motivated and provide them with the right incentives to keep up the good work and at the same time not raise our costs. This is obviously something I couldn’t achieve alone; cooperation is a very big part of our success.
While magazines everywhere were getting shutdown in 2013 we decided to take a risk by launching yet another magazine in Arabic, eniGma Star magazine. We also focused more on our PR division by taking on more clients and we started to increase our distribution in the Gulf and around the Middle East. At the end of the day, a hardworking and talented team can really shine during hard times.
EDITORIAL
Omnia Zaied, Deputy Editor
2010 was a great, we had a lot of great interviews and exclusive shoots and we held our 10th anniversary party which was one of the biggest events Egypt had ever witnessed. We were on top of our game and we were looking forward to 2011. Yet the revolution took place and changed all our plans. It was very difficult for us to ignore what was going on and go ahead with our regular editorial plans. In the few issues following the revolution we tried to show the true essence of Egypt, we interviewed inspirational people who were making a difference like Naguib Sawiris, Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh and Yosri Fouda. All while slowly trying to incorporate some of our lighter features to keep our readers positive and happy.
The journey wasn’t easy, but I am looking forward to a new year with new challenges and I know I am going to be ready to face them all because of the amazing’s hardworking and super talented team.
DESIGN
Ehab Magdy, Creative Director
In tough times, it is ever more important to be as innovative as possible in terms of design. We took up the challenge of the revolution and gave the magazine a facelift, with sleeker and more modern designs that immediately drew our readers’ attention. We continue to follow international design trends to keep things fresh. Innovation and the constant quest to produce original work keeps the eniGma design team motivated and excited to produce a beautiful issue every month.
ENIGMA SHOPPING
Hend Safie El Din, Online Store Manager
When we first launched the enigmashopping.com in September 2012, we knew we had some challenges ahead. None of us had any experience with e-commerce or web design so it turned into a fantastic learning experience for all of us. Through a series of trials and errors, we ultimately created an online shopping portal that befits the readers and clientele of eniGma magazine. It was a brave and risky decision to start this project in the aftermath of the revolution but we’re very happy with the results.
The fact that we had fashion and lifestyle credentials allowed us to be on-trend and provide useful insights to our customers. And like any successful team, part of our strength lay in the fact that we always worked together as a team, divideding the work between us while supporting each other all the way.
ADVERTISING
Aya Soliman, Advertising Manager
I started working at the magazine just a few months after the revolution and the situation in the country was very unstable. A lot of clients felt that people would no longer be interested in reading magazines. But thankfully over time we managed to prove that this was not the case.
We offered clients new and creative ways to advertise with us. We devoted more space to advertorials, and devised new ways to incorporate our clients’ brands in attractive features, online videos, editorial guides and engaging fashion and beauty pages. We also provided our clients with comprehensive marketing solutions that involved the new social media tools. We are pleased that through innovation and perseverance we managed to stay ahead and maintain our strong relationship with our loyal clients.
ADMIN/ACCOUNTS/DISTRIBUTION
FORMER DREEM TEAM 2010-2015
