Meet Portfolio Manager Ola El-Shawarby

My name is Ola El-Shawarby. I'm part of the team managing the emerging market equity strategy here at VanEck. I've been with the firm for the last six years and quite excited about what we do and a very, very passionate investor in emerging markets.

I'm actually Egyptian by background. I was born in Cairo, so I've been living and breathing emerging markets pretty much my whole life. Growing up, I was based mostly in Cairo, but I also spent a lot of time in Saudi Arabia back before all the reforms and before Saudi became as cool as it's starting to become today. And that really gave me a lot of understanding about the different parts of the Middle East region and the culture and the society and how that impacts the lives of people. And then also now, knowing what I know, the investment case for these countries.

I really enjoyed international relations, politics, sociology, like how societies behave the way they are and what influences what people want and how they live. And then at some point I joined a student activity that was focused on a stock market simulation, and I really got very intrigued and interested in investments from that point on because I saw how my interest in business and specifically in finance, as well as my interest in international relations and dynamics and politics, all came together in investing in the stock market.

And I completed the two degrees in finance and political science and went on to join EFG Hermes, which is, you can consider that the Goldman Sachs of the Middle East and North African markets as an investment analyst initially based between Cairo and Dubai and really focused on analysis of the Middle East and North African markets as well as the companies within those markets. And so I spent about five years doing that.

And so that's when I moved to the U.S. in 2009 to pursue my MBA at Harvard Business School. And it was a very valuable experience that then helped me move to the next step, which was basically join a boutique investment firm based out of New York. So I was at this firm for about six years.

And at that point, VanEck was also looking at a senior analyst focused on emerging markets with specific experience on Middle East and North Africa as well as Europe. And fortunately, the timing worked out.

I think because I grew up in an emerging market and I understand really how things over time can change quite rapidly and I've built a cultural understanding also that helps me connect with companies, connect with these trends that we've discussed quite deeply and you know, I grew up in Egypt, so India and Egypt are different, but there are a lot of commonalities about a younger population that's starting to get a better education and then maybe starts making a bit more money and what that means in terms of wanting to have better healthcare and, you know, access to technology that allows these young people to really leapfrog and find solutions to their problems that maybe didn't mirror the way that things evolved over time in developed countries, because technology now makes that possible.

And then in return, that makes me able to really assess the companies from a different lens about what realistically is going to work and why these companies maybe could have a moat over time that allows them to thrive in emerging markets and have a longer-term growth opportunity ahead of them.