Ahmed Naguib

33-year-old Advising and Exchanges Director for AMIDEAST in Cairo, and prominent mobiliser of youth in the Egyptian revolution of 2011

33-year-old Egyptian who serves as the Advising and Exchanges Director for AMIDEAST. Ahmed directs and manages the EducationUSA Center, the cultural and professional exchanges portfolio, as well as the scholarship portfolio which includes the ORASCOM Onsi Sawris and Ford Foundation International Fellowship Programs and finally AMIDEAST’s Study Abroad program in Cairo. Since April 2008, he has been directing the Ford Foundation International Fellowship Program, a scholarship programme focused on empowering the marginalized through access to higher education.

On January 25, 2011, Ahmed took to the streets of Cairo, and over the next few days mobilised thousands of youth to congregate in Tahrir Square. He organized them into various committees dealing with security, food and tent and blanket distribution, hygiene, political and media coordination and the group came to be known as the “Trustees of the Revolution".

In close cooperation with the Coalition of the Youth of the 25th of January and four other coalitions, Ahmed launched the Coordination Committee of the Masses, a joint committee for the most influential coalitions since the ousting of Mubarak. This was formed in order to mobilize public opinion in an attempt to pressure the interim government and the Supreme Military Council to ensure the fulfillment of the popular demands of the Revolution.

Ahmed is working on launching three initiatives currently: 1) The International Campaign for Egypt’s Debt Forgiveness –ICEDF 2) The Egyptian Initiative for Political Awareness and Civic Education, which is a knowledge community and 3) A New Social contract for Egypt as part of the National Plan for Egypt’s Development an initiative between the civil society and the Egyptian government.