Gamal Mubarak

Gamal Mubarak is one of the two sons of current Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak. In contrast to his brother Alaa, Gamal has an active public profile and is starting to wield some influence on political life in the country.

Finance

Gamal Mubarak graduated from the American University in Cairo with a business degree and holds an MBA. He started working for the Bank of America at its branch in Egypt. He was then transferred to the London branch and became its director, working mainly in the field of investment banking. He then branched out with a few colleagues to set up Medinvest Associates Ltd., which manages a private equity fund, and to do some corporate finance consultancy work. He is also the chairman of the Future Generation Foundation (FGF), an NGO for job training.

In the NDP

He was nominated by his father in 2002 to become the general secretary of the policy committee: the third most powerful position in the party. The National Democratic Party (NDP) holds a sweeping majority of seats in parliament. After the mid-2004 cabinet shuffle and the appointment of Ahmed Nazif as the new prime minister, the cabinet was named "Gamal's cabinet", as most of the new ministers were chosen from the policy committee of the NDP.

Inheritance

Both Mubarak and his son have denied the possibility of any inheritance of power in Egypt. Nevertheless, the public fears and believes that he will be nominated by the parliament in the next referundum in 2005, if President Mubarak fails to nominate himself – which is particularly likely, given the president's age and health.

In September 2004 several political groups (most are unofficial), on both the left and the right, announced their sharp opposition to the inheritance of power. They demanded political change and asked for a fair election with more than one candidate.