Walid Bakr is Head of Strategy & Business Development for the Middle East & Africa region for Bühler Group. Bühler Group is the leading global provider of food processing & advanced materials equipment & technologies.

Bühler impacts every aspect of our everyday life, with over 2 billion people consuming foods daily that were processed on Bühler equipment. Prior to joining Bühler, Walid has been a career investment professional with over 25 years of experience in investment, finance, management and operational roles across the Middle East, Europe, and the USA. His expertise and responsibilities span investments, business development and value creation. His operational and entrepreneurial background enrich his strategic insights and management support.

Walid structured and developed successful investment strategies and platforms across a wide range of industries including healthcare, education, and financial services among others. Prior to joining Bühler, Walid served as CEO of Five Stars Group (Egypt’s largest milling group), which he has successfully led the acquisition thereof in 2022. Prior to that, Walid has been a Managing Director with the Abraaj Group ($14 Bln AUM), where he led Abraaj’s Egyptian operations and was a senior member of the MENA investment team. During his tenure he led one of the most successful investment portfolios in Egypt with over USD 1+ Bln of NAV, and 2 highly successful public listings. Prior to that he was a director with Riyada Ventures (A boutique regional investment bank), and previously Managing Director of Technology Development Fund (TDF, Egypt’s 1st VC fund). He started his career with AT&T in Kuwait and moved on to manage and establish several technology companies in France and the US. Walid served, and continues to serve, as a director on the boards of local and regional companies across Egypt, UAE, and Jordan.

He also served as a director on several public companies including ANMC (AMES.EGX), CHG, Egypt’s largest healthcare group (CLHO.EGX) as well as Egypt’s largest education group CIRA (CIRA.EGX). Walid is actively engaged with education and entrepreneurship initiatives in Egypt. He’s an active angel investor and startup mentor. Walid has been selected as an Eisenhower Fellow in 2017 and a Kauffman Fellow in 2013. He holds a BSc in Engineering with top honors from Alexandria University.