Episode 4: Diversify, Modernize, Humanize with Dina Ghabbour, CEO of Ghabbour Foundation for Development

What happens when a leader decides that dominating one sector isn't enough, and instead chooses to rewrite the rules of distribution, narrative, and market diversification?  

In this episode of Negotiating the World, host Ambassador Herro Mustafa Garg sits down with Dina Ghabbour, a powerhouse strategist widely recognized as one of the most uniquely influential corporate leaders and venture minds in the Middle East.

Dina shares a masterclass on business strategy: how to diversify across industries, multiply your options, and modernize an established institution by taking the best of the past and adapting it for the future.  She breaks down the power of humanizing a corporate giant through authenticity, and explains why consumer psychology is the ultimate thread connecting automotive networks, fintech, and venture capital.  

When asked what kind of midnight crisis is urgent enough to wake her up, her answer sets a new standard for strategic confidence and decisive decision-making.  

Whether you're building a startup, leading a global enterprise, or navigating change, this conversation offers a blueprint for thinking bigger, moving faster, and leading with purpose.

About the Guest: 

Dina Ghabbour is an owner and board member of GB Corp, and the CEO of the Ghabbour Foundation for Development.  Beginning her corporate journey at just 21, she spent over 13 years scaling marketing and investor relations for Ghabbour Auto before driving high-growth marketing strategies in the fintech ecosystem as the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of MNT-Halan, Egypt’s first billion-dollar fintech giant.  Today, she is a prominent investor on Shark Tank Egypt, backing early-stage startups, a philanthropic leader reshaping technical education and healthcare, and a champion for shifting women’s advancement from an emotional topic to a measurable business necessity. 

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Negotiating the World | Statecraft, Strategy, and the New Global Risk

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

True leverage is the agility to reinvent it on the fly. Today we look at what happens when a leader decides that dominating one sector isn't enough, and instead chooses to rewrite the rules of distribution, narrative, and market diversification across the region. Welcome back to Negotiating the World. I'm Harold Mustafa Garg. This season we've stepped into rooms with veteran diplomats, mega capital titans, and today we sit down with an operator widely recognized as one of the most uniquely influential female corporate leaders and venture strategists in the region. She represents a tier, well, let's say a new tier of leadership, an executive who leverages massive institutional weight while maintaining the speed and precision of a modern venture capitalist. Dina Kaboor is the owner and former CEO for GB Corp and the CEO of the Khabor Foundation for Development. Starting her journey in the corporate world at just 21, she spent over 13 years scaling marketing and investor relations for Haber Auto before driving high growth marketing strategies in the FinTech ecosystem as CMO of Halan. She is a prominent investor on Shark Tank, Egypt, backing early stage startups, and she's a philanthropic leader reshaping technical education to drive real economic mobility. This is a masterclass on how to diversify, cross-pollinate industries, and multiply your options. Let's step inside the room. Dina, welcome to the program. Thank you. Thank you, heroin. Thank you for this one introduction. So the first question I'm going to open up with, just to get to know you, have the audience know you a little better, that midnight call that executives get, which is that panic. Someone on your team calls and says, there's an emergency. Now, in the world of public relations and sales, and as you're driving innovation, what for you is urgent enough that it'll actually get you to wake up?

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Absolutely nothing. I do not receive calls at midnight because I go to bed at 9 p.m. Yeah. And I truly value my eight to nine hours of sleep. So I would never let anything interrupt that. And I'll tell you, from my personal life and professional life, we've seen so many crises. I mean, this is extremely common. But uh from my experience, everything just everything is solvable. So I no longer panic. I used to ten, fifteen years ago. Not anymore. The headlines, the backlash, as long as the fundamentals of the company, then nothing else matters. A piece of bad news doesn't affect you much. You just deal with it. And I've been through it so many times. And when you trust the company's policies, your uh your team, your uh your ethics, then you wouldn't really it wouldn't move you. A bad piece of PR doesn't really affect you. I mean, we deal with it, but I would not, it wouldn't wake me up in the middle of the night.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

This to me is fascinating because you see now with the way media and uh social media in particular just move so quickly. And with AI and and other developments, uh fake news can spread like wildfire.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

I received a call actually, and um from someone in the team of Highland, and and and she was like, Dina, there's uh there's this uh piece of fake news about you receiving a call, this and that. And she's panicking, and I am cool as a cucumber. And she goes, I'm like, ignore it. She goes, yeah, I was like, ignore it. Nothing's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

You learned. So you have this massive historic institutional legacy. How do you modernize this? How do you negotiate modernization when often those who are in the conglomeration might like the status quo?

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Well, first thing we have to recognize that those people are the ones who build the company. So they must have done something right. So you never tell them you're wrong. But what you do is, and what I've done, because I was in this exact same position in GBOTO, and I was uh heading marketing, for example, and uh my father was the CEO and I was reporting to my father uh after years of working in the company. Like when I first started, I started as a small salesperson in the company, and then I made it all the way up and uh to being the chief business development officer and the chief marketing officer of the group. I remember I used to tell him, um, everything you've done has been amazing, but let's try something new because the consumer is changing. And so we have to change a little bit. And the amazing thing about my father is that he would let me. He'd be like, try and let's see. We try, it would work, and he'd give me more freedom, more laissez-faire. So, yeah, and this is how we did it. And I was very lucky because he was a very progressive man. So I'd come up with all these crazy new ideas, and he would be like Fadali. Give it a try. So I was very lucky, I have to say.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

I really believe in this um saying that we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

For sure. I mean, they built it. They are the reason we are here today. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

If I can ask you about how you uh approach public relations, because oftentimes in large companies, the leader of the company has a massive PR team and delegates to that PR team. But you are known also for taking the lead, for looking at your personal brand, and um using that also as a part of the company's marketing. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 8:12

I'll tell you what I believe. I don't know if it's right or wrong, but I I I'm gonna trust my gut and I'm gonna say I think I'm I'm right. People want to humanize companies. So, for example, in our case, GB Otto. This company's been there for about 75 years, right? And it's a very strong brand name, right? But people could not put a face to the company. They trust the brand, it's doing well, but when I started being more visible, I remember my brother once said it's like GB became human. And you can feel it, and it built more trust, it built a better relationship with the consumer, and that's why I actually think that a lot of CEOs now of companies, even though I'm not the CEO of the GBOT, but they are more visible because they want to build this kind of relationship with their consumer, this kind of credibility. They believe you. They can when they see you, authentic. Authenticity.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

It's all about authenticity. People are right. People are craving authenticity. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

They're starving for authenticity.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

So can you give an example of a time um maybe earlier uh in your career where someone on your team, on the PR team, developed uh some strategy and you recognized as a leader that things were not going in the direction they should have, and then you personally intervened in the public realm to course correct.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

The only thing I know I I remember, it wasn't that they did a mistake or anything, but I remember, for example, investor relations was handled by our team. And then when I joined the company, I started doing it myself. And I was always in the I was always on TV, I was, and you can see the difference. Investors. You can see it in the the price of the stock. It kept going up, and for no other reason, other than the fact that people can trust me. They, when they talk to me, when I started being the face of the company, you can see we were building this kind of relationship with investors. And that shows you the power of your own personal brand, as you said. But also, you have to actually be an honest person. You have to speak your truth because they can smell it. That's what I truly believe. If you are a genuine person, a genuine leader, a CEO, you don't just care about profit, but you care about the well-being of people as well. And the impact. And the impact. I know you care about impact. And consumers and your employees, people can feel when you are being genuine.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

So to an outsider navigating um career path that stretches from corporate heavy industry and automotive networks to high-growth fintech, venture capital, and lifestyle brands. Looks like this is a set of radical changes, but you have done this so successfully. Can you tell us about this? Um, how you were able to do that so successfully without watering down your brand.

SPEAKER_00 12:21

Yeah, I've been wearing so many different hats throughout my career. Uh, you are right. I've done cars, I've done fintech, uh foundation, uh, podcast, media, shark tank, TV, um building hospitals. Yeah, you are right. Interesting. But I guess the the the one thing that connects them all is the consumer psychology. So I've done all of the above, and I think what I did or what I focused on while doing any of these jobs is truly understanding people. And that helped a lot, I think. And because any hat that I wear, I do it with so much honesty, truly. I put my heart into every single project. I put my heart, my brain, my time, hours of hard work, and yeah, it worked somehow.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

How do you research the consumer habits in all of these diverse areas? Observing, communication, statistics.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

It's really important to understand the consumer psychology. I think it's a major key to success in any project that I've done.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

And when you were in the automotive sector, your 13 years there, um no longer a CEO, but it's owner now. So what from that industry, for example, uh were you able to take as lessons learned into what you're doing now and the uh this retail?

SPEAKER_00 14:20

I mean, the basics would be the same, but I have to say that at that time, that was about what, 15 years ago or so. Um it changed a lot. The consumer psychology changed a lot. Uh consumer behavior changed a lot. And from what I've seen now, so back then we used to do very traditional ways of marketing, PR, advertising. Um I've seen or I've noticed that recently what really matters to people is storytelling. Yes, the power of storytelling. The power of storytelling, and I can't emphasize on how important this is. The power of storytelling, not just in selling your products, in managing your people inside companies. The power of storytelling. That wasn't there 15 years ago. Or we hadn't unlocked it yet. But now that's I do everything through storytelling. Any business I create, when I'm building a partnership, when I'm creating a brand, when I'm working on my personal brand, when I am building a hospital, when I am running the foundation, I do it all through storytelling. That would be the one thread connecting everything together.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

Because they always say that once you tell the story, not only does it allow people to connect with you, but they'll remember something about what you said more. A hundred percent. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

A hundred percent. And maybe because I do everything through storytelling, maybe that's why I haven't lost my personal brand wearing so many different hats. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

So I know um women's empowerment is very important to you. Very important. Very important. Um if you'll allow me to just uh present some statistics as as we look at um this region, because the numbers are actually quite staggering. The narrowing gender gap in the Middle East and North Africa, if that actually takes place, could inject 2.7 trillion into the region's economy, according to McKinsey. And they say venture data consistently reveals that women-led companies deliver up to 35% higher return on investment than all male teams. Go women. Yes, exactly. So as you are in all of these different fields and on Shark Tank and and boardrooms where it is in this region, male dominated, right? How do you use hard metrics such as these to reframe women's empowerment, women's advancement as a measurable business necessity?

SPEAKER_00 17:31

It's very simple. Forget about the emotional bit of it, which is probably the main reason why I do always try to empower women. The fact that I feel for women, I'm sure you do too, being mothers and carrying uh a disproportionate uh amount of responsibility and and and also having to show up at work and be excellent because we always have to prove that we earn this spot. Right? And so on an emotional level, I do feel for women for sure. But forget about this bit. Just the fact that women represent half the talent pool. That's a fact. Are companies really willing to ignore that? You're willing to ignore 50% of the talent pool just because. So I for me, this is usually my logic. I mean, you can, but are women deserving? Of course they are. Are they capable? Of course they are. Do they multitask like no other yes they do. But truly, if we just ignore women, then we would be ignoring 50% of the of the poor. That I don't think that's smart.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Um something uh I had a really fascinating um conversation when we had a round table with some of the young entrepreneurs who are on the show. Um, but we talked about uh, and this was off-camera, but I'm gonna raise it here and put it on camera, uh, the role of ego and how uh, for example, in AI, I'm told that the role of ego is actually very important. Now, I don't believe that's true across all industries. There are some sectors that seem to reward that bravado more than others. But if you add on top of that the complexity of the region, where if a leader is perceived to be too nice, then counterparts will take advantage of that. And there's this fabulous, they'll take it for weakness. And there's a um a fabulous Egyptian uh proverb, um, the translation of which is do not be so soft that you are squeezed dry, and do not be so stiff that you are broken. So, how do you personally manage this equilibrium?

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Um, when it comes to ego, I'll tell you what my father taught me, and I really hold this lesson very dear to my heart because it helped me a lot. He always used to tell me um surround yourself by people that are smarter than you and always listen. Because this is not really the culture in the region. So um a lot of people hire people that they don't want to listen to. They want to just dictate and they want them to be to tell them, okay, amen, we'll just we'll execute. But that's not how we do things. Um I really do try to hire always people that are extremely smart, smarter than me. Uh I want people to challenge me. And by default, that means that I don't want my ego in the in the room, in the meeting room, right? But I also don't want people to think I'm I'm weak. But I think I handle that through the way I carry myself. I think my confidence shines through without me trying to make it shine through. Um and my tone, there's always respect. You can challenge what I say, but there's always mutual respect. I sometimes lose my temper, I'm not gonna lie, in times of crisis, but you know, we there's still be respect. Um But yeah, for me, I I genuinely believe that uh ego is someone's worst enemy. So I wouldn't do business with my ego around.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

And also I as I've noticed with you, there's no substitute for being good at what you do, and that's the core.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

I'm good at what you do, and everything else is a hundred percent. And that's confidence. So you are confident, and you're confident that you're capable and you know what your attributes are, but also you want to be surrounded by people that are extremely smart, that have strong opinions that could challenge your decisions. And I think this is what leads to success.

SPEAKER_01 22:50

So if you have a foreign company that's coming to the region, how would you advise them on how best to strike this balance when they're not from the region? When they're not from the region.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

It goes back to uh understanding the culture, their psychology, uh, treating them with respect. Respecting the culture is very, very important. That would go a long way, I believe. And up pounding your pastel. I I I don't think so. I don't think that works. Do you want people to fear you, or do you want people to respect you and want to work with you? And I believe that work atmosphere is extremely important. When you go to work every day happy because you want to show up and you want to be there and you want to give it your all, versus, oh, I'm really scared of my boss. I hate my boss. I don't know. This animosity and negative work atmosphere. I mean, isn't this slightly outdated? Does this still happen? Yeah, of course. It does. Yeah, not yeah. I do believe just by using your voice, your you can deliver any message the way you want to deliver it.

SPEAKER_01 24:14

So philanthropy. I know this is also something very important to you. And again, you have a a lot of uh corporations, or I think also some foundations, but mainly say corporations that will look at um corporate social responsibility or maybe some of the philanthropic uh projects, and sometimes they'll think short-term PR game, right? But you look at it as long-term structural impact. Yes. Impact. How do you determine which projects um to really hone in on, to focus on in your philanthropic work?

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Philanthropy has always been part of our family. My mother started it. Uh she's always done things to help others. She is the one who started 57, 357, the cancer hospital. So we grew up in this house where we saw that it was extremely important to give back. Right. And my father was very similar to her. He always believed that he should give back. So I remember clearly, uh 10 years ago, was it? Yeah, 10, 11 years ago, when he wanted to start a foundation, and we were discussing it. And he said, So what should we, what kind of projects should we? And I said, uh health projects. And he said, Okay, you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna educate people. It's gonna be focused on education. And then he said something that I would never forget. He said, Whenever you choose a project, choose one where you help people fish instead of giving them the fish. And and and I believe that. So our goal is always to help change people's lives sustainably, right? And so what we do in the GB Foundation is we focus mainly on educating people, giving them a chance to have a better life by by having a better education, helping them be getting employed, etc. But also, um, there are other causes that I I can just not help. For example, uh, you know, Lulu, my daughter, uh, she was diagnosed with diabetes when as soon as she turned eight years old. And that that for me felt like a sign that I should be exploring diabetes in Egypt, and it's extremely underserved. So we are currently building uh a hospital for diabetes for children with diabetes, and and that too does change people's lives. So I think for me, it's the impact. It has nothing to do with PR. We don't even market it, you know. We don't market this kind of work, it doesn't make it online at all. It doesn't make it on social media. We do it because we truly want to make a difference. Impact, help someone, give back. That's how it should always be. We should always, yes, we take and we take a lot, and we make profit, and we build businesses and we make money. And we should give back.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Can you describe another impact that you would like to have here in Egypt, aside from the health and the education? But when you're, you know, your your daughters are amazing, but as you're also looking for their future.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

What is it? Uh what is an area where you're also thinking about for impact that would make it even more um a wonderful place for them where they will stay uh and continue the legacy?

SPEAKER_00 28:22

Education for sure. There's a lot of areas where you can do so much work in Egypt. And that's the the beauty of it all, that means there are plenty of opportunities. But for them to be a better place, certainly working on uh women empowerment empowerment and their contribution and uh and the workplace. And this won't happen by us talking about it. There should be a real change in the system. Education system, hiring system, promotion system, investment system. So yeah, I'd like to see more of that.

SPEAKER_01 29:02

And I can't wait to see you do it. So again, um looking at someone outside of the region, looking at the region and this idea of risk and mitigating risk, and again with everything happening. How would you translate it um in a way that would uh encourage them for a long-term structure, you know, long-term commitment despite everything that's happening?

SPEAKER_00 29:33

I'd say that starting March 2024, we've seen some drastic changes in the monetary and fiscal policies that are headed in the right direction. And we can see the difference, and it is reassuring. Uh not just in Egypt, I mean in Egypt, this is happening and in the whole region. Uh, it's becoming quite, I mean, the the the Middle East is becoming quite uh attractive. Uh so yeah, I think we are headed in the right direction. It's opening my own appetite in investing more in Egypt. Uh started investing in the beauty industry, launching uh a huge project in the next two, three months. So yeah, I think we are headed in the right direction, and I think the sentiment is positive in the region and especially in Egypt. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

That's great. So I'm gonna ask you now one final question that I ask all the guests uh that come on this program, and that is when you look at the toughest decision you've had to make or uh the toughest negotiation that you've entered, what was that one variable that you completely underestimated, whether it was a human element, a structural element, but something that completely surprised you when you entered that room and closed the door?

SPEAKER_00 31:08

My resilience. That's the one thing I truly underestimated. If you had told me 10 years ago that I would go through everything that I've gone through in the last 10 years, and God knows I've been through a lot. I lost both parents. We've been through revolutions, through economic shocks, through uh my daughter being diagnosed with diabetes, a divorce. Uh I I've been I've been through quite uh some struggles and and I'm still standing and happy and laughing and delivering and creating. And so that would be the one thing I truly didn't know. I didn't know how strong I was. And that from every tough experience, I gained strength, and it helped me in my businesses, in raising my kids, in my personal life. Honestly, that's the thing that that I underestimated the most.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

I'm gonna break my own rule and I'm gonna ask you a follow-up question on this because one of the common denominators that I've noticed on this show, but also in in leaders in general, is that psychological grit. And uh for some it's positive thinking, for for others, it's again power of the unconscious mind. What is it for you that has been your anchor uh that you again as a leader uh can pass on uh to others?

SPEAKER_00 32:53

Okay. I'm gonna break it into two parts. So what helped me get out of every crisis, whether on a personal level or professional level, is showing up. A decision to show up daily, not for my kids, not for my business, but for me. Every morning I remember precisely some days I could not get out of bed. I tell myself, Dina, you're just gonna show up for yourself, you're just gonna go work out for yourself, and then you're gonna go to the office, and then you're gonna do your mommy duties, just show up. So it's a decision. And I'm not gonna lie, a spiritual anchor because I needed that. Um today it's always the spiritual anchor, but also the fact that I've been through everything I've been through and I'm still standing helps a lot with my anxiety, with the fear of the future. Whenever I'm scared, I'd be like, you've been through it all. You're still standing, right? And just this idea calms me down. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 34:13

That's fabulous. Thank you, Dina, for sharing your insight and and everything that you've learned. It's really truly inspirational. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It's been lovely talking to you. And there you have it. What Dina Rabour proved to us today is that whether you are steering a multi-billion dollar conglomerate narrative through a crisis, writing a check on Shark Tank, or supporting technical education, the core playbook remains the same. You must master distribution, secure emotional connection with your consumers, and never allow institutional inertia to anchor your ambition. She also gave us a masterclass in modern narrative control. Modern consumers value hypertransparency, so when the stakes are at their highest, there is no substitute for taking personal ownership of your voice, your brand, and stepping directly into the public eye to grow your enterprise. She also has shown to us that true resilience is having the strategic stamina to multiply your options while everyone else is freezing in place. Thank you for joining us on this masterclass. I'm Harold Mustafa Garg, and this was Negotiating the World. Until next time, step inside the room, watch your blind spots, and never assume they see the map the way you do.