Subject: Dr. Azza S. Mahfouz Board Member of the Alexandria Businesswomen’s Association

Profession: Pharmacist

Base: Alexandria

Today in Egypt there are approximately 200,000 pharmacies, serving a population of some 80 million people, and a considerable proportion of these are in Alexandria. Consequently, when Dr. Azza S. Mahfouz opened her first pharmacy in the eastern part of Egypt’s second biggest city in 2000, she realized that to succeed it needed to stand out from the rest. Fortunately her long experience of working for a multinational pharmaceutical company stood her in good stead.

After graduating from Alexandria University’s Faculty of Pharmacy in 1976, Azza began her career as a medical representative for the US giant pharmaceutical company Wyeth. She was soon promoted to the position of regional Head of Sales, before becoming the Country Manager in Egypt in 1999. The next year she left Wyeth to found Alex Pharmacies; a growing chain which now has a second branch in San Stefano, which opened in 2008, and a third under construction in Sidi Bishr, which will be run by her son who is also a pharmacist.

Azza’s main driving force was her desire to establish and maintain a good name for both quality and depth of service. While many pharmacies offer home delivery in addition to counter services, and some have the facilities to prepare medicines on the premises, she wanted to do all this and more. She knew that compared to a number of other countries people in Egypt lacked confidence when it came to self-medicating and buying over-the-counter treatments. Consequently one of the specialties of Alex Pharmacies is its counseling service that saves people the time and expense of visiting a doctor for minor ailments.

As part of this service she introduced a monthly newsletter for distribution to her customers and established a network between her shops – and even her home – so that the pharmacists can consult with each other about individual cases. Azza is currently working on the development of a fully interactive website, so that customers will be able to both consult with a pharmacist and buy medicines online without having to leave their homes. She is taking this step into 21st century business with the help of the Alexandria Businesswomen’s Association and the Egyptian Businesswomen’s Partnership Program.

"I think it is both important and useful to belong to a number of different types of organization," she says. "Not just business associations but also cultural and social societies. They can be very informative and helpful in life." 

Azza joined ABWA in 2001 and was elected to the board in 2007. Since 2006 she has been the contact person for liaison between Global Project Partners (GPP), ABWA, the German Association for Businesswomen (VdU), Businesswomen for Development (BWD), and Businesswomen Egypt 21 (BWE 21). This role is one of the cornerstones of the Egyptian Businesswomen’s Partnership Program and was a key factor in the creation of this portal. In addition she is an active member of the program’s Task Force.

She is also in charge of the ABWA events program, the flagship of which is the Alexandria Businesswomen’s Day. This has been held every year in November since 2007. This event is funded by the private sector and annually attracts more than 200 women entrepreneurs from Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa region, and Germany. 

Furthermore, Azza is a keen contributor to the activities of the Unternehmerinnentag Ruhrgebiet (U-Tag NRW); a convention for women managers and entrepreneurs, featuring presentations, seminars, roundtable discussions and exhibitions. Since its establishment in 1996, more than 7,500 women have used the convention as a source of encouragement and as a means of discovering new ways to develop and expand their businesses. Azza has addressed the convention twice in the last two years.

One of Azza’s greatest pleasures is foreign travel and she has made a great many trips overseas on vacation, including a safari in Kenya. She recognizes that an understanding of other countries and cultures is not only enjoyable but also useful for business. Consequently she is always eager to take trips organized by the Partnership Program to attend workshops, conferences and trade fairs wherever they may be in the world. 

In November 2009, Azza was the one Egyptian businesswoman chosen to attend the CHANCE Winter School on Strategic Management of Women’s Entrepreneurship Associations, held at Mahabalipuram in India. The school focused on how to strengthen the roles of businesswomen’s associations, ways of widening networks, and the exchange of views and best practices. Azza had the chance to make a small speech, which she used to invite her new friends to the Alexandria Businesswomen’s Day in 2010.

It might be said that one of the keys to Azza’s success is her knowing how to mix business with pleasure, so that doing business is always a pleasure.