The Jameel Centre at the American University in Cairo
Fostering Cairo’s spirit of learning, innovation and entrepreneurship at the American University of Cairo's Downtown campus since 1989.
The Abdul Latif Jameel Centre for Middle East Management Studies at the American University in Cairo’s (AUC) former campus in Downtown Cairo holds an important place in the history of AUC and in the latest chapter of Downtown's story as a hub for Cairo’s thriving tech startup community.
A gift from the Jameel family to AUC in 1989, the Jameel Centre was built to accommodate an expanding student body during the late 1980s and early 1990s and to meet increasing demand for management, engineering sciences and other professional programmes. A landmark of The architect of the building was Beirut-based firm Dar Al-Handasah and its design was overseen by award-winning architect Suhayl Bathish — managing director of Dar Al-Handasah’s Egypt operations at the time.
The vision for learning, innovation and entrepreneurship underpinning the Jameel Centre's construction is retained in the building's role today as part of The GrEEK Campus, Egypt’s first technology and innovation park founded in 2013 and which now operates the former university site. The Jameel Centre now provides a home to national and multinational tech companies and startups, such as Money Fellows and Uber.
The story of the Jameel Centre's design and construction, its role as a pioneering centre for management studies and its continuing evolution as a hub for startups is told in a photo essay by Cairo-based photographer Ebrahim Bahaa-Eldin.
The Jameel Centre constitutes just one element of the Jameel family's long history of partnership with AUC, which also includes the endowed Abdul Latif Jameel Chair of Entrepreneurship, currently held by Professor Ayman Ismail. AUC’s campus in New Cairo is home to the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) Middle East and North Africa, a research centre working to inform evidence-based policy design to alleviate regional poverty and poverty-related issues and the co-founder - with the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development - of the Egypt Impact Lab, a centre dedicated to strengthening evidence-informed policy and improve development outcomes in Egypt.
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