Giving Back to Our Communities

Citadel Capital’s leadership team and employees are strongly motivated by the desire to leave the communities in which they do business better places than they found them. Citadel Capital’s formal funding for community development initiatives — as distinct from the personal philanthropy of the managing partners and staff — has totaled more than US$ 20 million since 2004.

The firm has a particular interest in supporting education. In 2007, it developed the operations of the Citadel Capital Scholarship Foundation, which it endowed to grant academic scholarships to talented young Egyptian men and women interested in pursuing Master’s degrees and PhDs at international universities. Twenty students each year receive generous scholarships to follow their dreams at some of the most prestigious educational institutions worldwide. The only condition: They must return to work in Egypt upon graduation.

Citadel Capital also established the Citadel Capital Financial Service Center (CCFSC) at the American University in Cairo (AUC). The center opened in 2006 as the Middle East’s first institution dedicated to providing financial and analytical education that prepares students for careers in securities trading, risk management and asset allocation.

The CCFSC’s hands-on training program is equipped with an array of advanced financial software and tools, including a simulated trading room linked directly to the Egyptian Exchange. Beyond data and technology, the CCFSC strives to provide students, researchers and professionals with the knowledge and skills to lead the region’s emerging financial services industry.

Last year, the firm took solid steps toward the rollout of a foundation that will focus on building and developing Egyptian schools targeting lower-middle income segments of the population. The foundation will work to deliver a quality Egyptian national curriculum education in both rural and urban settings.