Yasmin Khamis
Yasmin Khamis is an Egyptian industrial leader carrying one of the country’s most successful manufacturing stories onto the global stage. As Chair of Oriental Weavers Carpets, she provides strategic leadership to a company whose Egyptian-made rugs reach more than 118 countries. Since assuming the chair in 2020, Khamis has championed innovation, responsible manufacturing, recycling, renewable energy, and the international competitiveness of Egyptian design. Her influence extends beyond the company through African business and sustainability initiatives connected with the United Nations Global Compact. By combining a proud family legacy with modern environmental priorities, she demonstrates how Egyptian industry can compete at world scale. Khamis represents a generation of business leaders turning local manufacturing excellence into lasting global recognition and impact worldwide.
Yasmin Khamis
Yasmin Khamis represents a form of Egyptian influence that reaches quietly into homes, hotels, and commercial spaces around the world. As Chair of Oriental Weavers Carpets, she provides strategic leadership to an Egyptian company recognized among the largest manufacturers of machine-made rugs and carpets globally. Its products travel to more than 118 countries, making the company not only an industrial success but also an international expression of Egyptian manufacturing, design, and ambition.
Khamis grew into the business founded by her father, the late industrialist Mohamed Farid Khamis, but her career has involved far more than inheriting a familiar name. She joined Oriental Weavers in 1999 and developed experience across marketing, customer relations, sales, product development, and international markets. Her education and professional training combined business with design, helping her understand both the commercial machinery of a global manufacturer and the aesthetic decisions that place its products in diverse markets.
After serving in senior commercial roles, Khamis became Chair of Oriental Weavers Carpets in October 2020. The position makes her the company’s highest-ranking board and governance leader, while its CEO and executive team manage daily operations. Her responsibility is therefore strategic: protecting a major Egyptian industrial legacy, setting long-term priorities, strengthening competitiveness, and ensuring that a company built over decades continues adapting to changes in technology, consumer expectations, and global trade.
The scale of that responsibility is substantial. Oriental Weavers employs thousands of people and maintains manufacturing and distribution capabilities serving markets across six continents. International sales generated approximately two-thirds of company revenue in 2025, demonstrating how deeply its performance depends on relationships beyond Egypt. The company has continued expanding its global market share while developing products for residential, hospitality, and commercial customers.
Under Khamis’s chairmanship, sustainability has become increasingly central to the company’s direction. Oriental Weavers has worked to reduce energy consumption, reuse manufacturing waste, incorporate recycled materials, and expand renewable power. Waste polypropylene has been transformed into new yarn rather than discarded, while solar projects support a broader decarbonization roadmap. These measures show how an established manufacturer can connect environmental responsibility with efficiency, innovation, and long-term commercial strength.
Her influence also extends into regional business leadership. Khamis became a founding member of the Africa Business Leaders Coalition, a chief-executive-led initiative associated with the United Nations Global Compact’s Africa strategy. Through such platforms, she contributes to conversations about responsible growth, climate action, and the role African companies can play in building more sustainable economies. Her leadership has also received recognition from regional and international business publications and industry organizations.
What makes her story particularly suitable for Egyptian of the Week is the global reach of an industry that is often overlooked. Technology founders and public figures may attract more attention, but industrial leaders shape employment, exports, supply chains, and perceptions of national capability. Every Oriental Weavers product sold abroad carries evidence that sophisticated manufacturing and contemporary design can originate in Egypt.
Her recent recognition among regional business leaders further reflects that influence, but the clearest measure remains the company’s ability to export Egyptian creativity at scale while supporting skilled employment and modern manufacturing at home.
Yasmin Khamis demonstrates how a second-generation leader can respect a founder’s legacy without treating it as untouchable. Her emphasis on people, environmental performance, design, and international partnerships reflects a determination to keep an Egyptian company relevant in a rapidly changing world. By helping position Oriental Weavers as a competitive and increasingly responsible global manufacturer, she strengthens Egypt’s reputation far beyond its borders. Her achievement is not simply maintaining an inherited enterprise; it is helping an Egyptian industrial institution evolve, compete, and represent the country internationally.