Egypt’s newly appointed prime minister, Sherif Ismail, who is a mechanical engineer by trade, was born in July 1955, married and a father of two children.

Ismail graduated from the faculty of engineering at Ain Shams University in 1978.

He started his career at the multinational oil company Mobil.

In 1979 he moved to the Egyptian company Engineering for the Petroleum and Process Industries (Enppi), before joining its board of directors.

Ismail served as deputy minister of petroleum in charge of oil and gas operations from 2000 to 2005.

In 2005 he became the chairman of the Natural Gas Holding Company (EGAS).

From 2007 to 2013, he served as chairman of the Ganoub El Wadi Petroleum Holding Company (GANOPE).

Ismail has served as petroleum minister since July 2013, first under Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi, and then under Ibrahim Mahlab, who was appointed prime minister in February 2014.

In August, during the tenure of Ismail as petroleum minister, Italy’s Eni announced the discovery of gas reserves of up to 30 trillion cubic feet in the sea off the north coast of Egypt, one of the largest gas finds ever in Egypt and in the Mediterranean.

Also during his tenure in July 2014, the government raised fuel prices by up to 78 percent in order to cut fuel subsidies by up to LE44 billion, part of a wider government plan to reduce its budget deficit frmo 12.8 percent to 10 percent of GDP.

“The decision to appoint Sherif Ismail to the premiership is right on point, as it comes at a time when Egypt needs to focus on economic reform, in which reforming the energy sector is a vital parameter,” Osama Kamal, a former petroleum minister, told Ahram Online on Saturday.

“Ismail was successful in managing a number of key issues, including repaying the government’s overdues to the petroleum sector, satisfying local energy demand and managing new discoveries,” Kamal added.