Yasmine Shihata was born in Kuwait and raised in both Vienna and
Washington D.C. She is the daughter of one of Egypt’s most respected
individuals, Dr. Ibrahim F.I. Shihata, the former Senior Vice
President and General Council of The World Bank in Washington D.C.
After graduating with an international Baccalaureate from the
Washington International School, Yasmine went on to graduate from the
London School of Economics in London, with a BSC in International
Yasmine graduated with honours and a keen interest in
international affairs. Yet Yasmine’s passion from an early age has
been for fashion, art and magazines. Her years at the LSE help
fine-tune her writing skills, yet Yasmine still yearned to get into
the magazine business. Thus upon graduation she applied and was
accepted into a work experience program at Vogue Magazine in London.
Yasmine completed the program then did an internship at Marie Claire
magazine in London, assisting in the fashion Department.
After these experiences, Yasmine moved to New York City, where she
worked for Vogue magazine as senior assistant to the Editor in Chief,
Anna Wintour. This demanding position exposed Yasmine to the corporate
magazine world and the intricacies of magazine production and public
relations. Yasmine went on to use her experiences at Vogue, when she
returned to Egypt, in order to create her own magazine.
At the time
the market for modern lifestyle magazines in Egypt was still virgin,
and Yasmine capitalized on this by forming Allied Publications with a
partner, and producing Cleo magazine. Cleo magazine was a runaway hit
from its inception, as it clearly tapped into the desires and values
of Egypt’s emerging sophisticated and modern culture. The magazine
received considerable press coverage in its initial year, and is
considered as a pioneer in Egypt’s English language lifestyle magazine
Although Yasmine sold her shares to her partner, the foundations she
structured in Cleo continue to make it one of Egypt’s leading English
language magazines. Immediately after selling her shares in Cleo,
Yasmine formed a new partnership with three of Egypt’s most prominent
businessmen to create an even more creative, dynamic, innovate, modern
magazine for Egypt’s young generation. The magazine’s motto was “the
magazine for the new millennium” and was first published in 2000. Its
chosen name was Enigma, and it created even more hype and speculation
than its predecessor Cleo did.
Enigma was created as a magazine for sophisticated Arab men and women
with an international outlook. Today Enigma has proven to be an even
bigger success than Cleo magazine, surpassing the sales and profit
margins of all its competitors In its third year Enigma also expanded
its distribution to Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain, Jordan and Oman
as well as making a significant impact with its London Distribution.
The response Enigma had in London was so positive that Yasmine
established the UK company Venus Publications to provide editorial,
distribution and advertising sales for Enigma magazine.
Today both Supreme and Venus publications are flourishing due to
Yasmine’s dedicated efforts and her genuine love and understanding for
what she does. Her extensive experience in creating three start-up
companies from scratch has provided her with invaluable experience of
magazine and business development at a young age. She is one of the
few young Arab women in the Middle East running her own businesses in
London and Egypt, and has become a pioneer in the Middle East’s
lifestyle magazine industry.