Dr Ziad Bahaa-Eldin is a Senior Partner at ADSERO and Head of the Financial Regulatory and Capital Markets practice area. A former Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Development and Minister of International Cooperation, he is a lawyer and economist with over three decades of experience across government, financial regulation, and private practice. During that time, he advised governments, regulators, financial institutions, and investors on financial and investment law, capital markets, banking regulation, and corporate governance.

He holds a PhD in Financial Law from the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, with emphasis on banking regulation; the field his practice has centred on ever since. For clients, this brings a rare command of financial legislation, and experience in engaging regulators, and structuring transactions. He has played a leading role in drafting much of the legislation underpinning Egypt's capital markets and its banking and non-banking financial services, and has advised the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on financial-sector and regulatory reform across Egypt and the Arab World.

He is the non-executive Chairman of Bank of Alexandria (Intesa Sanpaolo Group) and a non-executive director of MTI Egypt, Samcrete for Industrial Development, Basata Holding for Financial Payments, Badr Eldin Developments, the Egyptian Central Securities Depository, and Al Salam Hospital.

He served as Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Development and Minister of International Cooperation (2013–2014), Member of Parliament for South Assiut (2012), Executive Chairman of the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) (2009–2011), and Executive Chairman of the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) (2004–2007). He previously sat on the boards of the Central Bank of Egypt (2004–2011) and the National Bank of Egypt (2005–2010), served as Senior Legal Advisor to the Minister of Economy (1997–2000), and began his career in private legal practice in Cairo and Washington, DC.

A weekly columnist since 2011, first in Al-Shorouk and later in Al-Masry Al-Youm, he also contributes to other Arab and international publications and has lectured at the Faculty of Law, Cairo University (1998–2004), the Peking University School of Transnational Law in Shenzhen, China (2019), and Bocconi Law School in Milan. He founded the Egyptian Initiative for the Prevention of Corruption (2011), chairs the Ahmed Bahaa-Eldin Cultural Foundation in Assiut, and is a trustee of the American University in Cairo, the Modern English School, the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, and Badr University in Assiut (BUA).

Prior to joining ADSERO, Dr Bahaa-Eldin established and worked in various top-tier law offices in Egypt, advising Egyptian and international clients, and founded Thebes Consultancy, an economic and legal advisory firm.

Lead Role in Drafting Legislations for the Egyptian Government:

• Consumer Finance Law No. 18 of 2020
• Micro-Finance Law No. 141 of 2014
• Intellectual Property Law No. 82 of 2002
• Margin Trading Regulation (Ministerial Decree No. 553 of 2002)
• Executive Regulations of the Central Securities Depository Law (Ministerial Decree No. 906 of 2001)
• Mortgage Finance Law No. 148 of 2001
• Executive Regulations of the Mortgage Finance Law (Prime Ministerial Decree No. 1 of 2001)
• Securities Rating Regulation (Ministerial Decree No. 586 of 2000)
• Bond Dealers Regulation (Ministerial Decree No. 44 of 2000)
• Central Securities Depository Law No. 93 of 2000
• Portfolio Management and Brokerage Companies Regulations (Ministerial Decree No. 39 of 1998)
• Financial Leasing Law No. 95 of 1995
• Capital Market Law No. 95 of 1992
• The draft New Companies Law (unissued)

As part of a legislative group:

• Consumer Protection Law No. 181 of 2018
• Law Establishing the Economic Courts No. 120 of 2008
• Protection of Competition and Prohibition of Monopolistic Practices Law No. 3 of 2005
• Money Laundering Prevention Law No. 80 of 2002
• Special Economic Zones Law No. 83 of 2002

Prior to ADSERO:

• Drafted special economic zone regulations for the Economic Cities and Special Zones Authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
• Advised on regulatory and policy reform for the tourism sector under the USAID-funded Integrated Management of Cultural Tourism project.
• Advised the Egyptian Centre for Economic Studies on Egypt’s investment legal and institutional framework.
• Drafted a consumer finance law and led advocacy for its enactment on behalf of Sarwa Capital.
• Advised the Center for International Private Enterprise on Egypt’s transition to a cashless economy.
• Advised the EBRD on central securities depository reform for the Central Bank of Egypt.
• Drafted a new companies law for Syria, sponsored by the Arab Monetary Fund.
• Drafted special economic zones legislation for Yemen’s ports, sponsored by the World Bank.

• 2011 – 2018 – Weekly columnist for Al Shorouk
• 2018 – Present – Weekly columnist for Al Masry Al Youm
• Occasional contributor to Al Hayat (Gulf edition) and the Financial Times.

2026 – Recognised as “Highly Regarded” by IFLR1000 in Banking and Capital Markets.

2022 – 2026 – Recognised as “Eminent Practitioner” by Chambers & Partners in Corporate/M&A

• “Dr Ziad Bahaa-Eldin’s breadth of experience, strong commercial acumen and ability to bring in external technical expertise when needed has proven invaluable to our business.” – Chambers & Partners

• Founder and Senior Legal Advisor, Thebes Consultancy
• Member of the Egyptian Syndicate of Lawyers
• Chairman of the Board of Directors, Bank of Alexandria
• Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ahmed Bahaa-Eldin Cultural Foundation
• Member of the Board of Directors, MTI
• Member of the Board of Directors, Samcrete Holding
• Member of the Board of Directors, Basata Holding for Financial Payments
• Member of the Board of Directors, Badreldin Developments
• Member of the Board of Directors, Egyptian Central Securities Depository
• Member of the Board of Board of Directors, Salam Hospital, Mohandessin
• Member of the Board of Directors, Modern English School
• Member of the Board of Trustees, American University in Cairo
• Member of the Board of Trustees, Cairo Regional Center for International Commercial Arbitration
• Member of the Board of Trustees, Badr University in Assuit (BUA)
• Member of the Board of Directors, January 25th Hospital

• Member of the Egyptian Bar Association.

1996 – PhD, Law, London School of Economics and Political Science.

1990 – LL.M., International Business Law, King’s College London.

1987 – B.A., Economics, The American University in Cairo.

1986 – LL.B., Faculty of Law, Cairo University.