Obituary: Rady Wagih Fahmy, 1975-2020

Rady Fahmy who died in Canada last week.  (Image Billypix)

A native of Egypt, Rady Fahmy was born and raised in Cairo before completing an international education and career. At the American University in London, he completed a BA in Economics before going on to attain an MBA at the University of Colorado. His passionate interest in commerce, computing, and entrepreneurship took him on a professional journey through the finance, technology and investment sectors, and saw him settle with his family in Montreal, Canada.

As board director of Middle Eastern holding company Craft Global Services, he led many commercial initiatives across the Middle East and Africa. Most notably finalizing a joint-venture between De Birs Yachts with the Abu Dhabi sovereign fund, during which he forged strong ties with De Birs Yachts chairman Tarek Ragheb. This relationship led to the founding of the African Business Aviation Association, AfBAA in 2012 when Founding Chairman Ragheb appointed Rady as CEO with the remit to lead development and growth of the Association.

As a dynamic entrepreneur, intellectual stalwart and true gentleman Rady was integral in positioning membership of the Association as essential for any company wishing to maximise the opportunities presented by African business aviation. His enthusiasm, passion and constant stream of ideas, combined with his ability to implement and execute its strategy, inspired members to unite in one voice to participate in, support and develop the industry across Africa.

Notable AfBAA achievements include establishing a regular series of educational symposia, growing the membership locally and internationally, encouraging the adoption of international operating standards across the continent, the launching of national business aviation chapters, and in 2017 organising and hosting Africa’s inaugural dedicated business aviation conference and exhibition in Johannesburg. The Association also went on to become the 15th member of IBAC in the same year and remains an active member of the council.

Following his achievements at AfBAA, Fahmy launched the Quebec franchise of Engeenius, an education system combining all his favourite subjects - science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – to inspire children to learn about STEM subjects through hands-on experiences. As usual, he threw his heart and soul into it. He is recognised for being a fabulous colleague, charming, witty, and made even the most tedious task effortless. Working with him was always a pleasure.

Rady embraced life with a charismatic nature that was genuinely engaging to all he met. He appreciated arts and literature, explored and interrogated politics, philosophy and economics, and applied his positive, open minded, intelligent attitude to everything he undertook. From early on he was a consummate musician and purchased his final guitar one month to the day before his final flight west.

His greatest legacy however is his wide circle of loving friends and family of which he said, “this is my greatest achievement, and the one of which I am most proud.”

He is survived by his wife Yasmine, and twin children Nadim and Sina.