Amr Sobhy (عمرو صبحي)

What makes Amr Sobhy a Global Shaker?

Information activist and serial entrepreneur Amr Sobhy (عمرو صبحي) is best known as the co-founder of MorsiMeter, the digital online platform launched to document and monitor the performance of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president.

“This was a very unplanned project,” Sobhy said in a 2012 interview with Poynter. “When I saw Morsi being declared the president of Egypt I was really excited because, finally, we have a civil president. It was an historic moment. From that moment, I was all over this project!”

Modeled after “Obameter,” MorsiMeter is the first platform in the Middle East to hold a president accountable for his promises.

Everyday Egyptians also used the site’s Facebook comment section to rate Morsi on campaign promises such as, “increasing the productivity and nutritional value of the flour (used in Egyptian bakeries),” “appointing a PR officer in every (police) station to deal with citizens and direct them and make sure their problems are dealt with,” and “[re-planning] the city’s main squares and provide it with modern traffic lights to guarantee a fluent traffic.”

“These are the kinds of promises that would attract the average citizen and not the intellectua,” Sobhy explained. “These are the main things that people suffer from on a daily basis … Traffic is horrible, especially in Cairo. He also noted that politicians “sometimes use a lot of abstract language,” in that “some of their promises are really broad, sometimes like a fairy tale, not really achievable or attainable.”

As an innovative entrepreneur, Sobhy is also the CEO of PushBots, a push notification service for mobile applications that serves over 60 million mobile users, and the founder of EldolarLive, IPtrace, CurrencyStack, Zabatak, Dawaa.in and Mwazna. IPtrace and CurrencyStack were both acquired by apiLayer.

Sobhy has also served as a policy consultant with the League of Arab States and a regional consultant with enpact EV.

He has been awarded with several honours, including being listed among the Top 100 Influential Young Africans by the Africa Youth Awards. Sobhy is also a two-time winner of the World Summit Youth Award.

He earned a bachelor’s in pharmaceutical sciences from Tanta University and a master’s in public policy and management from the University of London–Birkbeck.

Last updated: May 29, 2020

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