Egyptian entrepreneur Rachid Mohamed Hussein, president of the Valentino fashion house, has become an Italian citizen. The Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, proposed today, March 26, his candidacy to the Council of Ministers for “special merits”. Hussein rose to the helm of the Italian fashion house in July 2012, when as CEO of Mayhoola, a Qatari royal family fund, he managed the fund's acquisition of Valentino for a reported $700 millions of euros. Under his leadership, Hussein placed his trusted managers in key positions in the company with a new organization, leading the house to quadruple its turnover to reach 1.2 billion euros in 2023. Meanwhile, Hussein sold 30% of Valentino to fashion giant Kering Group. for 1.87 billion euros. An operation which would be considered as the prelude to a new acquisition of Kering by Mayhoola. In June 2016, the Qatari fund bought the Parisian fashion house Balmain for 485 million. Racid Hussein took over as chairman of Balmain, once again leading the fashion house to triple its turnover to €300 million last year. Racid Hussein began his management career in the 1980s working for Coca-Cola in Egypt. In the 1990s, he then managed the family business Fine Foods, active in the frozen food sector. In 1991, he joined Unilever, where he quickly progressed in his career, leading him to become the company's director for the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey.
Until the call came in 2004 from the then Egyptian Prime Minister, Mohamed Nazif, who wanted him in his government. Rachid Hussein's political career began with his appointment as Egyptian Minister of Foreign Trade and Industry. A position he held until January 2011, when protests against the Mubarak regime broke out. During the riots in Tahir Square, the Egyptian minister was in Italy for an official meeting with government officials, before participating in the Davos forum, as the Washington Post recalls. After the Egyptian president eliminated the government, in an attempt to stay in power, Rachid Hussein decided to settle in Dubai, while in Egypt all his assets were frozen, with the obligation not to leave the country. In 2011, he was tried in absentia for embezzlement, embezzlement of public funds and corruption. A procedure during which he was initially sentenced to several years in prison and a fine of more than a million euros. He was later acquitted of these charges. It was only in 2016 that Rachid Hussein reached a settlement agreement with an Egyptian judicial commission, after the former minister demonstrated not only his innocence, but also that his family's assets predated his appointment as minister in 2004. The following year, he was able to return to Egypt.
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