Group General Counsel
Foodics
Saudi Arabia
“The legal team should be seen like a product team: clear priorities, repeatable workflows, and fast feedback loops.”
With 16+ years of cross-border legal practice, Mahmoud Shafik Youssef has built a career at the intersection of international business law, technology, and operational excellence. He is an Egyptian Attorney at Law, holding dual LL.B degrees from Cairo University and Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, a Masters in Civil and Commercial Obligations from Université Paris Descartes (Paris V), and an LL.M in International and Comparative Business Law from Indiana University–Purdue.
Since joining the Egyptian Bar Association in 2010, Mahmoud has held senior in-house leadership roles in multinational and high-growth environments, most recently as General Counsel, where he leads legal strategy and oversees complex matters spanning corporate governance, commercial, capital markets readiness, and regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions.
His work today sits squarely at the frontier of law and innovation. He advises startups and scale-ups on building legally resilient, growth-enabling operating models covering legal tech, telecoms, fintech, AI governance, and data protection. From GDPR and cross-border data transfers to structuring pragmatic AI governance frameworks and vendor controls, he brings business judgment and execution discipline to technology risk.
Fluent in Arabic, French, and English, Mahmoud combines legal depth with cultural fluency helping stakeholders align, negotiate effectively, and move decisively in fast-moving, regulated markets.
”You don’t just manage risk you create trust at speed with all leaders, business partners and shareholders.”