Abdelrahman Ismail, Fulbright Winner from Egypt, Chose NJIT for Fintech

Abdelrahman Ismail, an MBA student from Egypt specializing in financial technology and entrepreneurship, is the first Fulbright Scholar to attend New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Martin Tuchman School of Management.

Ismail is from Damanhur, a city southeast of Alexandria. He trained as a civil engineer and has a long interest in the business aspect of technology. By enrolling this semester, he is NJIT’s 20th visiting Fulbright Scholar overall, since two students from Brazil and India attended in 1984.

After deciding that he wanted to study in America, Ismail had many reasons to become a Highlander. “I was looking for a polytechnical school first, because of my engineering background. Generally, I needed a school that has technology in their DNA. I wanted a school that has a program specializing in fintech,” with a combination of practical and theoretical learning, he said.

With extracurricular activities such as a recent MTSM-organized visit to a local venture capital firm, “This is the kind of network and relationship I want to build and get exposed to,” Ismail said. “The practical case studies that we study, and then the classes and the professors, discussing what's happening in the emerging markets, what's happening in New York exchanges, what's happening with fintech, with the technology companies here — which is different from, for all the reasons regarding market conditions, the culture and everything — from what's happening in my region in the MENA region and Egypt specifically. So as you get exposed to more problems, to different markets, to different problems, you benefit from that a lot.”

But his decision went deeper than academics and even connections. Ismail liked that Newark is diverse, from its cuisine to local history to residents from around the world. He knew that NJIT is supporting an extension campus in his home country, and he appreciated that the management school dean, Oya Tukel, is also from the Middle East. “All of that led to NJIT,” he explained.

Ismail’s route to fintech led him through compulsory service in the Egyptian army, a brief career as a petroleum engineer and owning a small construction company. His favorite thing about fintech is how many people he could potentially help. He already worked in early-stage fintech startups related to digital payments and banking.

“It's a very booming and fast-growing area. And the effect that it has over millions and millions of people — look at the efficiency, that you can develop a product that democratizes financial services. You can serve a million people with certain products. This kind of scalability and growth, you can’t find in a lot of other industries.”

He’ll go back to Egypt after earning his MBA degree in spring 2025, as Fulbright scholarships require participants to bring their experiences back home. Egypt is becoming a fintech hub for the Middle East and North Africa region. “My dream job is to start a company that develops a very important product, a financial product that helps democratize a certain financial service to the underbanked and unbanked people, especially in the African continent,” he said, noting that he’s interesting in sub-Saharan region and ways to build credit scores for people without financial history.

Ismail is arriving at the right time. The school recently updated its graduate program, known as the Tech MBA, to require fewer credits and offer modern topics such as artificial intelligence.

“Our Tech MBA program was designed to offer the kind of flexibility and customization that caters to aspiring entrepreneurs like Abdel,” observed MTSM’s Benjamin Manyindo, director of masters programs. “We are thrilled to have him on board and we look forward to journeying alongside him as his career goals unfold.”

NJIT also has a long history of students and faculty winning Fulbright awards to study elsewhere. There are 25 winners so far.