At the heart of the Great Pyramid of Giza, roofing the chamber believed to be Pharaoh Khufu’s final resting place, there are a series of granite blocks used as beams. It is estimated there are about ninety of them, many weighing up to seventy tons. The way those builders managed to hoist these megalithic pieces to a height of up to sixty-five meters 4,500 years ago, in the absence of wheels and pulleys, remains an enigma. Thus, it wouldn’t be exaggerated to attribute to the ancient Egyptians the title of forebearers of civil engineering.

And that was also the career chosen by Fatma Tarek, whose childhood was spent at the foot of those same pyramids. Her work would revolve around construction from the beginning, but not only that—one day, she would contribute to preserving that priceless historical heritage. This interview centers on her endeavors at ACCIONA Cultura, her unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and the significance of having inspirational role models.

A Cairo native in Saudi Arabia

Fatma assists us from her home in Riyadh, pre-emptively apologizing for any disruptions caused by her son’s occasional crying—a common challenge of juggling work and family life. She manages to maintain focus on our conversation. Fatma explains how she organizes her day-to-day at ACCIONA: “During my maternity with my first son, I’ve been very much supported.”

“During my maternity with my first son, I’ve been very much supported.”

 

She and her partner are Egyptian, but due to a professional twist, they both ended up working and living in the Saudi kingdom. “I’m very lucky with my husband actually, he also got an offer to work in Saudi Arabia at the same time I did. It was really lucky at the time because all our relationship [had been] long distance.” Like Fatma, he is also a civil engineer.

A family role model

The great Aswan Dam was completed in 1970, forming one of the world’s largest reservoirs. One of the workers on that mega-project was Fatma’s grandfather. “My grandfather was an engineer, and he was a sort of role model always. My mom brought us up as a single mother and he was the only father figure we had. This is why he was so important to me,” she explains gratefully.

Building blocks

Many of the women engineers working with ACCIONA, as was the case with Elena Navarro, speak of an early calling where building structures or understanding how machines work was one of the cornerstones of their childhood. Fatma is no exception.

“Even in my early years, I was oriented towards building blocks and things like that, and I couldn’t leave a toy alone; I had to pull it apart and try to put it back together. Usually, it just ended in failure and me taking my sister’s toy,” she says with laughter. “But yes, I always had aspirations of becoming an engineer and even having my own business at some point.”

“I always had aspirations of becoming an engineer and even having my own business at some point.”

 

Although she initially considered studying mechanical engineering, she opted for civil engineering, as we have already anticipated. After completing her degree at the University of Cairo, she wasted no time in entering the job market. It was back in 2009. Did the real estate crisis affect her? Fatma points out that her major concern was the Arab Spring and the subsequent coup, but in the end, she was able to take her first steps in her professional career without major setbacks.

Warehouse, office, workshop; rinse and repeat

There, at her first job, she was able to witness the entire construction process of multiple buildings “from the tender phase until completion.” Fatma’s deep-seated curiosity found partial satisfaction in the opportunities this job provided, “It made me go through all the stages of the project without going into much detail… I had very good exposure to planning, to budgeting.”

She also had the chance to travel to various countries to witness the execution on-site: “The employer was doing projects worldwide. They were building warehouses, office buildings, and workshops all over Africa. We had a few projects in Europe as well. I had a few trips with the company to Kenya and Tanzania, for example.”

“This was the turning point for me, wanting to work on-site, not in an office. Because you see everything on paper and you don’t realize that it is being implemented actually on the ground until you see it, and that gives you such satisfaction.”

 

Seeing the tangible results of those projects would set her course: “This was the turning point for me, wanting to work on-site, not in an office. Because you see everything on paper and all the numbers, and all the drawings, and you don’t realize that it is being implemented actually on the ground until you see it, and that gives you such satisfaction…”

However, she soon outgrew her job: “At this point, all the projects were the same… We ended the warehouse with an annexed office building and workshop, or one of the three. It was very repetitive, and this is why I left.”

Fatma Tarek “All”

Now came the moment for one of Egypt’s most significant architectural and cultural initiatives in recent decades, a project where ACCIONA Cultura was set to play a pivotal role: the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM). After leaving her first job and obtaining an additional certification, the next career leap came, “I ended up with the job I wanted, being a technical coordinator in the GEM, but on the PMC side with the project management and consultancy office. It was like a joint venture. At the time, [the museum] was just a yellow piece of land.”

There, she once again covered all areas of the project for five years, albeit with greater responsibility. Her versatility in covering all those fronts earned her a new nickname in the company, “Actually, my name in the organization chart was Fatma Tarek ‘All’, because I was working in all departments. Sort of coordinating all the works between departments and between us and the contractor, and between us and the client. It was the running joke, yes. They didn’t know exactly where to place me, so I was all over the organization.”

From a yellow piece of land to a cultural landmark

After completing her tenure in that job and being involved for a year in the construction of a hospital, she felt the desire to return to the GEM, this time as a contractor. And that’s where the opportunity with ACCIONA Cultura came up. She attended an interview and got the job. Now the museum project was no longer just a piece of yellow land but had become an ambitious building of five hundred thousand square meters and a cost of one billion euros. “I was being driven by the point that you are the one now making the building, you are the one directly putting those elements there. I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s a very rewarding feeling.”

Here Fatma’s career definitely took off, “I began as a planning engineer, but within four months, I was promoted to the role of project manager. During that period, I amassed substantial experience in construction and on-site operations, along with all aspects of logistics. Witnessing the entire process unfold, from a barren yellow land to taking charge of fitting the building onto it, was truly monumental for me. This, I believe, was the peak of my career.”

In addition, in her work with ACCIONA Cultura she had the opportunity to mingle with great talents of multiple nationalities and backgrounds, “I really had the privilege to work with some high calibers in the company and have a great team there in Cairo at the time. So, it was very nice to exchange cultural information and habits of different nations. It was eye-opening in some ways.”

“I really had the privilege to work with some high calibers in ACCIONA Cultura and have a great team there in Cairo while on the Grand Egyptian Museum project.”

 

Innovation and sustainability as a corporate culture

Going back to the GEM project, the efforts of ACCIONA Cultura have facilitated the integration of monumental historical sculptures, such as that of Ramesses II, which greets visitors in the entrance lobby, with cutting-edge technologies and advancements in accessibility. “We have this kind of culture about sustainability and innovation which I hadn’t seen in other places. We have actually an innovation department that I’ve worked with on many occasions. For example, we had to reproduce some of the statues in miniature with 3D printing for the visually impaired, including a small Tutankhamun throne, so that visitors can touch it with their hands.”

“We have this kind of culture about sustainability and innovation which I hadn’t seen in other places.”

She also points to the responsibility of suppliers and contractors in promoting a sustainable mindset among clients. “We have the awareness to bring up this topic [of sustainability] even for the clients when they haven’t considered it in some places. So, this is a good thing to be doing. While working with some clients we actually enforce this.”

Sustainability is something that encompasses everything from construction processes to the smallest details: “Even with content creation and choosing the materials for the exhibition and everything, sustainability was always in mind.”

The power of history

What else does Fatma believe ACCIONA Cultura contributes to the world? She takes her time to answer, “It’s about knowing your history. If a person or the community know collectively their history, a lot can be improved, or many misfortunes can be avoided, and it will give you an insight into how you want to be in the present and in the future.”

“If a person or the community know collectively their history, a lot can be improved, or many misfortunes can be avoided.”

 

And she looks back at those who made Egypt great so many thousands of years ago. Those great rulers who marked the destiny of their country and who today inhabit, through their legacy, the Grand Egyptian Museum, “I always think power either brings out the best in people or the worst. Infinite power is not the best dynamic to lead a civilization. I think it’s like that if you look at the dynasties. This is why we have dynasties because each time a pharaoh says, ‘I’m your God and everything’, they fail and then someone new comes until [the same cycle] repeats again.”

And which would she say is her favorite pharaoh? “Tutankhamun, of course!” she exclaims without hesitation. “I was obsessed at some point in my childhood with the curse when they opened the tomb,” she says with a laugh.

Coming full circle

Upon completing the GEM project, she encountered a new opportunity at ACCIONA Cultura in a digitization project in Saudi Arabia. For Fatma, whose driving force has always been curiosity and a thirst for new experiences, the current project has reignited her passion: “There’s always something new to learn. My current project is vastly different from the GEM.”