Ahmed Hindawi

Industry:  Publishing
Founded: 1997 
www.hindawi.com

Hindawi Publishing Corporation aims to make scientific research available and affordable worldwide through Open Access publishing. 

The Business 

Hindawi Publishing Corporation was founded in 1997 and has subsequently developed a portfolio of more than 270 English-language scholarly journals. In 2005, Hindawi landed on Open Access – a concept that leverages digital publishing and Creative Commons licensing to make articles freely available, swapping traditional journal subscriptions for author processing charges as a way to cover costs. Over the last five years Hindawi has become one of the three largest Open Access publishers worldwide with plans to launch 50-100 new journals each year for the next five years. 

The Entrepreneur

Ahmed was first introduced to academic publishing during his days at the University of Pennsylvania. While completing a PhD in High-Energy Physics, he learned about the industry's supply side. Though this had initially appealed to Ahmed, he began to think that he could have a bigger impact as an entrepreneur than as a physicist. He saw that the Internet was beginning to shake up the publishing industry, and so he returned to Cairo in1997with a PhD in hand and a risky, entrepreneurial idea in mind.

Ahmed was convinced that he could create a viable publishing business in Egypt, relying on low cost digital publishing to compete in the global market. With no outside financing, he and his wife founded Hindawi and decided to focus on the STM (Science, Medicine & Technology) niche.