Eng. Sherif Ismail, held the Petroleum & Mineral Resources Portfolio during the Government of Dr. Hazem El Beblawi on the 16th of July, 2013 as well as during the first & second Governments of Eng. Ibrahim Mahlab, until being appointed Prime Minister by President Abdel Fatah El Sissi on the 12th of September, 2015.

Eng. Ismail graduated from the Faculty of Engineering, Ein Shams University where he specialized in Mechanical Engineering & started his career in Research & Exploration in Mobil Oil until 1979. During that year he joined ENPPI until the year 2000 where he became a Board Member &reached the post of General Director for Technical Affairs. In the Ministry of Petroleum he held the post of Deputy Minister for Petroleum & Gas Affairs from 2000 to the year 2005.

Ismail held a number of leadership positions in Multinational Oil Companies from 2005 to 2013. He Chaired the Board of Directors of the Egyptian Holding Gas Company, EGAS from 2005 to 2007 then Chairman of the South Valley Petroleum Holding Company from 2007 to 2013, the year he was appointed Minister of Petroleum, until being charged to form the Government in 2015. During his tenure as Minister of Petroleum, the biggest discovery of Natural Gas fields was made in Egyptian Territory in the Mediterranean, notably the Zohr field.

Eng. Sherif Ismail was born on the 6th of July 1955.