Mohamed El Saidy was Controller at the American University in Cairo from 1981 to 2008. El Saidy discusses his family’s livelihood and challenges posed in Egypt by their Syrian origins, and sketches his education and banking and business career before being hired by AUC in 1981. El Saidy provides a detailed account of his time as AUC’s Controller, describing the office when he arrived in the 1980s. Changes in the structure of AUC’s finance area and the creation of new units (like the Budget Office) are outlined, and he offers portraits of leading staff members and longtime Vice President for Finance Andrew Snaith; an assessment of the impact of Presidents on the university’s finances is also given. El Saidy recounts changes he introduced at AUC like new payroll and student payment procedures, the Internal Auditor position, and reforms to purchasing systems. Issues like AUC’s relationship with banks, accounting practices and the role of auditors, taxation, and the challenges of working under a two-currency system are addressed, as well as the financing of building projects like AUC’s new campus. He speaks about the financial computer systems used by AUC over the years, giving an account of the adoption and implementation challenges of the SAP business management software in the 2000s
