THE SHURA Council has selected Mursi Atallah board chairman of Al-Ahram Foundation, Egypt's and the Arab world's largest and oldest press organisation. Atallah, 64, will also keep his post as chief-editor of Al-Ahram Al-Misaai. He replaces Salah El-Ghamri, 65, who retires. Over the past two years, El-Ghamri launched a reform process that aimed to remedy the organisation's financial problems and upscale the salaries of its employees. El-Ghamri was previously chairman of the National Distribution Company. A 16-year-long editor of Al-Ahram Al-Misaai, a daily evening newspaper, Atallah is expected to use the next year -- until his tenure ends -- to incorporate the current administrative reform drive into an ambitious plan to increase the scope held by Al-Ahram in an increasingly competitive market. There were no changes in other Al-Ahram departments because apart from El-Ghamri, no one had yet reached the age of retirement.
