Until Jan 10th, 2021, Naguib was the Chairman of MyCreative Ventures Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian government Private Equity and Private Debt investment agency and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Minister of Finance (Incorporated).

During his term as Chairman, Naguib was committed to transforming and growing MyCreative into a sizeable regionally-focused government-cum-private sector Private Equity fund, with an intended fund size of around US$700 million (with a 20:80 government and private sector investment ratio, over a six-year allocation), seeking to invest in Creative Economy-driven businesses with regional expansion in mind.

In September 2019, Naguib initiated a Board-driven process of consolidating all companies and divisions residing under the MyCreative Ventures Group into a singular, harmonised and well-integrated entity, better-suited and prepared to take on the significantly larger agenda waiting to be proposed as a national policy for the Economic Action Council (see below).

In December 2019, Naguib presented a national policy proposal entitled “The Creative Pivot: A New Paradigm for Accelerated Growth and Equitable Distribution of Prosperity” to the Economic Action Council’s Executive Committee, under the Prime Minister’s Office, seeking: the Creative Economy to be adopted as a National Level Agenda; a fresh assignment of relevant Ministries to bring the inter-related Creative Industries and Arts & Culture under one Ministry; appoint MyCreative Ventures as the lead agency for this National Level Agenda; and the commencement of a regional level exercise to bring about the amalgamation and consolidation of the ASEAN Creative Industries Marketplace.

In August 2020, Naguib worked closely with both the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Communications & Multimedia to deliver the “PENJANA” Plan for Creative Industries, a creative industry-focused US$45 million economic recovery stimulus plan as part of the Malaysian Government’s US$8.35 billion Economic Recovery Plan in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. MyCreative was entrusted as the Lead Agency for the Communications & Multimedia Ministry.

Also in October 2020, Naguib programmed and hosted MyCreative’s “Creative Economy 2021 Forum: The Creative, Arts & Cultural Industries Reimagined”, in conjunction with the Finance Ministry’s preparation of Budget 2021 — involving distinguished keynote and guest speakers such as the Malaysian Minister of Finance, Minister of Communications & Multimedia, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Economy), as well as former UK Minister of Culture and the Digital Economy, Lord Vaizey of Didcot and 500 Startups Managing Partner, Khailee Ng.

During his time as Chairman, Naguib rigorously looked to overhaul flaws within MyCreative, beginning with a detailed point-by-point review of the Auditor General’s 2018 report. Naguib also oversaw the introduction of new Board Directors who were able to bring a far higher level of detailed and perspective-driven financial and operational oversight and good governance.

He was also able to pave the way towards early adoption of digital pathways for the creative industries, by specifically emphasizing support and incentivization of Digital Online Events and Performances during the Pandemic as well as the mooting and creation of a Digital Creative Industries Marketplace called the Digital Velocity programme.

Prior to Resonance and MyCreative, Naguib was the former Director General of the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS), the Regulatory and Development Authority for all Malaysian film, TV & streaming content, reporting directly to the Minister of Information, Communication and Culture Malaysia then, and was also Co-Lead and Project Owner for various industry development programmes under the Communications, Content & Infrastructure section of the Prime Minister’s Economic Transformation Programme then.

As Director General of FINAS, he was part of the Malaysian delegation to the 19th ASEAN Summit in Bali in 2011 that brought together all of ASEAN’s Heads of State along with the Heads of State of China, Japan, Korea and the U.S.A., as well as the 5th ASEAN Ministers’ Meeting Responsible for Culture and Arts (AMCA) and the 5th AMCA+3 Ministers’ Meeting in Singapore in 2012.

A key achievement in FINAS was his leadership in preparing the 30% foreign production rebate programme, i.e. the “Film In Malaysia” Incentive (FIMI), and successfully securing its approval from the Malaysian Government, in conjunction with the establishment of Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studio in 2013. Notable past beneficiaries of this incentive include the film, “Crazy Rich Asians” and the Netflix series, “Marco Polo”.

He also played a key role in expediting the formalised International Co-Production Agreement between Malaysia and Australia.

In FINAS too, he oversaw the preparatory operational and legal framework for the merger between FINAS (200+ personnel) and Filem Negara (300+ personnel) to take place, resulting in a more lean and efficient larger organisation of 400+ personnel (shedding around 100 personnel).

Naguib has also been assisting government organisations, international content aggregators and international production houses, local and abroad, in developing new platforms, strategies and business models for cohesive and sustainable industry development and expansion.

Notably, he assisted Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade & Industry (METI) in 2013 through participation in their “Working Group on the Development Potential of the Content Industry in East Asia and the ASEAN region”, involving Content Industry officials from 9 Ministries across Asia, including Japan, China, Korea and others.

Prior to his appointment as Director General of FINAS, Naguib was an independent documentary filmmaker, having produced and directed for Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel and Crime & Investigation Network as well as having his creative documentary films presented, often in competition, at major film festivals, including Mannheim-Heidelberg, IDFA Amsterdam, Yamagata, Rencontres Paris/Berlin/Madrid and It’s All True São Paulo /Rio de Janeiro.

He acted as Co-Organizer and Partner with Documentary Campus & European Documentary Network for the Crossing Borders 2011 Documentary Development, Networking & Pitching programme in Malaysia with support from the European Union’s MEDIA Mundus programme and FINAS.

Naguib was a Keynote speaker at CommunicAsia’s Creative Content Production Conference Singapore in June 2013, and guest speaker at the World Congress of Science & Factual Producers in Dresden in December 2010, at the Australian International Documentary Conference in Adelaide in 2011 and at both installments of the Asian Side of the Doc in Seoul in 2011 and in Tokyo in 2012. He was also a panelist at the ASEAN Film Festival in Bali in 2011.

His film, “ “The Boat-maker and the Sea”, won Best Documentary Film at Festival Filem Malaysia 2003, whilst “Glass Enclosure: Tokyo Invisible” competed in international documentary film festivals in Taipei, São Paulo/Rio de Janeiro and Madrid.

His most recent creative project was the short film BELAIAN, made for the omnibus film, 3.11 A Sense Of Home Films in 2011, initiated by Naomi Kawase, involving 21 celebrated international filmmakers including Victor Erice, Apichatpong Weeraseethakul, Jia Zhang-ke and Bong Joon-ho, as well as highly-regarded singer-songwriter, poet-visual artist, Patti Smith.

Naguib has been the recipient of the Japan Foundation Fellowship Invitation Program in 2002 as well as Nippon Foundation’s Asian Public Intellectuals (API) Fellowship in 2006.

He brings with him nearly 30 years of experience in the film & broadcasting industry, as producer, director, writer and executive producer across feature films, documentary films, animation, high-end drama series and game shows.

Although better known for his film & media work, he has also had a broad-based career spanning advertising & design, journalism, theatre production, visual arts and music.