Karim-Yassin Goessinger, born and schooled in Frankfurt, Germany, was raised by an Austrian father with strong ties to the city of Vienna and an Egyptian mother with even stronger ties to Cairo. After attending a liberal arts college in the Netherlands, a Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro and the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, and working with a range of development agencies, notably in Latin America and on Africa, Karim decided to synthesize his higher educational and professional experiences in what resulted in the creation of the Cairo Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CILAS).