Mahmoud Gaafar graduated from the American University in Cairo, 1975. After a spell working for Radio Cairo and the United Nations, he entered the field of Pan-Arab Advertising with multinational companies and worked extensively in the Middle East. In 1986 he moved to settle permanently in the UK where he co-founded g-and-w . Together Mahmoud and Jane Wightwick now run g-and-w Publishing and have produced a range of educational material. During their careers, they have both also been active as tutors, project managers and consultants on a wide range of projects, all of which involved Arabic, the Middle East and Language Learning.