About

About · founded 2003

The work of translation is the work of trust.

Top Notch was founded in 2003 in Cairo with the support of a small group of senior translators — specialists with decades of experience in business, law, finance, IT, telecommunications, medicine, pharmaceuticals, banking, oil and gas.

Over two decades later, the principle has not changed. Every document is translated by a specialist in the field. Every translation is revised by one or more editors. We dedicate all the time and effort needed for each and every job — we never measure the time against its financial return.

Today we work with world‑leading clients across the Middle East and beyond — McKinsey, Thomson Reuters, USAID, Mercedes‑Benz, Central Bank of Bahrain, Saudi Skills Standards, Telecom Egypt. We are registered at Dun & Bradstreet (D‑U‑N‑S No. 535285977).

Sherifa El Kerdany
Founder & CEO

Sherifa El Kerdany

Founded Top Notch in 2003 with a small team of senior translators. Continues to personally oversee senior legal and financial engagements.

Cairo, Egypt 22 yrs
Milestones

A selection of work.

Selected engagements where Top Notch served as the preferred strategic partner — see the case studies for detail.

  1. 2003
    Top Notch founded in Cairo.
    A small team of senior translators sets out to build “the international bureau of allied translators”.
  2. 2007–2010
    Mercedes‑Benz advertising campaigns.
    Multi‑year creative localization partnership.
  3. 2010–2017
    McKinsey & Company “on call” provider.
    Including the MERS‑CoV crisis support in Saudi Arabia.
  4. 2011
    Central Bank of Bahrain Rulebook.
    Public tender. Translation of the full CBB Rulebook.
  5. 2014–2015
    Saudi Skills Standards programme.
    One of the world’s largest vocational‑training upgrades — 100K → 400K students.
  6. 2020s
    UAE branch established.
    Expanding to serve clients across the GCC from a Gulf base.
Credentials

Registered. Verified. Bonded.

Dun & Bradstreet

D-U-N-S No. 535285977 · Top Notch is registered with the world’s leading source of business information.

Specialist translators

Every project is led by a translator with field expertise — lawyers for contracts, doctors for clinical reports, engineers for technical manuals.

NDA & encryption

Every staff translator signs a project NDA. Documents are transmitted and stored encrypted at rest.

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