Karim Rashid was born in 1960 in Cairo. As a young man he moved to Canada, where in 1982 he graduated in Industrial Design at Carleton University in Ottawa. At a later time, he pursued his design studies in Italy: in Naples with Ettore Sottsass and in Milan at the Industrial Design studio of Rodolfo Bonetto. After having moved back to Canada, in Toronto, he collaborated with KAN Industrial Designers and, at the same time, he founded Babel Inc. and North Studio (1985-91).