WAAAUB Elections – Fall 2019
Ghassan Abou-Alfa (BS ’88, MD ’92) is professor of medicine, attending physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering, chair of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Hepatobiliary Task Force, and president of the International Society of Gastrointestinal Oncology, and serves on the Blue Faery Liver Cancer Foundation. He and his wife, Dr. Eileen O’Reilly, support the AUB Trinity Endowed Exchange Program for Medical Students. Abou-Alfa received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016.
Leila Bissat (BA ’76) is a member of the Baalbeck International Festival, a founding member of the Friends of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, a member of the Next Step NGO, and a founding member of the Ajialouna Association. Bissat is also a member of the President’s Club, a member of the Society of the Friends of the AUB Museum, and a founding member and president of the Executive Committee of the Zaki Nassif Program Friends Club.
Salwa Darraj (BBA ’13) is a senior consultant at Ernst and Young (EY), where she is the Women’s Network Champion. She is a Board of Directors member and committee chairman for the Welfare Association for Youth and serves on the Imperial College Alumni Advisory Board. A published writer and student mentor, Darraj is also a registered advisor with AUB’s Alumni Mentoring Platform and a fellow at the Chartered Management Institute in the UK.
Wael Abdul Malak (BA ’94, BBA ’99, MMB ’03) is the executive director of Alpen Capital. He is a senior corporate and investment banker with 25 years of experience at different institutions in Lebanon, Kuwait, and the UAE. Abdul Malak was a board member and president of the WAAAUB Programs Committee (2015-17). He was also treasurer of the AUB Alumni Association in Abu Dhabi (2008-13). (MENA; elected)
Rania Afiouni Monla (BEN ’95, MBA ’01) is currently a PhD student at McGill University. She has extensive entrepreneurship experience in Lebanon and the Middle East. Afiouni Monla has also held academic appointments at Prince Sultan University in Riyadh and at AUB and LAU in Beirut. She is a member of the Montreal Alumni Chapter, LebNet, and of the Montreal AI Ethics Group, which is part of the Montreal AI Ethics Institute. (North America; appointed)
Rim Bassil (BBA ’05) is the CEO of FAST Contracting & Development. As an AUB student, she was a member of the Business Students Society, the Marketing Society, and the International Students Society. She is currently an active member of the AUB alumni chapter in Germany. (Europe; elected)
Randa Bdeir (BBA ’79, MMB ’93) is the deputy general manager and head of E-Payments Solutions & Cards Technology at Credit Libanais SAL. Bdeir was the first Arab woman to become a member of the Board of Directors of MasterCard Worldwide for the Middle East & Africa region, a position she has held since 2000. In 2017, Bdeir established the Randa Bdeir Leadership Award in Recognition of Outstanding Leadership in Supporting the Careers of Women at AUB. (Lebanon; elected)
Christina Bilalian (BS ’06) is a general practitioner and family physician at the Wandsworth Medical Centre in London where she has worked since August 2016. Dr. Bilalian is the former vice president and current president of the UK Alumni Chapter. (Europe; appointed)
Tarek Bolbol (BBA ’05) is a Dubai-based entrepreneur and founder/CEO of Booklava, the first subscription-based audiobook platform in the Arab world. In 2018, he was selected as an Arab Youth Pioneer by the UAE Prime Minister’s Office. Since graduating from AUB, he has lived and worked in Switzerland, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, and the UAE. Bolbol was an elected member of the WAAAUB Council in 2009-11. (MENA; elected)
Abdallah Darwiche (BEN ’75) is vice chairman of Alfayhaa for construction contracting and a board member of Paravision. He previously worked at Khatib&Alami in Beirut (1975-77) and Sogex Co in Saudi Arabia (1977-84). In 1984, he co-founded Alfayhaa. He has been a member, treasurer, and vice president (1998-2008) of the Riyadh Alumni Chapter; and was a member of the WAAAUB Council (2011-15) and Nominating Committee (2013-15) and the treasurer of the Board of Directors of WAAAUB (2014-15). (Lebanon; appointed)
Karam Doumet (BBA ’78, MBA ’80) is the honorary consul general of Ecuador to Lebanon. A founding member of WAAAUB’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee, he is a long-standing member of the Mount Lebanon Chapter’s Board of Directors and also a current member of the Managing Board of the newly restructured AUB Alumni Association (AAA). (Lebanon; appointed)
Adham El-Khalil (BS ’85) is the CEO of Eurofind Participation, a group based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, with subsidiaries in three countries in Africa. It is active in the steel, PVC, and food products and beverage sectors. (Rest of the world; appointed)
Haya Imam (BBA ’99) works in the Group Compliance Office at Hikma Pharmaceuticals. She is also a member of the B20 Anti-Corruption Taskforce and an active member of the UN Global Compact’s Anti-Corruption Working Group and World Economic Forum’s Partnering Against Corruption Initiative’s (PACI) working group. Imam serves on the selection board of Takreem Organization and is also the vice president of the Jordan Alumni Chapter. (MENA; appointed)
Racha Itani (MEM ’18) is a university lecturer in the Department of Architecture, Art and Design at Notre Dame University. In April 2009, Itani co-organized and participated in Youth Building Reconciliation II for ALEF Act for Human Rights in Beirut, Lebanon. Since February 2013, she has been a board member and vice president of the Lebanon Green Building Council (LGBC) in Beirut. (Lebanon; Young Alumni/Recent Graduate; elected)
Haytham Kaafarani (BS ’99, MD ’03) is an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, a trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), medical director of the MGH Center for Outcomes & Patient Safety in Surgery (COMPASS), and the TESSCC Director of Research. He was vice-president and later president of the AUB Surgical Alumni Association of North America (SAANA) and is an active member of the New England alumni chapter. (North America; elected)
Amin Nadim Khalaf (BA ’90) is a partner at Ernst & Young, LLP based in New York. He has been with the firm since 1998. Prior to joining Ernst & Young, Khalaf taught economics at Columbia University and Vassar College. Khalaf received his MA (1992) and PhD (1997) degrees in economics from Columbia University. He is a former president of the New York alumni chapter. (North America; appointed)
Nabil Kronfol (BS ’65, MD ’69) is currently retired. He was previously a professor and chairman of the Department of Health Services Administration at FHS. He has been a board member of the Al-Makassed Philanthropic Islamic Association of Beirut (since 2002), Dar Al Aytam (since 2005), and Dar Al Ajazza (since 2014) and a former board member of the Joint Commission International (2010-16). He was the secretary of the WAAAUB Board of Directors, 2013-15.(Lebanon; elected)
Eliza Markidou (BS ’84) is head of the Nutrition Department at the Ministry of Health in Cyprus. She coordinates activities related to dietetics and nutrition at the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Defense, and Ministry of Agriculture where she is in charge of the Nutrition Action Plan for Cyprus. She is the current president (since 2018), former vice president (2015-18), and member-at-large (2010-15) of the Cyprus Chapter. (Europe; appointed)
Elias Melhem (BS ’84) is the John Dennis Tenured Professor and Chair of the Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Melhem has been the vice president of the Greater Baltimore alumni chapter since 2014. He was formerly a member of the International Advisory Committee for the Faculty of Medicine (2011-15) and the AUB Tenure Review Committee(2018). (North America; elected)
Darine Najem (BS ’01, MPH ’03) is an independent behavioral, organizational, and systemic change consultant in Beirut. She has extensive professional experience in the Middle East, North Africa, Greece, and Turkey. Najem previously held leadership positions in the pharmaceutical and FMCG industries including general manager at L’Oréal ACD for Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq(2011-15). She was formerly president of the FHS Alumni Chapter. (Lebanon; appointed)
Nada Safa (EMBA ’11) is director of a family office. She has 22 years of professional experience in the financial sector. One of her core areas of expertise is knowledge of the BRIC markets and technical analysis (behavioral finance). Safa was a member of the WAAAUB EMBA Chapter (2012-15) and has been president of the WAAAUB Business Chapter since December 2015. (Lebanon; elected)