Mona Bu-Azza Bawarshi (BBA ’70, MBA ’77) is the CEO of Gezairi Transport, a company that her father founded, and vice president of RDCL World. An active philanthropist, Mona is a proud member of the Board of Trustees of the Makassed Association and of International College (IC). She is also a member of the AUB President’s Club. In 2017, she worked with author Ismail al Saghir on a book about her father’s career titled A Humble Journey of Epic Proportions. She recently worked with author Talal Shatawi on a new book, Mona’s Stories… Ayam Mona.
Guy Tower [Tawwa] (BBA ’71) writes, “Following my AUB graduation, I went to Boston University for an MBA. I worked for GTE/Sylvania on their project in Algeria and then joined Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City, covering Egypt, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. I left Chase to join MTA/LIRR as a manager of strategic planning. After 21 years there, I retired to Colorado, ranches, horses, and the cowboy stuff. Fifteen years later, my wife and I moved to Southern California to be close to our two daughters and six grandchildren.”
Jamal Alomari (BS ’81) writes, “I have wonderful memories of AUB, where I first met students from Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Greece. After graduation, I went to Jordan, where I earned a master’s degree—and then, nine years later, to China, where I earned a PhD. I worked in industry for many years but am now teaching at Al-Ahliyya Amman University in Jordan. I have connected with another AUB alumnus, who is also teaching at Al-Ahliyya. We often sit together and reminisce about our days at AUB. I would love to connect with other classmates from my time at AUB.”
Randa Khalil (BE ’81) writes, “I live in Vancouver with my husband, Alfred Vogel, and work at SNC Lavalin as a healthcare lead. I am responsible for acquiring projects for our electrical and mechanical departments, designing the electrical portion, tendering and administering the projects, etc. In December 2019, I was proud to receive the Certification of Fellowship Engineer from Engineers Canada. I still love what I do and am glad I stuck with my decision to major in electrical engineering despite the opposition I faced back then. I am an active member and treasurer of the British Columbia Chapter. I miss Lebanon a lot and try to visit annually.
Yasser Mohanna (BE ’86) writes, “I earned my master’s and PhD degrees in optoelectronics from the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble (INPG) France in 1987 and 1989 respectively. I worked for several companies in France and Lebanon before joining the Lebanese University in 1994. I was promoted to full professor in 2009. I have several responsibilities, including being director of the Faculty of Sciences. I have authored or coauthored more than 50 research papers and have co-supervised PhD students as well. I was president of the AUB Alumni Association South Lebanon branch for many years and am still an active member of WAAAUB.”
Amin Shaban (MS ’88) writes, “I learned a lot as a geology student and began my professional life focused on scientific research. My years at AUB gave me ambition to explore life all over the globe. I have traveled a lot, but still have strong memories of my time at AUB. I am now the director of research at the National Council of Scientific Research in Beirut, where I have worked since 1997. I am in close touch with AUB and am part of several scientific programs there. I live in Beirut with my lovely family, my wife Mariam and cute twins Adam and Yara.”
Noura El Kady Kurdian (BA ’91) writes, “I am a very proud alumna. I cherish my days at AUB and treasure the memories I built throughout my three years there. I am an HR professional at MetLife (American Life Insurance Company), where I have been working for more than 25 years. I am passionate about this field that allows me to stay in touch with people and to help them as much as I can. My husband and I have two children: the oldest, Alexandra, will be studying law at the Sorbonne next year; the youngest, Serge, will hopefully study at AUB.”
Ghada Zeid El-Zein (BA ’91, TD Special Education ’92) writes, “I am currently the director of health & social services at Sadr Foundation (where I have been working since 2002), a community-based NGO in Lebanon. I am also a national surveyor for quality standards in primary care for the Ministry of Public Health and ACI and a part-time instructor at the Islamic University of Lebanon and the Modern University for Business and Science, British Academy, in Lebanon’s MBA program. I earned my MBAIP in health management from USJ & Paris-Dauphine and my DBA in healthcare quality from Staffordshire University. My son, Hadi-Gabriel Hammoud, is a third-year honor’s student at AUB.”
Rabih K. Hassan (BS ’94, MS ’98), who earned an MS (2016) and PhD (2019) in industrial engineering from Atlantic International University (AIU) in Florida, writes, “I consider AUB my second home and adore going each day either to walk or do some sports and relax there and remember lovely memories. My passion led me back to AUB after 20 years to do a master’s in energy. I am happy to continue learning at this great institution and to be able to live life abundantly. I am so sad that everything has stopped due to COVID-19, but I believe that we will be back soon with even greater potential that will be transformed to additional achievements and success.”
Ibrahim Duhaini (BS ’95, TD ’96) has been the chief medical physicist and radiation safety officer at Rafik Hariri University Hospital since 2004. He is also an instructor at the Lebanese University and CEO and general manager of Radiation Expert Group. In 2000, he earned a master’s degree in medical physics from Wayne State University Medical School in Detroit, Michigan. Ibrahim has won several awards in recent years, including the International Day of Medical Physics Award in 2015, the International Organization of Medical Physics Presidential Award in 2016, the International Organization of Medical Physics Fellow Award (FIOMP) in 2017, and the Lebanese University Pioneer Award in 2018.
Dima El-Khechen (BS ’96, MS ’02) writes, “After my AUB degree in biology I went on to get a master’s in genetic counseling in the US. I worked as a clinical genetic counselor for many years in neurology and pediatric clinics before transitioning to my current position as a laboratory counselor, working on whole exome sequencing and rare disease testing. I currently live in California with my husband.”
Hasan Al Ali (BA ’99), PhD, writes, “I loved my time at AUB. I was the MVP of the volleyball varsity team for five straight years (1994–99) and athlete of the year twice. Although I was a pre-med student, I earned MBA and PhD degrees in finance and business economics at Northwest University in the US. I am now the co-owner and CEO of three companies dealing with recruitment and the international trade of medicine, supplies, and cement. I provide training and development services to ministries and corporations in the Gulf and the Central Bank of Lebanon, represent the Vitala Group in MENA and Southeast Asia, and teach part-time. My wife Rana and I are blessed with three daughters: Serena, Oriana, and Skyla.”
Zeina Majdalani (BE ’00, MEM ’03, MBA ’09) writes, “I completed three degrees from the university. I love AUB! In 2003, I joined Khatib & Alami for a year before moving to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, where I worked with the Development Office of the Prime Minister. I am currently the president of the Lebanese Women Engineers Committee, which I founded in 2018, at the Order of Engineers and Architects. I am married to Bassem Abi Farah (CCE ’94). Thank you AUB for giving me the tools to shape my career path and helping me get to where I am today. I am proud to be an AUB alumna.”
Carine Bouery (former student, 2001), writes, “After leaving AUB in 2001, my career in graphic design, which eventually evolved into marketing and communications, kicked off in-house with Weatherford and Siemens in the UAE. However, it was when I worked at British American Tobacco that I found my curiosity for solving workplace anxiety through a game I created that improved employee engagement. In 2015, I set up my own consultancy and furthered my studies in the science of happiness, leadership, and innovation. Since then, I have been working with businesses to design positive employee experiences, which I was recognized for at the World HRD Congress India and at Entrepreneur’s Achieving Women Awards UAE in 2019.”
Jawad Sabbah (BE ’02) writes, “After graduation, I emigrated to the US to start my career. During my first engineering job at Philip Morris, my passion for the commercial side of the business became apparent. I made the transition to the pharmaceutical industry at GlaxoSmithKline and took on increasingly responsible roles in sales and marketing in the US, Middle East, and South Korea. I spent 13 years at GSK. I recently joined AstraZeneca as their Global Head of Lifecycle Management for Fasenra, a product used to treat severe asthma. I’m very grateful for what AUB’s education has helped me achieve.”
Rola Kazem (MA ’05) writes, “After completing my MA in TEFL, I embarked on a journey that culminated in obtaining my doctoral degree in TEFL (with honors), from the Lebanese University. I am grateful to all my university professors who instilled in me a love of teaching and passion for exploration—exploration of the inner self and unveiling all hidden potential. This academic experience helped me set a new path in educational consultancy and training. Along with all of the aforementioned, I am a proud mother of two and am living proof that ‘Yes! A Woman Can Do It’—with the right amount of support and a sprinkle of determination.”
Imad Ezzeddine (BS ’06) writes, “After graduating with a BS in biology, I was guided by my brilliant professors to explore a career in clinical trials. I luckily started my career in this domain in Beirut directly after graduation then moved to London in 2009 to pursue two master’s degrees in international business and business administration. I have successfully moved up through different roles in the industry am now a global clinical trial manager for a renowned international clinical research organization based in London, where I oversee trials in over 50 countries across all continents with over 4,000 patients recruited. AUB was a stepping-stone in my life. I remember my days there fondly.”
Rouba Mhaissen (BA ’09), PhD, is founder and director of Sawa Foundation, UK, which supports forced migrants in Europe and the Middle East, and of Sawa for Development and Aid, Lebanon, which supports Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Rouba has been the recipient of numerous awards in recent years, including Norway’s Rafto Prize (2019) and the Vital Voices Global Leadership Award for Human Rights (2019). She was listed as one of 30 Under 30 for Policy and Law by Forbes magazine in 2017.
Nabil Natafgi (BS ’09, MPH ’11) writes, “I attribute a lot of my personal growth and professional success to the eight years I spent at AUB—learning, experiencing, understanding, laughing, crying, stressing out, succeeding, and failing on a campus I love and with a diverse community of scholars and friends. I am now an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health. My research focuses on telehealth effectiveness and evaluation and methodologies of patient engagement in research. I am also the associate director of the MHA program and teach managerial epidemiology and advanced topics in healthcare management.
Reem El Fatayri (BBA ’10) writes, “I am currently living and working in San Francisco. I worked as a graduate assistant for a year at HULT International Business School after completing my MBA degree at HULT in 2017. In September 2018, I joined the computer software company, Branch Metrics, Inc. Since 2017, I have been involved with a new tech startup called TheVoizApp helping out with communications and finance-related matters.”
Naji Bakhti (BA ‘11) writes, “After graduating from AUB, I earned MA and PhD degrees in creative writing at the University of Westminster (MA 2012) and Lancaster University (PhD 2018). My love of writing was encouraged at AUB with the creative writing course electives and the support of professors like Dr. Robert Myers. I have recently written a novel, Between Beirut and the Moon, which will be published by Influx Press in London in August and soon after in Beirut (Virgin and Antoine). It is a coming of age novel about a young man growing up in post-war Beirut and dreaming of becoming an astronaut. I know that these are tough times for the country, the university, and indeed academia in general, but my novel harkens back to a somewhat simpler time when all we really had to worry about were the occasional neighborly airstrikes and rampant militias running around the streets of Beirut. If I leave the country again – and I know that many of my generation of academics and writers are contemplating the same – then I hope to come back one day and find a spot by West Hall on one of those green benches.”
Aline Daoud (BE ’11) writes, “I have worked in various capacities as a civil engineer in Lebanon and Qatar. I am now the managing director of Konnect&co., a procurement and supply chain management company that I established in 2017. It is a rare and much sought after business, especially in the construction field, and serves the private and government sectors in Lebanon, GCC, and Europe. It provides a wide spectrum of services, such as construction finishing materials and fit-out works, and focuses on exporting Lebanese talent and products. I am also a sworn engineer for the Lebanese courts and mentored AUB students in the Industrial Engineering (INDE) 412 course in fall 2018.”
Mostafa Fadlallah (BS ’11) writes, “I am currently a technical consultant in UAE, leading digital change in huge organizations across the MENA region. I work daily with AUB alumni, some even from my class, and am close friends with several of them. It’s always heartwarming to recall my days at AUB studying computer science and as editor of the Arabic section of Outlook. My wife, Duja Bazzi, earned a certificate from AUB’s Continuing Education Center. We got married three years ago and have been blessed with a one-year-old child. Whenever we fly back to Beirut, we find time to pass by AUB for coffee and a drive down memory lane and to sit at ‘that bench.’”
Zeina Koreitem (BAR ’11) writes, “After graduating from AUB, I earned graduate degrees from the University of Toronto and Harvard University. I cofounded MILLIØNS, an experimental design practice based in Los Angeles. Our work ranges from books, publications, furniture, fabric, exhibitions, and interiors to buildings. We have worked on commercial, residential, and institutional projects in the US, Germany, and Lebanon. Our practice was recently selected to reimagine the east wing of I. M. Pei’s Everson Museum in Syracuse, NY. Our work has been featured in Harvard Design Magazine, Flaunt Magazine, Dezeen, ArchDaily, Architect’s Newspaper, i. D., a+t, Sight Unseen, and Azure, among others, and in a catalog of our work on experimental collective living entitled New Massings for New Masses: Collectivity After Orthography (MIT SA+P Press, 2015). I live and work in Topanga Canyon, California, with my husband and partner. We both teach architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc).”
Rami S. Kantar (BS ’08, MD ’13) writes, “I am a surgeon-in-training at The University of Maryland Medical System/Shock Trauma Center. Since graduating from AUB, I have completed postdoc fellowships focused on facial transplantation at NYU and experimental therapeutics at Harvard Medical School. I have recently received an MPH from Columbia and am passionate about global surgery and providing surgical care to underprivileged populations, which has fueled my volunteer efforts with Global Smile Foundation to provide free comprehensive cleft care to children around the world. I am a proud AUBite and consider myself privileged to have received my education at AUB.”
Eman Zabalawi (BBA ’13) writes, “Since graduating, I have gained experience marketing different brands. I joined Y&R before discovering my passion for marketing for social good that led me to Edraak, an initiative of the Queen Rania Foundation to improve education in the Arab world. I recently joined the communications team at Tamatem in Jordan. I look back at my AUB years and reminisce about the good times, the knowledge we gained, the friendships we made, and all the experiences we went through. I have a story to tell about every spot in the campus. AUB helped make me the person I am today. I will forever be grateful for that.”
Serena Srour (BBA ’14) writes, “Hello everyone! Six years after graduation, and after executing everything AUB taught me (from educational skills to soft skills), I am today the marketing manager of Lamborghini, Bentley, and Jaguar Lebanon. I am also the founder of The Gang ME—a celebrity and talent management agency that also specializes in branding and image consultancy. I still hold very dear AUB memories in my heart! Make sure to enjoy every moment, as each one teaches you something for the future.”
Anna Serio (MA ’15) writes, “I’m working as a staff writer at finder.com in New York. It’s a website that helps consumers make informed decisions. I specialize in loans—especially personal, business, and student loans. My job is to help readers navigate the complicated side of borrowing, make sure they know what they’re signing up for, and find a good deal. My time at AUB taught me the skills I use every day to write accurate, clean copy about a subject that can be difficult to understand.”
Mohamad El Bohsaly (BS ’17) writes, “After graduating from AUB with a degree in computer science, I got involved with several domains related to IT and business, such as eLearning, software engineering, and information systems. Currently, I am working toward becoming a hardcore software engineer and analyst. Many thanks to everyone at AUB who helped me develop my roadmap.”
Christina Battikha (BArch ’19) writes, “I am a fresh graduate who discovered her passion for architecture at AUB. After graduating with several academic achievements, I joined Dar al Handasah (Shair and partners) in August 2019, where I currently work. In recent months, I have won the Omrania and Chaderji architectural awards for my thesis project titled “X cavating the future of Sidon.”
Angie Fares (BS ’19) writes, “After earning my BS in biology, I began studying for my MD degree. Thanks to the education I have received and the experience I have gained overcoming hardships and obstacles in our country, I am now on the path to achieving my dream: becoming a doctor. I am among many students who have been given the opportunity at AUB to satisfy our thirst for knowledge while being prepared to lead humanitarian and responsible initiatives that will hopefully make a positive change in our community and improve our country. AUB, I am infinitely grateful. AUB, you made me who I am.”
Our Legacy: the Abdul Rahman Al Azem Scholarship
“My father had an impressive career. He was elected to the Syrian Parliament at the age of 24, appointed minister of finance at the age of 27, and was Syria’s ambassador to Egypt, Japan, Spain, and England. His signature appears on the first Syrian currency that was issued in 1957. When he retired from public office in 1963, he established a successful business in Saudi Arabia,” remembers AUB alumnus Farid Al Azem (BBA ’74).
What his family did not know was that Abdul Rahman Al Azem had also been a generous philanthropist and provided financial support that enabled many young people to pursue their educations. “So many people came up to us after my father passed away in 2015 to thank us for his support. We had no idea,” remembers Farid. “With this scholarship, we are celebrating my father’s life and supporting a cause that was important to him: education. This is what he would have wanted.”