Firas Abi-Nassif is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Teleios Capital, an activist hedge fund based in Switzerland with over $1 billion in assets. He currently also serves as Chairman of the Board of Kongsberg Automotive, a publicly traded company and leading global automotive supplier. From 2008 to 2011, Abi-Nassif served as Director of Investments at Vision Capital, a New York-based special situations hedge fund with $1 billion in assets, after working in Investment Banking at Credit Suisse in New York. Formerly, Abi-Nassif was a member of the founding team of Airvana, a leading global telecommunications equipment vendor, acquired for $535 million after going public on the Nasdaq. Prior to that, he held senior engineering roles at Motorola. Over the course of his career, Abi-Nassif produced seven internationally patented inventions in the field of telecommunications. Firas Abi-Nassif obtained an Engineering degree in Computer and Communications with Distinction from the American University of Beirut, an MS in Telecommunications Engineering from Northeastern University, and an MBA in Finance and Economics with honors from Harvard Business School.
Labib AbouZahr is a Cardiothoracic surgeon and CEO of the Labib Medical Center in Sidon. He established the Cardiac Surgery program at the Labib Medical Center and the Clemenceau Medical Center in Beirut, where he also practices. Prior to that, he had a career in Cardiothoracic surgery at the University of Toronto from 1997 to 1999 and McMaster University from 1999 to 2005. Labib AbouZahr is a medical graduate from the American University in Beirut. He specialized in General Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto.
Diane Assaf is a partner at Assaf & Associate Law Firm. Prior to joining the firm, she worked at DS Avocats in Paris and briefly worked at Dewey & Leboeuf in London. Her practice focuses on real estate, corporate and commercial, employment law and dispute resolution. Following the Beirut Port explosion on August 4, 2020, and after having lost one of her closest friends, Assaf launched a platform to spread legal awareness. Through this platform, she plays an active role in shedding the light on the flaws of the Lebanese judiciary. Assaf has been a member of a number of committees of the Beirut Bar Association and is currently a member of the Beirut Bar Association legal team in charge of reviewing the National Action Plan for Human Rights in cooperation with the Regional Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Diane Assaf earned her Master’s degree in Media and Communication Law from Université Paris-2 Pantheon Assas and a law degree from Université Saint Joseph in Beirut.
Amer Bisat, PhD, is the Global Head of Emerging Markets at BlackRock and a member of the firm’s Global Fixed Income Executive Committee. In this capacity, he leads a team managing approximately $40 billion in government and corporate bonds. Dr. Bisat's service with BlackRock dates back to 2013. Prior to that, he was a partner in two macro hedge funds, and held portfolio management responsibilities at UBS and Morgan Stanley. Between 1991 and 1998, he was a senior economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) where he helped negotiate high profile programs with Russia, Ukraine, and Egypt. Dr. Bisat taught graduate level economics courses at Columbia University, co-authored a book on globalization and academic and policy papers on growth and financial sector development. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and sits on the Advisory Council of the Carnegie Middle East Center. He is a trustee of a number of Middle Eastern cultural and art institutions. Dr. Bisat earned a bacherlor's degree in economics from the American University of Beirut and a PhD in economics from Columbia University.
Karim Bitar is the Director of the Institute of Political Science at Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut (USJ) and Senior Fellow at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations in Paris (IRIS). He is an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP) and a Research Associate at Brussels’ Institut Medea. In addition, Bitar is the Vice-President of the Circle of Arab Economists and the secretary general of the Emile Bitar Foundation. Karim Bitar graduated from France’s National School of Administration and from the Paris Institute of Political Studies. He also studied Law at the University of Paris Sorbonne and obtained a BA in Economics and International Relations from McGill University. He spent his senior year at Harvard where he studied Government and specialized in Middle East Studies.
Rabih El-Amine is the founder and CEO of Alef international, a major force in Saudi Arabia's marketing communications industry, specialized in public relations and content management. El-Amine has built an extensive business network within the GCC, Levant and European markets, and with over 30 years of media and marketing communications experience under his belt, he is deemed as an excellent source of counsel for organizations and businessmen on diverse aspects of the local and regional market. In early 2021 El-Amine joined the Lebanese American University’s (LAU) “President’s Advancement Advisory Council”, a select group of volunteers in pursuit of resources to fulfill LAU’s mission of quality higher education and health care. He recently launched the Lebanese Executive Council, a diaspora platform to bring together Lebanese professionals and businessmen. He was also a member of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce Marketing Committee between 2005 and 2012, and the Secretary of the Lebanese Business Council in KSA for 14 years.
Ali Khalil is the Chief Executive Officer of Kuwait Financial Centre “Markaz” a publicly listed Kuwaiti investment company. He has more than 33 years of investment banking and asset management experience spent between Kuwait and the United States, with the Markaz Group of Companies. He is the Chairman of the Board of First-Equilease, and the Vice Chairman at Kuwait’s Heavy Engineering Industries and Shipbuilding Company, (PLC). He is the Chairman of the Lebanese Business Council in Kuwait since 2020. Ali Khalil holds an MBA from INSEAD, a M.Sc., and a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University, USA.
Randa Khalil is a jewelry designer and owner of Randa Khalil Raad Jewelry. She learned jewelry design at the Museum of Islamic Art, during the late 1980s in Kuwait. Her extensive collaborations with goldsmiths, stone setters and enamelists allowed her to develop her creativity from experts and creatives from around the world. Khalil has long used her talents to benefit charities, first for organizations helping the handicapped in Geneva and later by giving proceeds from her sales to Medecins Sans Frontieres in the Emirates and the Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon.
Albert Kostanian is an economist and an expert in strategy. He is also the content producer and host of “Vision 2030”, a leading TV show on LBCI that provides a platform for an in-depth debate around politics and policy making in Lebanon. He has founded and is heading the Beirut office of Arthur D. Little, the world premier strategy consulting firm, after having spent years with the firm in France. His main areas of expertise are in Telecom and infrastructure and he worked for major international corporations and governments in a dozen of countries. Kostanian has also established a boutique consultancy “Levant Consult”. He is a Senior Fellow for economy in Issam Fares Institute for Public Policies at the American University of Beirut. He is committed to promoting reforms in Lebanon and regularly publishes articles and studies in various domains in addition to having been active in politics and policy making. Albert Kostanian holds an MSc from the HEC School in Paris and a BA in Economics from the Saint-Joseph University in Beirut.
Dalia Salaam Rishani is a publisher, an Educational and Scholarships Advisor and a Human Rights Advocate. After debuting her career in Finance at SG Warburg Securities, she established Hood Hood Books, a publishing house specializing in interfaith and the Islamic and Eastern civilizations. She is Vice-Chair at the Centre for Lebanese Studies, an independent academic research institution, based in Lebanon, and affiliated with St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and more recently with the University of Cambridge. She is also a Global Advisor to the Knight Hennessy Scholarship Program at Stanford University and a trustee of St. Peter’s Foundation at Oxford University. Rishani has a particular interest in advancing Women’s Rights in Lebanon and sits on the committee of Human Rights Watch (Beirut). Dalia Salaam Rishani obtained a BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from St. Peter’s College, Oxford University and a MSc. from Georgetown University, School of Foreign Service, Washington D.C.
Wafa Saab is the CEO of Tinol Paints, a leader in the Paint & Coatings industry in the Middle East. She was elected as the Personality of the Year in the Industry Sector in 2012 and was the first woman to be elected as President of the Worldwide Alumni Association of AUB in 2015. She is currently chair of the AMIDEAST/Lebanon Board, and sits on the boards of various non-profit organizations, namely Embrace, the Beiteddine Festival, the Lebanese Red Cross, and Mission Joy. Wafa Saab holds a BA in Human Development from LAU and an Executive MBA from AUB.