Karim Bitar succeeds Albert Kostanian as head of Kulluna Irada

Beirut, Lebanon - As the term of its Chairman Albert Kostanian expired, the fifteen members of the Board of Directors of Kulluna Irada convened and elected Karim Bitar to succeed him as lead Chair. Wafa Saab and Labib AbouZahr were reelected as co-chairs.

Speaking on behalf of all founders, members of the Board and members of the General Council, Karim Bitar expressed his heartfelt thanks to Albert Kostanian and praised his leadership, modesty and professionalism, that were instrumental in reinforcing Kulluna Irada’s role as a leading civic organization for political reform in Lebanon.

Albert Kostanian said that he will remain fully committed to Kulluna Irada as a board member, and that he will continue the struggle alongside the new chair and all Kulluna Irada members to reclaim Lebanon’s sovereignty, consolidate its national unity, rebuild its State and Institutions and promote the values of modernity, democratic citizenship, political liberalism, economic development and social justice. 

Karim Emile Bitar is Professor of International Relations and former director of the institute of Political Science at the Saint Joseph University of Beirut (USJ). He is also Professor of Middle East Studies at France’s Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS Lyon), Senior Fellow at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations in Paris (IRIS), Non-Resident Scholar at Washington DC’s Middle East Institute (MEI), Associate Fellow at the Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP). He is Cofounder and Vice-President of the Cercle des Economistes Arabes. 

Labib AbouZahr is a Cardiothoracic Surgeon by profession. He’s the CEO of Labib Medical Center (LMC) in Saida and he practices at LMC and Clemenceau Medical Center in Beirut (CMC).

Wafa Saab is an industrialist, the CEO of Tinol Paints and the former president of the Worldwide Alumni Association of the American University of Beirut (AUB). She also chairs the Lebanon board of AMIDEAST.

All three of them are founding members of Kulluna Irada, which regroups dozens of reform-minded professionals in Lebanon and the diaspora.