Board of Trustees
Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak
Chair, Board of Trustees.
Suzanne Mubarak has received a number of awards, honors and medals in appreciation of her distinguished efforts in the fields of women’s and children’s rights, activities for the disabled, promotion of education and health services as an integral part of the development process, and supporting the “Reading-for-All” campaign. She has participated in many international and regional conferences, meetings and roundtable discussions on development, peace, children’s rights, women’s issues, environment, health and education. Mrs. Mubarak is the Founder and President of the Suzanne Mubarak Women's International Peace Movement, the Founder of Egypt’s National Women’s Committee and the Arab Women’s Council, and chairs the Board of Trustees of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina.
Short Biographies of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Members of the Board of Trustees
In addition to Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, Chair, the following are the five ex-officio members of the Board of Trustees. The remaining members are invited to serve in their personal capacity.
Ex-officio Members
Hany Helal
Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research
Hany Helal, former President of l’Université Senghour, assumed the post of Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research in January 2006. He is a Professor of Rock Mechanics and Engineering Geology. He is the National TEMPUS Coordinator and is member of several committees and associations. Hany Helal is the recipient of several awards, including the Special Prize of the Egyptian Academy for Scientific Research and Technology in the field of Management and Conservation of Historical Sites, 1993. He became Secretary-General of the Education Development Fund, Egypt in 2005.
Ahmed Abul-Gheit
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ahmed Abul-Gheit, served as Egypt’s Permanent Representative to the UN (1999–2004) and assumed the post of Minister in July 2004. Over the past 30 years, Ahmed Abul-Gheit has served Egypt in numerous diplomatic roles, including: Assistant Foreign Minister of Egypt for Cabinet Affairs; Egypt’s Ambassador to Italy, Macedonia and San Marino; Chef de Cabinet; Political Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Egypt; and Political Counselor, Embassy of Egypt in Moscow. Ahmed Abul-Gheit is a graduate of the Faculty of Commerce, Ain Shams University, Cairo, 1964.
Farouk Hosni
Minister of Culture
Farouk Hosni was previously the Cultural Attaché and Director of the Egyptian Cultural Center in Paris, and Director of the Egyptian Academy in Rome before his appointment as the Minister of Culture 18 years ago. He initiated the transferal of the current Egyptian Museum to create the largest museum in the world; developed and restored Dar El-Kutub; and established the “cultural development fund” responsible for producing and promoting cultural products. He received an Honorary Doctorate and was awarded the Prize of Culture of Peace, from Soka Gakai International University, Japan. He is one of the leading contemporary abstract painters.
Adel Labib
Governor of Alexandria
Adel Ali Labib, current Governor of Alexandria, former Governor of Qena and Beheira, earned his BSc from the Police Academy. He spent over 33 years of service in the Ministry of Interior Affairs, State Security, and was the Deputy Head of National Security. He has engineered innumerable environmental achievements, which culminated in the plan to innovate the infrastructure of Beheira. He received many awards and was granted the Decoration of Excellence of the First Order. In 2006, he was nominated a member of the ABI Hall of Fame.
Hassan Nadir
President of University of Alexandria
Hassan Nadir Kheirallah holds an MSc and PhD in Electrical Engineering, Carleton University, Canada. He specializes in microwave communications. He is currently President of University of Alexandria and former Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Beirut Arab University; and he was the recipient of the University Award for Scientific Encouragement in 1991. He has held various posts at the University, and has numerous publications in the field of education development.
Individual Members
Ahmed Kamal Aboulmagd (Egypt)
(Founding member)
Ahmed Kamal Aboulmagd is a Professor of Law at Cairo University, Egypt. A practicing lawyer in the fields of constitutional and administrative law , a member of the Royal Moroccan Academy; member of the Institute of Islamic Research at Al-Azhar, member of the National Council for Women’s Affairs, and Vice-President of the National Council for Human Rights in Egypt. In 2001, he was selected to co-author a document, endorsed by the General Assembly, entitled “Crossing the Divide” on dialogue among civilizations. He is author of several books and articles on constitutional law, and Islamic reforms, including: Dialogue Not Confrontation and A Contemporary Islamic Viewpoint.
Martti Ahtisaari (Finland)
(member as of 2004)
Martti Ahtisaari is former President of the Republic of Finland (1994–2000). Upon leaving office, he founded and is Chairman of the Board of the Crisis Management Initiative. In2005, he was appointed UN Special Envoy for the future status process for Kosovo. He is a member of the Joint Advisor’s Group of the Open Society Institute and the Soros Foundation, and Chairman of the Balkan Children and Youth Foundation, and Global Action Council of the International Youth Foundation, and of the Board of WSP International. Martti Ahtisaari is committed to improving the international commitment to prevent crisis and conflict.
Assia Bensalah Alaoui (Morocco)
(member as of 2004)
Assia Bensalah Alaoui is Ambassador at Large of HM the King of Morocco. Professor of International Law, Assia Bensalah Alaoui serves on a variety of committees for Near-Eastern peace and on a number of Board of Trustees of International Organizations. She is co-President of the High-Level Advisory Group on “Dialogue between Peoples and Cultures in the Euro-Mediterranean Area” (2002/2003). A world renowned specialist in international economic law, she has written extensively on diverse topics such as food security, Maghreb and the Arab world, disarmament, and conflict prevention. She is the author of Green Power and Red Peril; and World Food Security.
Lourdes Arizpe (Mexico)
(member as of 2005)
Lourdes Arizpe is currently professor and researcher at the Regional Center for Multidisciplinary Research of UNAM. She is former Assistant Director-General for Culture at UNESCO (1994–1998). She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology. She is author of twelve books, which include The Cultural Dimensions of Global Change: An Anthropological Approach (1995), and Culture and Global Change: Social Perspectives of Deforestation in the Lacandona Rain Forest in Mexico (1995). She is founding member of the Mexican Academy of Human Rights, member of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Development Report and World Bank Project on Culture and Public Action, and member of the Academic Faculty of the Global Economic Forum, Davos. She holds an honorary membership in the Royal Anthropology Institute, England.
Adel El-Beltagy (Egypt)
(member as of 2006)
Adel El-Beltagy, is currently the Chair of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) (2006–present) and Chairman of IDDC (2003–present). He was Director-General of ICARDA (1995–2006), Director/Board Chairman of Agricultural Research Center, Egypt (1991–1995), First Under-Secretary of State for Land Reclamation, Egypt (1986–1991), Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Moscow, and of the Kyrgyz Agrarian Academy. He is Honorable Professor of the Scientific Council of Azerbaijan Agricultural Academy; Fellow of TWAS, and has been awarded Al-Istiklal Medal by His Majesty King Adbdullah II bin Hussein of Jordan. He has authored/co-authored more than 140 scientific publications.
Margaret Catley-Carlson (Canada)
(Founding member)
Margaret Catley-Carlson is active in organizations that apply science and knowledge to national and international problems in health, agriculture, environmental protection, and development finance. She is Chair of the Global Water Partnership, outgoing Chair of ICARDA, Syria , and member of the Boards of IWMI and IFDC, and of the Council of the World Food Prize. She serves on the UN Secretary-General Advisory Panel on Water. Margaret Catley-Carlson has been President of CIDA, Deputy Minister of Health in Canada, and Deputy Director of UNICEF, with the rank of UN Assistant Secretary-General. She has received eight honorary degrees and in 2002, became an Officer of Order of Canada.
Michael M. Cernea (Romania/USA)
(member as of 2003)
Michael Cernea, Research Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs at George Washington University, has served for two decades as the World Bank’s Senior Advisor for Social Policies and Sociology, and on the CGIAR’s Science Council and TAC (1998–2003). He was elected to Romania’s Academy of Sciences (1992) and is Honorary Professor and Chairman of the Science Board, Social Development Institute, Hohai University, China. Prof. Cernea received the Bronislaw Malinowski Prize and the Solon N. Kimball Award from the American Anthropological Association, as well as other scientific awards. His most recent books are Cultural Heritage and Development: A Framework for Action in the Middle East and North Africa (2002) and Researching the Culture of AgriCulture (2006).
Susan Greenfield (United Kingdom)
(member as of 2006)
Susan Greenfield is Director at the Royal Institution of Great Britain; Fullerian Professor of Physiology; Senior Research Fellow of Lincoln College; Honorary Fellow of St. Hilda’s College, Director of the Institute for the Future of the Mind, and held the Gresham Chair of Physic. Baroness Susan Greenfield’s post doctoral research was at the Collège de France, Paris, and New York University Medical Center, New York. She authored The Human Brain: A Guided Tour (1997); Private Life of the Brain (2000) and her latest is Tomorrow’s People. She received 28 honorary degrees and awards among which the Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur (2003), the Michael Faraday medal by the Royal Society (1998). She was elected to an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians (1999).
Vartan Gregorian (Iran)
(member as of 2006)
Vartan Gregorian is the twelfth president of Carnegie Corporation of New York and was the sixteenth president of Brown University for 9 years. He earned his PhD in history and humanities. He was founding Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, and 4 years later became its twenty-third provost. He was president of the New York Public Library for 8 years and then president of Brown University. Vartan Gregorian is the author of The Road to Home: My Life And Times, and Islam: A Mosaic, Not A Monolith. He is a recipient of numerous fellowships, awards and 56 honorary degrees and served on boards of various institutions.
Abdel-Latif Al-Hamad (Kuwait)
(Founding member)
Abdel-Latif Al-Hamad is the Founding Director-General of the Kuwait Development Fund, and the Dean of Arab Development Efforts. He currently serves as Chairman and CEO of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD). He also serves on many international boards, most recently the World Bank and the World Commission on Water in the 21st Century.
Abd El Aziz Hegazi (Egypt)
(member as of 2007)
Abd El Aziz Hegazi is former Prime Minister of Egypt (1974–1975). Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade. He is currently an expert in the field of economics and accounting, and professor of auditing, Faculty Of Commerce, Cairo University. He is also chair, member, and consultant at a number of institutions and associations in Egypt and abroad. he has participated in a number of conferences and events such as the Fifth Summit Council for World Peace held in Korea in 1992. In recognition of his innumerable contributions, he has received numerous awards from Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Jean-Noël Jeanneney (France)
(member as of 2003)
Jean-Noël Jeanneney is a history professor, currently teaching contemporary history at the Institute of Political Studies, Paris. He has been president of both Radio France and Radio France Internationale and served twice as Secretary of State. He served as chairman of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (March 2002-April 2007). His published works include François de Wendel en République, l’Argent et le pouvoir (new edition published by Perrin in 2004); L’Histoire va-t-elle plus vite? Variations sur un vertige (Gallimard, 2001); Clemenceau, portrait d’un homme libre (Mengès, 2005); Quand Google défiel’Europe, plaidoyer pour un sursaut (Mille et une nuits, 2005, 2nd edition 2006).
Michael A Keller (USA)
(member as of 2007)
Michael A. Keller is the Ida M. Green University Librarian, Director of Academic Information Resources, and Publisher of HighWire Press and Stanford University Press. He has served as Advisor and Committee Member at the American Association for the Advancement of Science and other scholarly societies. In 1995, he established HighWire Press as an enterprise within the Stanford University Libraries to provide online co-publishing services. In 1999, he became Co-Founder of the Stanford-California State Library Institute on 21st Century Librarianship, a continuing-education program focused on issues of leadership and technology in libraries. He has taught Musicology at Stanford University and produced an annotated bibliography popularly known as Duckles in honor of Vincent H. Duckles, former Head of the Music Library and Professor in the Department of Music at the University of California, Berkeley.
Kiyoshi Kurokawa (Japan)
(member as of 2006)
Kiyoshi Kurokawa, MD, is Special Advisor on Science and Innovation to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe; Professor of Graduate Research Institute of Policy Studies; Immediate past President of the Science Council of Japan, Governor of the American College of Physicians Japan Chapter; was Professor of Medicine, Schools of Medicine of UCLA, University of Tokyo and Tokai University. He is member and has been an executive officer of many prestigious national, international science and medical societies; served many advisory and academic committees of the Ministries of Japan and global community and is a WHO Commissioner.
Anne Marie Lizin (Belgium)
(member as of 2004)
Anne Marie Lizin is President of the Belgian Senate and an independent expert of the UN Commission on Human Rights on human rights and extreme poverty since 1998. She works extensively in the areas of women’s and children’s rights. She was President of the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights (1993–1999) and President of Human Rights Commission of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. She represented the Belgian Government at the UN Summit for the Decade for Women. She worked as a member of the UN Committee supporting women against Apartheid, and of the Warburton Mission investigating the rape of women in former Yugoslavia in 1991.
Julia Marton-Lefèvre (France/Hungary/USA)
(member as of 2005)
Julia Marton-Lefèvre has been Director-General of IUCN since January 2007. She was Rector of the UN-mandated University for Peace (2005/2006); Executive Director of LEAD International (1997–2005) and Executive Director of ICSU from 1986. Julia Marton Lefèvre has also worked on a UNEP-UNESCO Environmental Education program and as a university teacher in Thailand. She has co-authored numerous books and papers and is member of several international boards in the fields of environment, development, science and international cooperation. In 1999, she received the AAAS Award for International Cooperation in Science. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of the United Kingdom and studied history, ecology and environmental planning in the USA and in France.
Mounir S. Neamatalla (Egypt)
(member as of 2006)
Mounir S. Neamatalla is the Founder and President EQI, a development consulting firmestablished in 1981. EQI promotes economic and social development and offers services in three main areas: Policy and Governance; Environment and Natural Resources; and Enterprise Development and the Finance of Small and Micro Enterprises. EQI received several awards, including the 2006 ICC-UNDP-IBLF World Business Award; the 2005 Talents du Luxe Award; and the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit Award. Mounir Neamatalla obtained his PhD (1976) in Environmental Health and Quality Management; Columbia University, New York. He owns and operates the Adrère Amellal Ecolodge in Siwa, winner of the 2005 Condé Nast Traveler Green List Award.
Moeen Qureshi (Pakistan)
(member as of 2004)
Moeen Qureshi served as Prime Minister of Pakistan in 1993 where he initiated strong reform measures. He was Senior Vice-President and Head of World Bank Operations (1986–1991). Currently he is Chairman and Managing Partner of EMP Global; and a member of the Board of the American International Group’s Global Trade and Political Risk Insurance Company. He has served as an advisor to several international institutions and has chaired a number of international commissions and committees dealing with international and public affairs. Moeen Qureshi has written extensively on international economic and political affairs.
Roelof Rabbinge (the Netherlands)
(member as of 2003)
Roelof Rabbinge is Chairman of the Science Council of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), Professor for Sustainable Development and Food Security at Wageningen University, member of the Senate of the Netherlands Parliament, and Chairman of the Royal Institute of the Tropics. He led various missions and agricultural programs in developing countries and served as editor of several journals. He served on the Board of Trustees of six centers of the Group of International Agricultural Research; was Chairman of the International Rice Research Institute Board of Trustees (1995–2000), and co-Chair of the InterAcademy panel on Food Security and Agricultural Productivity in Africa. He serves on the boards of various international agribusiness firms.
Mamphela Ramphele (South Africa)
(member as of 2005)
Mamphela Ramphele is Chairperson of Circle Ventures, co-Chair of the Global Commission on International Migration, a member of the Board of Directors of Standard Bank South Africa Ltd. and Medi Clinic Corporations Ltd., and trustee of several foundations. She is former Managing Director of the World Bank (2000–2004), and was the first black South African and first woman to be Vice-Chancellor at the University Cape Town. She has received numerous national and international awards, including the Noma Award in 1990 as co-author of Uprooting Poverty: The South African Challenge (1989) and is author of a number of books and articles. She has received as many as 20 honorary degrees and is a qualified medical doctor and holds a PhD in Social Anthropology.
Ghassan Salamé (Lebanon)
(member as of 2005)
Ghassan Salamé, former Lebanese Minister of Culture (2000–2003), is Professor of International Relations in Political Sciences at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris and a Senior Advisor to the UN Secretary General. He has PhDs in Literature, 1975; and in Political Science, 1978. He was appointed Chairman and Spokesman of the Organization Committee for the Arab Summit and of the Francophone Summit (2002) in Beirut. Ghassan Salamé is on the board of the International Crisis Group, l’Institut du monde Arabe, the Arab Thought Forum, and the Haut Conseil de la Francophonie, and member of several inter-ministerial committees, notable on the reform of the Higher Education System. He is author/editor of a dozen books, including Democracy without Democrats; The Foundations of the Arab State, and The Politics of Arab Integration.
Rhonda Roland Shearer (USA)
(member as of 2003)
Rhonda Roland Shearer, a New York artist, has been represented by the Wildenstien Gallery since 1996, and has had numerous solo museum exhibitions, including the Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, Tennessee; the Jacksonville Art Museum, and the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, S.C. As Director and Founder (with the late Stephen Jay Gould), of the not-for-profit Art Science Research Laboratory , she has pioneered the development of both digital publishing and interdisciplinary scholarship. As an Associate of the Harvard University Department of Psychology (1998–2000), Rhonda Roland Shearer has published over 50 articles and lectured at leading universities (Harvard, Yale, Brown) on the historical importance of new geometries in the history of art and science.
Bishop Gunnar
(member as of 2007)
Bishop Gunnar Stålsett is currently International Co-President of the World Conference of Religions for Peace, and Co-Moderator of its affiliated European Council of Religious Leaders, as well as Chairperson of the Niwano Peace Prize Committee. In 2004, he was appointed Co-Chairperson of the Leadership Program Committee for the 16th International AIDS Conference which was held in Toronto, in August 2006. He was a member of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee until he was appointed as a bishop in 1998. He served as State Secretary in the Ministry of Church Affairs (Norway), Chairperson of the Center Party (1977–79), Deputy Member of Parliament, and Member of the Oslo City Council.
Marianna V. Vardinoyannis (Greece)
(Founding member)
Marianna Vardinoyannis is UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and a Representative of the UNESCO Director-General for the international promotion of the Cultural Olympiads. She is an active international figure in social and cultural issues, such as peace, children’s protection and health. She serves as Board Member of the “Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement” and of the MENTOR International Foundation. She is the Founder/President of the “Foundation for the Child and the Family” and of the “ELPIDA” Friends’ Association for Children with Cancer in Greece. She received the Golden Cross of the Order of Benefaction by the President of the Hellenic Republic (2002).
