H.E. Hassan Diab
- Former Prime Minister of Lebanon and Former Vice President American University of Beirut (Lebanon)
Professor Diab is a Lebanese academic, professor, engineer, executive, and politician with over 33 years in academia including almost 20 years in executive roles leading organizations across government, academic, and non-profit sectors. He served as the 26th President of the Council of Ministers of Lebanon and was the first Prime Minister (PM) in Lebanese, and probably the region’s, history to form a cabinet with 30% female ministers (6 out of 20). He took on a Herculean task by serving as Prime Minister (19 Dec 2019 – 10 Sept 2021) during the worst crisis period in Lebanese history and managed to pass many decrees and laws on anti-corruption. His technocrat cabinet, an exception in Lebanese politics and the closest to the specification of a technocrat cabinet in the history of Lebanon, approved for the first time in Lebanese history forensic audit on the central bank as well as the first National Reform Plan to address the economic, financial and social problems resulting from three decades of mismanagement. A plan which was commended by many including the UN, EU, World Bank, and the IMF. He strongly believes effective leadership means having moral authority rather than formal authority and that leadership is about creating leaders not followers.
On 13 June 2011, he was appointed as Minister of the Ministry of Education & Higher Education (MEHE) in the Lebanese Cabinet to take over the largest ministry in Lebanon. He was a technocrat minister which was an anomaly in Lebanese politics. Professor Diab was the 70th minister during 2011-2014 at a time when Lebanon was celebrating its 70th anniversary (2013) since independence (1943). One of the very few, if not the only one, out of the 70 ministers that assumed this position that was a technocrat minister who was also a professor & Vice President from a top university (American University of Beirut) in the MENA region (according to QS 2018 results). This allowed him to put partisan politics aside and practice national politics that fulfilled many achievements for the benefit of the education sector in the country. During his term an unprecedented number of accomplishments were realized including a new Higher Education (HE) law to replace a 40-year old one. He also passed the Community Service decree for the first time, which required high school students to serve 60 hours of community service, creating hope through promoting the culture of volunteerism. Additionally, after two and a half years of implementing reforms, the 2013 World Economic Forum report (p. 229), gave Lebanon the following ranking in HE (out of 144 countries): (i) Quality of Management Schools ranked 13th, (ii) Quality of Education ranked 10th, and (iii) Quality of Math and Science education ranked 4th which was only preceded by Singapore, Finland, and Belgium.
He is an advocate for educational reform in Lebanon and authored books on the topic. His passion is in empowering youth and education as exemplified in many of his keynote speeches as well as an interview with Rt. Hon. Keith Vaz on Lyca Radio, London, broadcast on January 30, 2022 on “Talking Points”. He served as Vice President (Oct 2006 – Jan 2020) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and a Professor of Computer Engineering (1985-2020) at the Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering & Architecture, with 15 years of executive administrative and leadership experience. As VP, he signed and led around 80 projects in 20 countries per year. He was the youngest (at 30) to serve as AUB Senator for six years, and one of the youngest in AUB’s 155-year history to be promoted, at the age of 37, to the rank of full Professor. Moreover, he has over 150 publications in internationally refereed journals & conferences. He is a registered Chartered Engineer in the Engineering Council, UK, and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), UK. At 35, he was Fellow at the Institute of Engineers, Australia with only 6.6% of its members in this grade; and Fellow of IET at the age of 42, with only 6.6% of the 150,000 members holding this grade at the time and an average age of 66. His cross-sector experience makes him a valuable advisor to corporations.
Professor Diab was Founding President of Dhofar University (DU) and Founding Dean of the School of Engineering at DU (2004-06), Sultanate of Oman. He was the youngest to become university president in Oman at 44. Moreover, DU was the first private university in Oman to receive institutional accreditation from the Omani Accreditation Council. On 21 September 2022, he received the Lebanese Order of Merit: Grand Cordon Grade from the Lebanese President. He accumulated over 30 national/international awards and honors, and was invited for inclusion in over 40 international biographies with over 100 citations including Who’s Who in the World, and Who’s Who in Science & Engineering. He was invited to the “2nd Biennial Festival of Thinkers,” Abu Dhabi, as one of 90 World Thinkers together with 20 NOBEL Prize Laureates back in October 2007. He is Founder and President of the Rifca Taji Foundation Charity NGO which has three pillars: Women Empowerment, Community Service, and Education. He served on many boards including Global Council for Tolerance and Peace, Social Welfare Institutions, Academy for Cultural Diplomacy, and the Southern New Hampshire University’s Global Education Movement (GEM). His career reflects a demonstrated track record in leading large-scale organizations, mitigating risk through effective change management, developing strategic partnerships, managing projects in over 30 countries, and navigating crisis through strong communications.