News

Wail Benjelloun

Wail Benjelloun is President of the Mediterranean Universities Union (UNIMED). He is former President of Mohammed V University (MVU) in Rabat and President of the Conference of Moroccan University Presidents. He was Vice President of Al Akhawayn University and Dean of the MVU Faculty of Science. He holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from State University of New York (SUNY-Binghamton) and is a widely published researcher in the field. He has also served on several national and international committees concerned with higher education reform. He is President of the International Society of Pathophysiology and member of the Boards of Trustees of Ecole Centrale Casablanca. He is also member and past president of the Moroccan-American Fulbright Commission.

Hazem Galal

Hazem Galal is a PwC Partner and Global Leader for PwC’s Cities and Local Government Sector. With 25 years of consulting experience, he has expertise in strategy formulation and implementation for cities and local government entities. He is currently the co-chair for the World Business Council for Sustainable Development group that contributes to the ISO standard for cities and smart infrastructure. Since 2007, Hazem has been leading PwC’s global Thought Leadership for cities and local government. He is a frequent speaker at conferences and panels organised by various international bodies as well as local and national governments in developed and developing countries, and a frequent guest expert on leading media channels.

Haifa Jamal Allail

Haifa Jamal Allail is President of Effat University, a leading institution of higher education for women in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on public administration and public policy at Effat University, and has published a number of articles on a variety of topics including women empowerment and privatisation. Prior to joining Effat University, Jamal Allail was the first Dean of the Girls’ Campus in King Abdulaziz University and a visiting scholar at John F. Kennedy School of Government. She has been involved in education reform in Saudi Arabia since 1991. Her work was recognized in 2005 when she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize as part of the 1,000 PeaceWomen campaign, a global movement to recognise women's involvement in peace and social justice work. She received a PhD in public policy from the University of Southern California.

Salah Khalil (Founding Trustee)

Salah Khalil is Founder of the Alexandria Trust. He is also Founding Executive Chairman of Macat International, a company that develops academic content in the social sciences and humanities. The Alexandria Trust and Macat, which operate independently of each other, share a commitment to catalytic philanthropy. Salah has had long-standing business achievements in Egypt and the Middle East, and was Strategy Consultant at the Westminster Foundation for Democracy in London. He holds a master’s degree in political sociology from the London School of Economics and a bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina. Salah serves on the advisory board of the Business School at the American University in Cairo. He lives in London with his family.

Heba Raouf Ezzat

Heba Raouf Ezzat is Assistant Professor of political science and Deputy Director of the Centre for Humanities and Interdisciplinary Studies at Cairo University, and Adjunct Professor at the American University in Cairo. She has been a Visiting Fellow at Oxford University, University of Westminster, University of California at Berkeley, Georgetown University, and Oxford's Centre for Islamic Studies. She has researched and written on topics such as global civil society and building global democracy, women and politics in Islam, faith and citizenship, and political and social movements in Islam. She has served as a member of the C-100 initiative for Islamic-Western understanding set up by the World Economic Forum, by which she was named a Young Global Leader in 2005.

Frances Guy (chair)

Frances Guy is currently UNDP Regional Gender Advisor based in Amman. She was previously Head of Middle East region at Christian Aid based in London. She worked as representative of UN Women in Iraq between May 2012 and December 2014, spending two years in Baghdad and six months in Erbil in northern Iraq. Prior to 2012, Frances was a career diplomat in the British Foreign Service where she served as ambassador to Yemen and to Lebanon. Her career was mostly focused in the Arab world and East Africa, although she also worked in Thailand. Before joining the diplomatic service, Frances worked for the British Council in Damascus and at the European Parliament in Luxembourg. Frances is currently president of the British Society of Middle East Studies (BRISMES).