News Highlights
Author:
Press Release,
Office of Information & Public Relations,
ifkhoury@aub.edu.lb
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AUB Names Business School for Suliman S. Olayan
Beirut and New York, June 23, 2003 - The American University of Beirut (AUB) today announced that it has dedicated its School of Business to the late Suliman S. Olayan, a noted entrepreneur, international investor and philanthropist.
"The University is deeply honored to have the name Suliman S. Olayan attached to the school which aims to be without equal in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Arab world," said AUB President John Waterbury. |
Of humble origins, Suliman S. Olayan was born in 1918 in 'Unayzah, Saudi Arabia. In 1947, he set out as an independent businessman. Over the next half century, he built what started as a small trucking company into a diversified, multinational conglomerate known as The Olayan Group. Today it is engaged in distribution, services, manufacturing and investments.
"During the course of his career, Suliman Olayan earned a reputation not only as one of the world's most astute and highly trusted private investors, but also as an effective bridge between cultures and economies," said AUB Chairman Richard A. Debs. "He was a towering figure in international business, and he built his businesses the old fashioned way-with hard work, vision and unimpeachable integrity. His children have been imbued with these values and have built upon his extraordinary success." |
Suliman S. Olayan was a member of AUB's Board of Trustees from 1979 to 1985. In June 2000, at a special symposium held by AUB's International Advisory Council, he was awarded the University's Medal of Honor. Mr. Olayan passed away in 2002 at age 83.
Mr. Olayan's wife, Mary, and four children are all involved in The Olayan Group, and two of the children are AUB graduates. Khaled S. Olayan succeeded his father as group chairman. Hutham Olayan, AUB 1975, has been a member of the AUB Board of Trustees since 1993. She is president and CEO of Olayan America Corporation. Hayat Olayan, another AUB alumna, is a director of the group. Lubna Olayan is CEO of Olayan Financing Company which runs the group's businesses in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. |
The Board of Directors of The Olayan Group enthusiastically welcomed AUB's decision.
"Though he had no formal higher education of his own, my father had an insatiable love of learning his entire life. He was a great promoter of education for his children and the wider world and he was a great admirer and friend of AUB," commented Khaled S. Olayan. "We are very proud of this designation at one of the region's great universities which has brought progressive education to successive generations of students from the Middle East and beyond. This will serve both my father's memory and the institution for which my father cared so deeply." |
While business education has long been a part of AUB's curriculum, the University had no independent School of Business until 2000. The school has since revamped its curriculum, expanded its faculty and enrollment, recruited executives-in-residence, dramatically improved its IT capacity, and forged cooperative agreements with a number of leading business schools in both the United States and Europe. As a result, undergraduate enrollment in the School of Business, in the last five years, has risen from about 200 students to slightly over 1,000.
To meet this expansion, a recently approved campus Master Plan calls for the construction of a new home for the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business along Beirut's seaside Corniche. |
"Naming our school for Suliman S. Olayan is just one more indication of the strengthened commitment the University has made to high-quality business education both at AUB and in the region," said George Najjar, dean of the business school. "We aim to be nothing less than the premier business institution in the Middle East with standards of excellence in finance, accounting, management, entrepreneurship, and related disciplines, all housed in a world class, dedicated facility."
The American University of Beirut is a private, independent non-sectarian institution of higher learning, established in 1866. Since its founding, AUB had grown from 16 students in a rented house to a major university on a 73-acre campus overlooking the Mediterranean, with a student body of over 6,550 representing more than 60 nationalities. It has long set standards in higher education for the Middle East region. The University offers a rigorous curriculum in the American liberal arts tradition, and the language of instruction is English.
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For further information, please contact :Ibrahim Khoury, director, Information and Public Relations, AUB, Beirut, Lebanon, 9611353228; or Lynn Mahoney, director of Communications, AUB, New York, NY, 212-583-7618.
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