Mr. Munib
& Mrs. Angela Masri
Angela Kegler Masri was born in Lovett, Texas in 1934 and attended High School in Wink, Texas. She graduated as Valedictorian of her class and went on to study Petroleum Geology at University of Texas at Austin and received her Bachelor’s degree from Sul Ross College in Alpine. Angela’s father worked with Humble Oil and Refining Company, as part of the oil production and shipping division in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. Founded in 1911, Humble Oil would later consolidate with Standard Oil of New Jersey to become Exxon. Angela worked alongside her husband, Munib, in Jordan where they carried-out the geological mapping of Transjordan, reflecting the three-dimensional distribution of rocks and developing a visual guide to the geological history of the area.
Born in 1934, Munib R. Masri is originally from Nablus, Palestine. Munib studied petroleum geology at the University of Texas at Austin and earned an MA in political science and government. In 1970, while working for Phillips Petroleum, he was appointed minister of public works in the Jordanian government. After working for decades in the energy and water sectors and founding Edgo, an oil and gas services company operating in the Middle East & Africa, he returned to Palestine in 1994 to support in the development of the economy. He was a founder and chairman of the Palestine Development and Investment Company (PADICO), whose primary goal is to develop the infrastructure of Palestine. PADICO, the largest private employer in Palestine, has thirty-five businesses in the telecommunications, construction, tourism, finance, agriculture, and energy sectors. Munib is a founder and honorary chairman of the Welfare Association, the leading Palestinian non-governmental development organization, and the chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Palestine.
Through the Masri family foundation which he established in 1970, Munib has staunchly backed the arts as well as education through scholarships and buildings, including support for the Nazareth Academic Institute, the Engineering and Geology College at Al Najah University, the administration building at the Palestine University in Gaza, the libraries at Al Quds University in Jerusalem and the Open University in Nablus, as well as the IT complex at Birzeit University.
In June 2007, the family foundation established the Munib and Angela Institute of Energy and Natural Resources at the American University of Beirut. The Masri Institute will be housed in the Munib and Angela Masri Building, which is funded partly by a generous gift from AUB Trustee Munib Masri, and will be inaugurated on September 2, 2018.
The Masri Building is meant to signify the education, research and further development within the sectors of natural resources, energy and the environment in hopes of creating a positive impact on the future well-being and prosperity of Lebanon and the Arab world.