HSBC increases support of AUB Scholarship Program

CEO Francois-Pascal de Maricourt and his assistant Layla Sidani visited AUB to present to Dean of the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business George Najjar, Assistant Vice President for Development Imad Baalbaki, and Director of Information and Public Relations Ibrahim Khoury their donation of $50,000 to support the HSBC Scholarship Fund.

Maricourt also met a couple of the HSBC Scholarship recipients and heard from them first hand about their educational progress and career plans.

Dean Najjar thanked HSBC for its continued support of AUB's Olayan School of Business and its bright students; be it through the HSBC Scholarship, through the internship programs for the students, or through the recruitment of graduates. Najjar also gave an overview of the Olayan School and its degree programs.

Maricourt said that HSBC has two global strategic priorities: raising awareness about climate change and fighting its causes, and giving educational opportunities for young people to develop their full potential. Maricourt said that HSBC decided this year to significantly increase its funding of the HSBC Scholarship at AUB to $50,000. The HSBC Scholarship was established at AUB seven years ago and has benefited tens of outstanding students. Maricourt said that he is quite impressed with the quality of education at AUB and with the AUB alumni whom he worked with at HSBC - in his current post in Beirut and in the previous one he held in Kuwait.

In 2002, HSBC Bank Middle East donated to AUB $10,000 to establish the HSBC Scholarship Fund. This annual fund provides financial assistance to one or more needy and qualified students from the School of Business and the Department of Economics. Selected students receiving HSBC assistance may also choose to gain experience by undertaking a summer internship at the bank.

HSBC Bank Middle East is not a new donor to AUB's scholarship fund. In 1997, the bank (then known as the British Bank) provided full tuition scholarships to two graduate students in the School of Business—in the total amount of $24,276 to underwrite all the costs for those students.

To HSBC, the scholarships are certainly money well spent—47 AUB alumni are currently working for HSBC Bank Middle East in Lebanon and a number of other alumni are employed in its offices around the world.