H.E. Mr Mohamed Al Alabbar Guest Speaker at The American University in Dubai Alumni Association dinner

Miss Myrna Ayyad Vice President of the association welcomed the audience and introduced Mr Eddie Maalouf, an AUD alumni and who currently holds the position of Nokia GM for the Middle East and North Africa. Mr Maalouf addressed the issues of the importance of the sense of belonging in any institution and particularly that of AUD and encouraged his colleagues to be ambassadors of that education,
H.H. Mr Alabbar then took the stage and thanked the AUD alumni for having chosen him as their guest speaker. He said that AUD students are lucky because they can enter the professional world equipped with a top quality standard of education. This top notch education is imperative to success especially since this region has the task of catching up with the rapid development in other parts of the world. He presented himself as an aggressive leader who is not afraid to voice his points of views. Mr Alabbar then put forward his views on what a leader should be all about.

A leader should have a dream but more important he should motivate his employees to envision that dream, to be part of it and to strive towards achieving it. A leader must also be willing to beat the odds, since any venture will always be laden with problems and obstacles. A leader should be someone who can think globally, someone who can transgress the borders of the country or the region that he is living in. He should be able to teach what he has learnt and more important, must have the humility to accept and to learn from his mistakes. Leadership, to be effective, must not only be geared towards success but also towards the well being of the human being. The adept leader is that person who can act fast because real opportunities are few, and he should be "a hands-on" leader, because it is only through his involvement in what happens on the employee level that he can curtail the advent of major problems. Delegation is important to the extent that it does not isolate him form the rest of the staff. In the end if the leader is to be creative and if he is to demonstrate initiative and force he must possess a heart of steel, and hence should not miss on opportunities because of the fear of failure.

The president of the Alumni Association Mr Bilal Sabouni took to the podium and presented to the Alumni his visions and plans for the new alumni association. He pointed out that the purpose of the dinner was to formally announce the reconstruction of the Alumni Association and to engage the alumni members' support for the association's stated mission.

Dr Lance de Masi AUD President thanked Mr Alabbar for his words which he said were as usual different and inspiring. He pointed out that many organizations claim that People are their most important assets. While that is not necessary true in many organizations, in his opinion there is an intangible asset which is more important and that is purpose. This coupled with the organization's ideology and set of core values constitutes the well being of the enterprise. This definitely applies in AUD and while the staff faculty and administration have the task of defining AUD from the inside it is up to the university's alumni to define the university's purpose from the outside. The alumni's success is an indication of the effectiveness of AUD's education. AUD's students are touched by AUD's values and hence the university's identity becomes their identity. For this Dr de Masi urged the students to be mindful of their role in institution building and of their role in bringing AUD's message to the community.

In the end Dr de Masi asked the new alumni Association to act as the advertising plateau for the body of student alumni. He then presented Mr Alabbar with an appreciation plaque on behalf of AUD and the AUD alumni Association.
During dinner raffle tickets were sold and the proceeds went towards the establishment of a scholarship in the name of the Alumni Association.