Rami Abi Jomaa is the Director of Advancement Services at the American University of Beirut. He manages the operations of the fundraising and alumni relations efforts including donation management, database management, prospect research, stewardship and donor relations, information services, data privacy and GDPR and advancement compliance. Rami has 12 years of experience in higher education advancement and has successfully completed very complex projects related to gift management and building fundraising campaign infrastructure. Additionally, Rami has experience in annual giving, technology management, HR and the development of various business processes. He holds a BS in Business Management and Information Systems and a master’s degree in Sociology.

Gabriel Abiad is the Assistant Vice President for Strategic Communications at the Lebanese American University (LAU) in Lebanon. He is a seasoned communications professional with decades of experience in the corporate and public sectors, nationally and internationally. Gabriel served as strategic planner and then Associate General Manager at FP7 (part of McCann Worldgroup), one of Lebanon's leading advertising agencies, and as marketing director for McDonald's Lebanon. He has developed national campaigns for governments in Canada, working for communications agencies in Ottawa. He has taught marketing strategy at LAU. Gabriel holds a Graduate Diploma in Education from Concordia University, an MBA and a BS in Liberal Arts from LAU.

Dalia Abubakr is the Senior Director of Digital Communications at the American University in Cairo (AUC). Joining AUC in 2009, she managed three revamp projects for the University website. She has more than 20 years’ experience in web communications, with special focus on usability, web architecture, analytics and optimisation. Her communications experience also includes strategic planning for content marketing and web content writing.

Dalia earned her bachelor's degree in English language with high honours. She pursued her post-graduate studies in translation. She has international exposure, through attending number of international workshops in areas of writing for the web, search engine optimisation and digital marketing. She earned a graduate diploma in Arabic and Islamic Civilisation at AUC. She has also achieved a stellar score at the CASE Advancement Conference in Middle East 2018.

In April 2013, Michael Andreasen became Vice President for University Advancement. He started at the University of Oregon as vice president for Development on July 1, 2010. The Office of University Advancement includes university-wide development activities, government and community relations efforts, and alumni relations.

Before coming to the University of Oregon, he served as assistant dean and executive director for advancement at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He previously held development roles in major gifts and campaign leadership at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the American Film Institute.

He began his career in annual giving at the University of California, Irvine. Andreasen earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in political science at the University of California, Irvine.

Syed Bashir is an experienced Advancement and Fundraising professional with over 16 years of experience. His expertise includes setting up Advancement Services and implementing best practices in Database Management, Prospect Research and Gift Processing. Syed’s portfolio includes working through two successful Capital Campaigns, Database Migration and the implementation of a Data Governance Committee at the University of Central Florida - the largest public university in the US.

Having lived in various countries, Syed has a strong understanding of the cultural and social perspectives of the philanthropic practices both in the Middle East and the US. Since 2013, Syed has been part of the University Development team at the prestigious King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), where he has headed multiple roles ranging from Fundraising to Advancement Operations.

Gregory Carroll has worked in University Advancement in the United States for 40 years. He has held leadership roles at small private institutions, regional publics, and major doctoral degree granting universities. Greg has been a member of CASE and served on district and international commissions. He has been a speaker for professional organisations including CASE, NACUBO, and the AMA. For the past three years, he has been a senior consultant with Stamats and during that time, worked with more than ten institutions, including Lebanese American University and top privates and publics from New York and Boston to California.

Meredith joined the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in May 2017 where she leads their Foundation, responsible for philanthropic and membership support. She was previously the Director of Development and Alumni Relations at London Business School where she was part of the leadership team raising £125M for the school’s first-ever comprehensive campaign. Prior to joining LBS, Meredith led her alma mater’s successful $160M fundraising campaign, having moved to Virginia from Boston where she was a Director at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and Kennedy School of Government prior to that. Meredith has extensive experience of major gifts, alumni relations, international fundraising, and institutional support. She holds dual American and British citizenship and has her BA and MBA from the US.

With over 10 years of senior fundraising operations experience, Alex is an expert in digital supporter engagement, information management, reporting, insight and systems integration. Alex's digital expertise and practical approach to problem solving have been proven over the last ten years at the Universities of Edinburgh and Manchester, where he delivered programmes of significant change to modernise and streamline supporter engagement.

Alex is now an advancement services consultant with Alveo Consulting, working with universities and not-for-profit organisations to help them streamline their fundraising operations. Alex will be speaking at the CASE MEAC on the topic of information management, presenting tips and techniques to help delegates to make the most of the data available to them.

Aliaa has been part of the advancement team at AUC since 1996 and is a seasoned professional with more than 23 years of experience in the area of advancement services, fundraising, gifts processing, donor stewardship, research and prospect management. 

Aliaa’s expertise in fundraising utilises her financial background for non-profit educational organisations. Proficient in interpreting IRS regulations and guidelines for the Council for Advancement Support for Education (CASE). She attends CASE conferences, CASE summer institutes, APRA annual international conference, AASP summit conference, and participated in several training sessions for Salesforce. Aliaa was as a member of the search, conversion and implementation committee to migrate from fundal to Affinaquest/Salesforce CRM, which successfully migrated more than 70K records within a time frame of 6 months, mapping all related data. During AUC’s Comprehensive Campaign ($100M) in 2000-2008, Aliaa was responsible for all the financial, analytical and progress reporting of the campaign, building gifts pyramid, preparing prospect data for decision making.

Marilyn Osweiler is a senior vice president at Stamats, a leading U.S. higher education marketing and communications company. In her 25+ years at Stamats, she has worked with a broad range of institutions to develop strategic, research-driven solutions. She spends hours on campuses, working directly with Presidents and senior leadership, as well as staff and students. Marilyn has been involved with CASE, NACAC, AMA, and the Council of Independent Colleges. Her clients include Harvard Medical School, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Lebanese American University (Beirut), UCLA, Tufts, New York Institute of Technology, Suffolk University, Hawaii Pacific University, among others. Stamats excels at strategic planning; research; marketing and communications assessment; brand development and creative execution; websites; digital marketing; and publications.

Salma Dannawi Oueida is Associate Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations at the American University of Beirut (AUB). She brings a wealth of experience to her current position having worked at AUB for more than 17 years. During this time, she has fundraised for AUB’s seven faculties and the medical centre, managed the university's relationship with more than 70,000 alumni and 63 chapters around the world, and worked closely with some of AUB's most successful volunteer groups to develop valuable and mutually rewarding partnerships. Prior to joining AUB, Salma, who has a Bachelor of Electrical and Communication Engineering from AUB, worked in marketing and business development in several leading private sector firms.

John D. Pine is the Director of Alumni Relations & Annual Giving at NYU Abu Dhabi, where he works to engage the unique and talented population of NYUAD alumni all over the world. Prior to joining the team at NYUAD, he served as the Director of Outreach & Alumni Programs for NYU (New York), managed Alumni Relations for the Goizueta Business School at Emory University in Atlanta, GA and at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA. John is a native Bostonian who received his Bachelor of Arts from Bridgewater State College (University) and his Master of Education from the University of Georgia.

Professor Mohamed-Vall Mohamed Salem Zein was appointed January 2015 as President of the University of Wollongong in Dubai (UOWD) and has focused since then on driving initiatives to strengthen the position of UOWD as a leading academic institution in the UAE and the region. Mohamed Salem joined UOWD in 2004 and made since then important contributions to the University in a wide range of responsibilities first as member of the academic staff and later as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences. He worked previously as a software engineer for several years in both public and private sectors in Mauritania and Canada and collaborated in research with industry in the UAE and Canada.

Professor Salem received his PhD from the University of Montreal in 2002 and is a recipient of IBM Center for Advanced Studies PhD fellowship and the "Bourse d'excellence de la Francophonie" from the Canadian International Development Agency.

Arpana drives the implementation of strategies across a range of platforms to deepen alumni engagement with the University, as well as their connection with fellow alumni and current students. Arpana is enthusiastic about reinforcing and fostering lifelong connections with the graduates. She has been with Higher Education since 2003. Her previous experience spans other industries including Management Consultancy, Hospitality and Health. She is a fellow member of the Institute of Consulting, UK. She holds a Masters of Business Administration degree from the University of Wollongong Australia and a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Health Nutrition from Delhi University.

Mariët Westermann, former executive vice president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, joined NYU Abu Dhabi as Vice Chancellor and Professor in August 2019. 

During her nine years at Mellon, Westermann oversaw the Foundation's annual grantmaking and research portfolio of more than $300 million. She re-envisioned the Foundation's strategy, launching initiatives that promote higher education, the humanities and the arts, strengthen liberal arts curricula and graduate education, reinforce community colleges, renew preservation of cultural heritage, and support scholars and artists at risk. From 2002 to 2010 she was at NYU, first as director of the Institute of Fine Arts in New York and then as the first provost of NYU Abu Dhabi, creating a startup team to set up the campus and recruit faculty and students. A widely published art historian, she began her professorial career at Rutgers University.

Mariët received her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from Williams College, and earned her Masters and PhD at NYU's Institute of Fine Arts.