Keynote Speaker

Dr. Sheikha Abdulla Al-Misnad, President of Qatar University since 2003, will be the keynote speaker at ICR 2008.  She sees education as key to economic development and will address the role that business can play in developing educational infrastructure.

Professor Al-Misnad is a leading educator in Qatar and the Gulf region, where much of her research focuses on the development of educational opportunities for women.  As a member of the Board of Directors of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development since 1999, she has played a key role in the development of Education City, Qatar's unique educational complex.  She is one of the most active members of the Supreme Education Council, formed in 2002, which oversees the development of progressive, independent schools in Qatar. 

Professor Al-Misnad is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai Ethics Resource Centre, which promotes business ethics and corporate responsibility in Dubai and the Gulf region.  She helped organize a 1999 UNESCO symposium on higher education in Arab Gulf states and in 2004 was selected to be a member of the United Nations University Council.  A more complete biography can be found here.