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Business is good at AUB's School of Business. Within one week this March 45 MIT professors and graduate students arrived to look at investment potential in Lebanon and three AUB students were suddenly on their way to an MIT-sponsored workshop in Seville. The AUB students were underwritten by the Middle East Capital Group, while a fourth student, from NDU, was sent by his own classmates and their professor. Precipitating this spurt of activity was Lebanon's MIT Club, which hosted the MIT delegation in Lebanon. Founded in 1986, the Club includes some 40 MIT alumni, 80 percent of whom are former AUB students. The group's aim is to promote knowledge-based industries and economic development in Lebanon. Here from March 15 to 18, the MIT group met with Prime Minister Salim El-Hoss and Minister of Economy and Trade Nasser Saidi. The students also visited local companies and were hosted by the Lebanese American Chamber of Commerce. Delegation members were impressed with AUB and the logistical support for their meeting, which was also attended by 95 representatives from the cooperate and academic communities. While at AUB, delegation leader Professor Kenneth Morse presented a gripping lecture on high tech entrepreneurship. Morse, who is Managing Director of the MIT Entrepreneurship Center at the Sloan School of Management, also made an important announcement. A workshop would be held in Seville for the MIT student competition known as "50K," which awards the best business plan for and entrepreneurial venture. The prospect of the 50K Competition and the Seville workshop galvanized the Business School into action. Learning of the event on Friday at Morse's lecture, the School had three AUB students on their way to Seville by Tuesday night. The rush preparations, facilitated by Director Dr. Imad Baalbaki, included getting visas and making travel arrangements on very short notice. In Seville the AUB students, all members of a Venture Capital course taught by Professor Fadi Tueni, learned techniques for starting a business and attended workshops designed to help them prepare for the 50K Competition. Once back in Lebanon, they gave an enthusiastic presentation of their experience in Spain. And, as a result of the trip, work is now underway to establish a Lebanese Entrepreneurship Center, driven by young dynamos from AUB, NDU, LAU and other universities in Lebanon. Professors Naji Bejjani, Wassim Shaheen and Josianna Srieh from NDU, Kaslik and LAU are playing a central part in the effort. According to Business School Professor Florence Eid, who earned her PhD in Organization Economics from MIT February 2000, the event and its spin-offs are important for AUB and the Business School. "We have to be forward-looking, ad respond to challenges in technology by equipping students with the skills and ideas that place them in leadership positions in business and policy throughout the region," she said. "The future lies in increased economic competition, and we want our youth to be more than up to the task." The
MIT delegation left Lebanon excited by the country's business potential
and enthusiastic about a possible follow-up visit. By a;; accounts, this
follow-up will include further investigation into Beirut's nightlife,
which the MIT students proclaimed "highly satisfactory."
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