Suliman S. Olayan School of Business Hosts the Abdulaziz Hamad Al-Sagar Chair in Finance

A $2-million donation from the family of Abdulaziz Hamad Al-Sagar to the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business (OSB) will soon create an endowed faculty chair in finance.

This generous donation will guarantee the permanence of a benchmark of learning carrying the name of Abdulaziz Hamad Al-Sagar at OSB. The endowment will advance study in the field of finance through teaching, research, and service and will reinforce academic programs at OSB.

President John Waterbury expressed deep appreciation for the endowment. "AUB is proud to have the Al-Sagar family name associated with the Olayan School of Business in perpetuity. Abdulaziz Hamad Al-Sagar embodied the virtues of wedding business integrity to democratic ideals and nationalist aspirations. It is this kind of wedding that AUB has always sought to nurture in its students. A chair in finance in his name will help protect his legacy for future generations," said the president.

George Najjar, the dean of OSB, said the school of business "will be adding major strength as a result of this chair, particularly that finance has been recognized early on as one of our areas of excellence. The generosity of the Al-Sagar family has taken us yet another significant step towards regional leadership and global credibility. Thanks to this new chair, we look forward to attracting international faculty talent in pursuit of our mission of world-class teaching, research, and service."

AUB Trustee Ibrahim Dabdoub said, "Abdulaziz Hamad Al-Sagar will go down in the history of Kuwait and the Arab world as a man who was able to master business and politics at the same time. He was chairman of the Kuwaiti Chamber of Commerce and also chairman of the Kuwaiti Parliament. His involvement in both areas will become part of the political and business history of Kuwait. I hope that his chair in finance will create the future leaders of the Arab world."

The Abdulaziz Hamad Al-Sagar Chair in Finance is the fourth faculty-endowed chair at OSB, after the Husni Sawwaf Visiting Professorship in Business and Management, the Coca Cola Chair in Marketing, and the Sheikh Said Hamadeh Chair.

One of the leading schools of business in the region, OSB was named after the late Suliman S. Olayan in 2003. It is known for having undergone substantial reform and improvements in its undergraduate and graduate programs. It now annually graduates hundreds of students-in March 2006, it graduated its first batch of Executive MBAs, a program started in 2004.

Abdulaziz Hamad Al-Sagar was a leading "opposition" politician and Arab nationalist in Kuwait in the early mid-20th century. As members of his family, namely his father Hamad and brother Jassim, he was devoted to promoting political freedom and protecting human rights. The Al-Sagar family members are prominent businessmen, who launched and ran some of the region's most successful enterprises. Abdulaziz Hamad Al-Sagar headed Kuwait's first Consultative Assembly in 1921 and was chairman of the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce for many years.