Staff Profile: Najwa Khoury

Najwa Khoury

A veteran at AUB is Najwa Khoury, the administrative assistant to the Vice President of Finance. Her career at AUB spans the tumultuous years of the civil war and the years of reconstruction and rebirth that followed.

Khoury graduated from AUB in 1962, after completing a two-year business program. Soon after, she took up a position at Middle East Airlines, but later traveled to live with her parents for a few years in Lagos, Nigeria. She then returned to Lebanon, where she joined the Yorker Conditioning Company. After a seven-year stint at Yorker, she moved to an American outfit specializing in medical supplies, but with the eruption of the civil war in 1975, the company was soon forced to shut down. In 1984, when Khoury happened to learn about the vacancy of a position as executive secretary for the president of AUB, she applied and soon got the job. Since then, she has been working at the President's Office for 22 years and says she will be retiring later this year.

Khoury, who looks back fondly on her career, does not take any of her experiences for granted and says she learned so many things from the different individuals she has worked with over the years. Despite the hard times, such as the civil war, the memories have all been good. As for her years at AUB, she remarks the University always felt like her home, which now makes leaving it so difficult. In commenting about her retirement, she recalls the many friendships she made at AUB and says that when she leaves she hopes her life will have left a similar impression with her colleagues. Her most cherished memories of the University have been to watch the enduring flow of student life, the vibrant evidence of Lebanon's hope and future.

Apart from her busy life at AUB, Khoury enjoys reading and traveling. She insists she will be making it a point to travel as often as possible.