Panelists

Dr.Omar Al-Ansari
Vice President for Academic Affairs
Qatar University

After graduating from the College of Engineering at Qatar University with a BS in Civil Engineering in 1990, Dr. Omar Al-Ansari was appointed as Teaching Assistant at the Department of Civil Engineering and was granted the state scholarship to pursue his graduate education in the USA. He successfully gained his Master and PhD degrees in Civil Engineering from University of Texas at Austin in 1993 and 1999.

Upon his return to Qatar University, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, Qatar University. Dr. Al-Ansari held a number of administrative positions after his return from the USA. He served as the Coordinator for the College of Engineering Foundation year from 2001-2003. In 2003, he was appointed as Dean for Student Affairs, and afterwards an Associate Vice President for Student Affairs from 2004-2007. In 2007, he was appointed as Vice President for Student Affairs, a position that he had held until 2015. During that period, he successfully introduced significant developments to the sector, both in terms of the electronic platforms and systems that manage student information and in terms of developing the sector team. In 2017, he was appointed as a Vice President for Academic Affairs. Since assuming this position, he has led and implemented a number of university projects, the most important of which is the development and implementation of a five-year academic plan for Qatar University, the first of its kind in the university and with the participation of all sectors and faculty members.

Professor Lynn Pasquerella
President Association of American College and Universities

Lynn Pasquerella was appointed president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities in 2016, after serving as the eighteenth President of Mount Holyoke College. She has held positions as provost at the University of Hartford and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Rhode Island.A philosopher whose work has combined teaching and scholarship with local and global engagement. Pasquerella has written extensively on medical ethics, metaphysics, public policy, and the philosophy of law. She is president of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and the host of Northeast Public Radio’s The Academic Minute.

Professor Gordon McConnell
Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship, Robert Gordon University (RGU)

Professor McConnell is co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer with Arkane Innovation, an advisory and consulting firm based in Ireland, the US and the UK. He is also currently a Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Robert Gordon University (RGU) in the UK, where he was previously VP of Commercial and Regional Innovation. Prior to the UK, Gordon was the Head of the Entrepreneurship Center and Professor of Practice in Entrepreneurship at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia.

Previously he was Associate Vice President of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University and Principal Investigator of the ASU Center of Excellence in Technology Transfer. Gordon has developed and taught innovation, entrepreneurship and management curriculum in a number of colleges and universities. He has spoken at a number of leading conferences in the US, UK, Canada, Russia, Sweden and Saudi Arabia including at the Kauffman Foundation, the AUTM Annual Conference, the Global Competitiveness Forum and the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centres (GCEC).