Following 28 years of service to LAU, Dr. Said Ladki has been appointed president of Rafik Hariri University (RHU) and will assume his new duties with the start of the new academic year.

Dr. Ladki’s career at LAU’s Adnan Kassar School of Business (AKSOB) since 1996 has been studded with accomplishments. In 2003, he founded the Hospitality and Tourism Department and led it as a chairperson and associate professor, rising to the rank of full professor in fall 2004.

He assumed the deanship on an interim basis from 2013 to 2018, during which the school earned its first accreditation from the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). He continued to oversee the accreditation process as associate dean during the academic year 2018-2019, after which he resumed the chairmanship of the Hospitality and Tourism Management Department. During his tenure, the department became the first in MENA to earn the prestigious Accreditation Commission for Programs in Hospitality Management (ACPHA).

The presidential appointment at RHU, said AKSOB Dean Wassim Shahin “epitomizes Dr. Ladki’s hard and exemplary work, culminating in the top position.” Affirming how AKSOB has long produced leaders in the field, Dr. Shahin pointed out that this appointment towers over all others, expounding on Dr. Ladki’s leadership traits, ethics, and conscientiousness.

“He will certainly be remembered and missed as a role model and champion in our hallway walks and talks, offices and classrooms,” added Dr. Shahin.

LAU President Michel E. Mawad emphasized that this new chapter in Dr. Ladki’s illustrious career will without doubt bring him and RHU further success, praising his “admirable leadership and decision-making skills, and his staunch advocacy for the preeminence of research and accomplished faculty for the improvement of higher education amid challenging times in Lebanon.”