Jaweed al-Ghussein

Jaweed al-Ghussein (18 July 1930 - 1 July 2008) was a Palestinian educationist and philanthropist.

Born in Gaza in 1930, into one of the most prominent Palestinian families. A refugee in 1948 he went to Cairo Egypt with his family where he attended the American University in Cairo (AUC). Graduating in Economics he was elected President of the Students Union. A Contemporary of Yasser Arafat, they presented a petition signed in their blood to the first President of Egypt Muhammad Naguib demanding the rights of Palestinian students.

Al-Ghussein began his career in the Kuwait civil service in the 1950s before commencing his business career which began when he represented Parsons. In the early 1960s he was invited to the Trucial State of Abu Dhabi by the late ruler Sheik Zayed Al-Nahyan to search for water. Al Ghussein went on to establish one of the leading Construction and engineering groups in the Gulf, the Cordoba Construction Group.

He led the company for three decades as Chairman. Cordoba was one of the earliest pioneers in Abu Dhabi, responsible for the first water pipeline from the oasis Al-Ain to Abu Dhabi and subsequently fourteen years later another pipeline from Abu Dhabi to Al-Ain. The Cordoba Group and its subsidiaries went on to construct housing developments, the first English School, roads, water and sewage pipelines, hospitals and military bases. Cordoba went on to build some of the most important landmarks in the country including the iconic Sheik Zayed Cultural Center. Leaders in Micro tunneling Al-Ghussein sought to bring advanced and innovative techniques to the developing oil rich state.

The Cordoba Group was ahead of its time and unique in that it provided training programmes for Palestinian engineers as well as internship programmes and employment. Al-Ghussein created specific funding programmes for the education of Palestinian refugees, enabling them to continue with higher education, and some have become leaders in the field of banking, engineering, medicine and academia.

In the early 1980s Al-Ghussein founded with the late Claud Morris the British NGO, the Next Century Foundation to work for peace and understanding between Palestinians and Israelis. The foundation has gone from strength to strength widening its expertise to include conflict in the Middle East and Africa.

...
Wikipedia