VZCZCXRO1009
PP RUEHDE RUEHDIR
DE RUEHRH #1504/01 2820821
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 080821Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY RIYADH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9300
INFO RUEHJI/AMCONSUL JEDDAH 9782
RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RIYADH 001504 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR NEA/ARP, NEA/PPD (WDOUGLAS, PAGNEW, DBENZE), NEA/ARP 
(HARRIS), ECA/A/E/NEA (DIVES), ECA/A/S/A (AFOREST) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO PGOV ENRG PINR OEXC SCUL SA
SUBJECT: KING ABDULLAH APPOINTS WORLD CLASS BOARD OF TRUSTESS FOR 
HIS WORLD CLASS RESEARCH UNIVERSITY 
 
REF RIYADH 1479 
 
¶1. Summary.  On October 3 King Abdullah decreed the appointment of 
the first Board of Trustees of King Abdullah University of Science 
and Technology (KAUST).  The King intends that KAUST be a 
world-class, co-educational research institute at the graduate 
level, with English as the language of instruction, and he has 
reportedly given KAUST a $20 billion endowment.  His twenty trustee 
appointments show that he knows that more than money is necessary 
for success in this endeavor.  All are major figures either in 
business (chiefly oil, no surprise in a project entrusted to Aramco) 
or the academic world.  At least fourteen have degrees, almost all 
of them advanced degrees, from U.S. institutions.  Three are 
path-breaking women: the former President of Ireland, the current 
President of Princeton, and Saudi Arabia's most influential 
businesswoman.  Ten are Saudis, four Americans, two Singaporeans, 
one each from Ireland, Britain, Korea and Germany.  Notably absent 
from the board are any Saudis connected with the country's 
conservative Islamic religious establishment.  At the KAUST 
ground-breaking ceremony, the King recalled "the golden age of Arab 
Muslim civilization," and expressed his hope that KAUST would 
deliver "its humane and noble message in an ideal 
environment...without discrimination."  With his appointments, the 
King has taken a major step toward realizing that hope.  End Summary 
 
 
¶2.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) released the names of the 
twenty members of the KAUST Board of Trustees.  They are: 
 
1- Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi; Chairman 
2- Prince Khalid bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud; member 
3- Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud; member 
4- Prince Mansour bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud; member 
5- Dr. Ahmad Mohammed Ali; member 
6- Dr. Khalid bin Salih Al-Sultan; member 
7- Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabia; member 
8- Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al-Faleh (aka Falih); member 
9- Lubna bint Suleiman Al-Olayan; member 
10- Mohammed bin Abdul-Latif Jameel; member 
11- Prof. Choon Fong Shih; member 
12- Prof. Frank Rhodes; member 
13- Dr. Tony Tan King Yan (sic - Tony Tan Keng Yan?); member 
14- Mary Robinson; member 
15- Shirley Tilghman; member 
16- Elias Zerhouni; member 
17- Jang Jee (Jae Jung?); member 
18- John Brennan; member 
19- Andrew Gold (sic); member 
20- Rolf Dieter Heur (sic); member 
 
------------------------------------------ 
Biographic information about board members 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶3. Ali bin Ibrahim Al-Naimi; Chairman, has been the Minister of 
Petroleum and Mineral Resources, since August 1995. Prior to being 
named minister with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, he had served as 
chief executive officer of Saudi Aramco for seven years.  Minister 
Al-Naimi studied at the International College and the American 
University in Beirut, Lebanon, received a BS in Geology from Lehigh 
University (1962), and a MS in Geology from Stanford (1963). 
1963.Prince Khalid, Prince Abdulaziz and Prince Mansour are sons of 
King Abdullah. 
 
5.Dr. Ahmad Mohammed Ali is presumably Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali 
Al-Madani, the first President of the Islamic Development Bank. He 
has served in this capacity since 1975.  He holds a B.A. degree in 
Commerce and degree in Law from Cairo University, Egypt. He earned 
his M.A. and PhD degrees from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 
and State University of New York (SUNY), Albany, USA in Public 
Administration in 1962 and 1967, respectively. 
 
¶6. H.E.Khalid bin Salih Al-Sultan, the rector of King Fahd 
University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, and previously a 
member of the KAUST International Advisory Council.  He is a former 
Deputy Minister for Educational Affairs.  Dr. Al-Sultan received a 
Ph.D. in Industrial and Operations Engineering (Operations Research) 
and a M.S. in applied mathematics from the University of Michigan, 
Ann Arbor, in 1990.  He has a M.S. in systems engineering from KFUPM 
(1987), and a B.S. (with highest honors) in systems engineering, 
KFUPM (1985). He is also a member of Saudi Aramco Board of 
Directors. 
 
¶7. Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabia (or Rabih or Rabeeah) is the 
chief executive officer of King Abdulaziz Medical City and Executive 
Director of National Guard Health Affairs; he is an internationally 
recognized expert on separating conjoined twins. 
 
RIYADH 00001504  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶8. Khalid A. Al-Falih is executive vice president for Operations for 
Saudi Aramco, and a member of the Board of Directors.  He also 
serves as chairman of the board of the newly formed South Rub' 
al-Khali joint venture between Shell, Total and Saudi Aramco.  He 
was previously a member of KAUST's International Advisory Council. 
Mr. Al-Falih is a 1982 graduate of Texas A&M University in 
mechanical engineering. He received a master's degree in business 
administration in 1991 from the King Fahd University of Petroleum & 
Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. 
 
¶9. Mrs. Lubna S. Olayan is the CEO of Olayan Financing Company, one 
of the largest investors in the Saudi and regional stock markets. 
She was listed as one of the world's 100 most influential people of 
2005 by Time magazine and one of the world's 100 most influential 
women in 2005, 2006 and 2007 by Forbes magazine.  She was previously 
a member of the KAUST Presidential Search Committee.  She received 
her B.S. degree in agriculture from Cornell University and an MBA 
from Indiana University. 
 
¶10. Mohammed Abdul Latif Jameel is the president of Abdul Latif 
Jameel Co. (ALJ), a conglomerate involved in imports, retail, real 
estate, etc., and Abdul Latif Jameel Community Services Programs. 
Known as a philanthropist, he is behind the Grameen Jameel Pan Arab 
Initiative, which aims to reduce poverty through micro credit. He 
received his BS in civil engineering from MIT in 1978. 
 
¶11. Professor Choon Fong Shih is the President of the National 
University of Singapore, and was recently named the President 
Designate of KAUST.  He received his PhD from Harvard University in 
¶1973. Thereafter, he worked for GE, and in 1981 he joined the 
faculty of Brown University, ecentually becoming Brown University. 
He spent some 30 years in the U.S. studying, working and teaching. 
¶11. Frank (H.T). Rhodes is the president Emeritus of Cornell 
University and a member of the KAUST International Advisory 
Council. 
 
¶12. Tony Tan King Yan is presumably Tony Tan Keng Yam, the former 
Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Security and 
Defence of Singapore.  He is also the Executive Director of the 
Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC), and Chairman 
of Singapore Press Holdings Limited (SPH). GIC is a global 
investment management company established in 1981 to manage 
Singapore's foreign reserves.  Its Chairman is former Prime Minister 
Lee Kuan Yew and its Deputy Chairman is the current Prime Minister 
Lee Hsieng Loong.  He has a MS from MIT. 
 
¶13. Dr Mary Robinson, the first woman President of Ireland 
(1990-1997) and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human 
Rights (1997-2002), is now the Chancellor of Trinity 
College/University of Dublin 
 
¶14. Shirley M. Tilghman, is the first woman president of Princeton 
University.  She is a world-renowned scholar in the field of 
molecular biology. 
 
¶15. Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni is the Director of the NIH. 
 
¶16. Post believes Jang Jee is actually Jae Jung, former Harvard 
Medical School microbiologist, who is now professor and chair of the 
Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Keck 
School of Medicine at USC.  Jung also serves on a large number of 
review and advisory panels, including scientific committees for the 
Korean Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Science and 
Technology.  Jung received his Bachelor of Science in food science 
at Seoul National University in Korea and his doctorate in 
microbiology from the University of California at Davis. 
 
¶17. John Brennan is president and CEO of The Analysis Corporation 
(TAC) of McLean, Virginia, and chairman of the board of the 
Intelligence and National Security Alliance (INSA). He is retired 
from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He has specialized in 
Middle Eastern and terrorism issues throughout his professional 
career. 
 
¶18. Mr. Andrew Gold is presumably Andrew Gould, the Chairman and 
Chief Executive Officer, Schlumberger Limited Houston and Paris and 
a member of the KAUST Presidential Search Committee. 
 
¶19. Rolf-Dieter Heuer has been named as the new Director General for 
CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). He will assume 
office on 1 January 2009. Rolf-Dieter Heuer is currently Research 
Director for particle and astroparticle physics at the German 
research centre DESY. 
 
FRAKER