David Bosch is Director of Aramco Services Company’s Washington, DC Office. Prior to that, Bosch worked for Aramco in government relations and finance, starting in New York with assignments in Dhahran, Riyadh, and Jeddah that totaled almost 20 years. Bosch moved to Oman as a child in January 1955, and his family spent many years in the country. He was privileged to see first-hand the rapid development of the country over the last 50 years. Bosch earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is currently a member of the board of trustees of Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, the World Affairs Council of Washington, D.C., and the Textile Museum.

Mubarak S. Al-Busaidi, current Advisor to the Minister of the Diwan of Royal Court and the Deputy Director of the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center in DC, received his BS at the Sultan Qaboos University in Oman and his MSC in Electrical Engineering from the University of Dundee in the UK.  Engineer Al-Busaidi’s areas of specialization include privatization, electrical engineering and public policy planning.  Prior to his service at the Diwan of Royal Court, Engineer Al-Busaidi was posted at the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Electricity and Water and has attended numerous international conferences.

Alasdair Drysdale is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of New Hampshire. In 1999, he received the Lindberg prize, awarded to the outstanding teacher and scholar in the College of Liberal Arts at UNH.  He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Kobe in Japan and has taught at California State University at Fullerton and Wayne State University.  Professor Drysdale’s publications include: The Razor’s Edge: International Boundaries and Political Geography (co-editor),  Syria and the Middle East Peace Process, and The Middle East and North Africa: A Political Geography.  His most recent research focuses on the topic of his lecture, Oman and demographic change.

Dale F. Eickelman is the Ralph and Richard Lazarus Professor of Anthropology and Human Relations at Dartmouth College. He has a M.A. in Islamic Studies from McGill University (Montréal) and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago. His publications include Public Islam and the Common Good (co-edited with Armando Salvatore, 2004; paperback edition, 2006), Muslim Politics, co-authored with James Piscatori, new ed. (2004), The Middle East and Central Asia: An Anthropological Approach, 4th ed. (2002); New Media in the Muslim World: The Emerging Public Sphere, co-edited with Jon Anderson, 2nd ed. (2003); Russia's Muslim Frontiers: New Directions in Cross-Cultural Analysis, editor (1993); Muslim Travellers: Pilgrimage, Migration and the Religious Imagination , co-edited with James Piscatori (1990); Knowledge and Power in Morocco (1985); Moroccan Islam (1976); and numerous scholarly articles and contributions to edited books. Several of his books have been translated into Arabic. A former President of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (1990) and fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (2000-2001), Professor Eickelman is currently senior advisor to Kuwait’s first private liberal arts university, the American University of Kuwait. His field research in Oman began in 1978, included a 1979-1981 stay in Hamra al-‘Abriyin, a 1982 stay to study Oman’s first Consultative Council, and numerous successive visits.

Herman Franssen is the President of International Energy Associates, a consulting company that provides economic analysis, conducts political risk assessments, and assists companies in establishing relationships with national oil companies and governments in the Middle East. He is also a senior associate with the CSIS Energy and National Security Program, the PEL Group in London, GDP Associates in New York, and the Centre for Global Energy Studies in London.  Additionally, he is an adjunct scholar with the Middle East Institute. Prior to forming International Energy Associates, Dr. Franssen acted as senior economic adviser to the minister of petroleum and minerals in Oman from 1985 to 1996. He assisted with the formation of the group of Independent Petroleum Exporting Countries (IPEC) in 1986 and acted as principal liaison of the Omani Ministry of Petroleum with OPEC and the consuming countries. He received his Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Medford, Massachusetts.

Linda Pappas Funsch has maintained an abiding interest in the Arab world since her introduction to the region as a Junior Year Abroad student at the American University in Cairo. After completing an M.A. in Near Eastern Languages and Literature at New York University, she served as editor of The Arab World magazine, published by the League of Arab States. Arab Information Office in New York. After working with the Ford Foundation in Beirut, Lebanon, Mrs. Funsch was appointed US Director of the American Research Center in Egypt. A frequent lecturer, she has taught at Iona College, Mount St. Mary.s University and currently teaches current issues, history and cultures of the Middle East at Hood College and at Frederick Community College, both in Maryland. Author of a multimedia series entitled, Oman Rediscovered, Mrs. Funsch was introduced to the Sultanate of Oman more than thirty years ago. She has returned twice in the past two years, including once as a Joseph J. Malone Fellow of the National Council on US-Arab Relations, traveling throughout the country, observing and recording the monumental changes that have occurred in over three decades.

Edmund Ghareeb is an Adjunct Professor of Middle East history and politics in the School of International Service at American University and AU’s Center for Global Peace’s first Mustafa Barzani Scholar of Global Kurdish Studies.  He has also taught at Georgetown University, George Washington University, UVA and McGill University.  Dr. Ghareeb is an internationally recognized expert on the Kurds, Iraq and media issues. He is the author of The Kurdish National Movement, The Kurdish Question in Iraq, and the Historical Dictionary of Iraq, the co-author of the recent War in the Gulf and the editor of Split Vision: The Portrayal of Arabs in the American Media.  Dr. Ghareeb is a former journalist and media consultant for the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Washington, DC. He has lectured widely on US policy toward the Middle East, US-Arab relations, Arab-Americans, the American media’s coverage of the Middle East, the Information Revolution in the Arab World, Iraq, the Kurds and the Gulf, and is interviewed frequently by major global media outlets, including CNN, al-Jazeera, and NPR.

Asya  Al-Lamki is the current Omani Cultural Attaché in Washington DC.  She was formerly the Assistant Dean for Research and Post Graduate Studies at Sultan Qaboos University’s College of Commerce and Economics and lectured in areas of human resource management, Organizational Behavior and International Management. Her research interests are primarily focused on the psycho-social dynamics of organizations and their impact on effective national performance and productivity. She received several awards including the 2008 Emerald Literati Network for Excellence for her paper entitled Feminizing Leadership in Arab Societies, The perspectives of Omani Female Leaders and the Distinguished Research Award by the International Academy for Case Studies during the Fall 2004 for her joint paper titled Motivational Issues and Safety Regulations in Arabia: A Case Study of a Multinational Oil Company.  Dr. Al-Lamky was recently a Visiting Researcher at Georgetown’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies researching gender issues in Arab organizations.

David Mack is former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Near East Affairs (1990-1993) and US Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (1986-1989). His diplomatic assignments included Iraq, Jordan, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Libya and Tunisia. Following his career in the State Department, Ambassador Mack worked as Senior Counselor for C & O Resources and later served for ten years as Senior Vice President of the Middle East Institute (MEI). Ambassador Mack is now an Adjunct Scholar with MEI. He has appeared extensively in both the US and Arab media.

Thomas McDow is an Assistant Professor of History at George Mason University. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on World, Indian Ocean, and African History. His research focuses on connections across the Indian Ocean, and his most recent project explores Omani migration to East Africa in the nineteenth century. He focuses on the ties of commerce and kinship that linked the Arabia to East Africa. Prof. McDow has visited Oman several times, and conducted research there as a Fulbright-Hays scholar. His research has also taken him to the former Omani capital in Zanzibar and throughout East Africa. Prof. McDow received his Ph.D. from Yale University where he also served as a Lecturer in the Department of History and Dean of Branford College.

George “Cran” Montgomery is a former U.S. Ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman. Before helping to found the International Practice Group in 1989, he traveled widely throughout the Middle East for more than a decade, first as legislative assistant and then chief counsel to U.S. Senator Howard H. Baker Jr., and then as ambassador to Oman. Ambassador Montgomery’s depth of experience in the Middle East recently helped him win a major petrochemical contract in Qatar for a U.S. petroleum company. He has worked in virtually every country on the Arabian Peninsula, using his knowledge of the region’s governments to facilitate business development and to advise companies on strategic planning and risk assessment.

Peter J. Ochs, II first went to the Sultanate of Oman in 1991 to work in the Reports Section of the Information Centre for the Ministry of Water Resources.  After two years of amassing information about the country, he decided to publicize Oman through writing, photography and artwork.  In 1995, he prepared an exhibition of photos and illustrations shown throughout New England and at the 1998 National Council on US-Arab Relations presentation ceremony of the International Peace Award given to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said.  He has given public lectures to various cultural and social groups on tourism in Oman and was a regular contributor to the “Day Out” column in Oman Today.  Mr. Ochs also wrote the first English-language travel guide to Oman, Maverick Guide to Oman.

Gregory L. Possehl is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania and Emeritus Curator-in-Charge of the Asia Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum. He was on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania from 1973 to 2007 and was appointed an Overseas Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge University in 2001.Professor Possehl has conducted archaeological excavations in North America and Asia. His primary interests are in the Bronze Age and the Indus Civilization of India and Pakistan. He started a program of research in India 1978 where he directed projects at the Indus sites of Rojdi, Oriyo Timbo, and Babar Kot. He was Co-Director of the Gilund Project a third millennium BC site in Rajasthan, India. He is now Director of the excavations at the Bronze Age town of Bat in the Sultanate of Oman. He has written and edited fourteen books and monographs on archaeology. His latest work titled The Indus Civilization: A contemporary perspective won a "Choice" award as an academic book.

Amer Al-Rawas is Oman’s top expert on the academic aspects of information technology. After receiving PhD in computer science and artificial intelligence from Sussex University, he joined Sultan Qaboos University in 1998 as lecturer in computer science and information systems. The same year he was appointed Director, Centre of Information Systems of the university. His outstanding academic contributions led the university to elevate him to the position of Dean of Educational Services in 2001. In 2002, he took over as the Executive Vice President of Oman Telecommunications Company. Dr. Al-Rawas is member of two top academic policy-making bodies of the Sultanate of Oman: the National Accreditation Board for Universities and Higher Education Council. At the Middle East level, he is member of Steering Committee of the Colleges of Computer Science of Union of Arab Universities, and the Permanent Steering Committee of the International Arab Information Technology Conference.

Hatem Al-Shanfari is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics and Finance at the College of Commerce & Economics and Member of the Board of Governors of the Central Bank of Oman.  He has won two best paper awards from international conferences; the first at the International Business and Economics Research Conference in the USA in 2002 and the second at the European Applied Business Research Conference in Italy in 2003.   His areas of expertise include monetary policy, financial markets and the management of financial institutions.  Dr. Al-Shanfari has contributed to the supervision of Omani national development plans and World Bank projects and serves on the Board of Directors of numerous Omani companies.

Page last updated July 21, 2008