Speakers

AFED

An architect by training, is publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Al-Bia Wal-Tanmia (Environment & Development), the leading pan-Arab magazine on sustainable development and Secretary General of Arab Forum for Environment & Development (AFED). He has a varied experience, ranging from designing for multi-nationals like General Motors and lecturing on corporate architecture at the American University of Beirut, to advising various governments and agencies on environment and writing on sustainable development and technology. He is a 2003 laureate of the United Nations Environment Programme's Global 500 Award for environmental achievement, and in 2011 was awarded Zayed International Prize for the Environment. Saab has ten books to his credit, including The Nature Book which received in 2002 the Book of the Year Award from the Beirut Arab Book Fair. He is co-editor, with Mostafa Tolba and Mohamed El-Ashry, of the annual reports on the State of the Arab Environment published by AFED. His monthly editorials are published by 10 leading newspapers across the Arab region, and is the only regular syndicated commentary in Arabic on environment issues. Born in Lebanon in 1953, received his degree in Architecture from the American University of Beirut, where he also studied mass communications and political science.