Dr. Fadlo Khuri

The 16th president of the American University of Beirut (AUB), Fadlo Khuri’s leadership has been remarkable. He has provided enlightened leadership under sustained pressure caused by the third worst national economic collapse since the mid-19th century, the devastating August 4, 2020 explosion in the Beirut port, and the pandemic. Since assuming the presidency in 2015, Khuri has negotiated a new faculty contract, restored tenure, tripled financial assistance awarded to AUB students, and diversifed the student body by attracting outstanding students from across Africa and Asia. Khuri recruited and empowered inclusive and brave senior leadership teams, 50 percent of whom are women.

Khuri has driven a values-based, research-intensive strategy for AUB, enhancing healthcare delivery and education. He is leading BOLDLY AUB: The Campaign to Lead, Innovate, and Serve, the largest capital campaign in MENA; established an independent nursing school; developed the VITAL 2030 strategic plan; launched the American University of Beirut – Mediterraneo in Pafos, Cyprus, AUB’s first twin campus outside Lebanon; and secured AUB’s first community hospital in the Keserwan Medical Center. Under his leadership, AUB became the first tobacco-free
campus in the Middle East in 2018. Khuri enhanced and revised national cancer guidelines for Lebanon. He co-led a highly effective national COVID-19 vaccination campaign, vaccinating 93 percent of adults over the age of 70 across Lebanon. The AUB Medical Center adopted EPIC seamlessly and became the first member of the COSMOS research consortium outside the US. Under Khuri’s leadership, AUB helped establish more than a dozen schools for Syrian refugees, securing electronic medical records for 15,000 refugees.

During his tenure as president, AUB has risen dramatically in global rankings: from 801 (in 2015) to 472 (in 2023) in the US News list of Best Global Universities. AUB’s academic and research reputation has also grown and is reflected in its dramatic rise in the QS World University Rankings, from 268 (in 2016) to 226 (in 2024).
Khuri, an accomplished aerodigestive oncologist who served as editor-in-chief of Cancer from 2011-21, has published more than 750 papers and chapters. He is the recipient of numerous academic awards including the Middle East Medical Assembly’s 2006 Nagi Sahyoun Award and the 2013 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award from the American Association for Cancer Research. Khuri is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and currently serves as vice president of the Lebanese
Academy of Sciences.