Fadlo R. Khuri
Fadlo R. Khuri, is the 16th and current president of the American University of Beirut. He assumed office in September 2015 and was inaugurated on January 25, 2016. Khuri is also a professor of the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine and editor-in-chief of the medical journal Cancer.
Khuri was formerly executive associate dean of research and chair of the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University's School of Medicine. He also served as deputy director of the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University.
On March 15, 2019 the Board of Trustees announced the renewal of Khuri as AUB President for a second five-year term as AUB President, effective September 1, 2020.
Early life and education
Khuri was born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. He attended AUB in 1981-82, received his bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1985, and his MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1989. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Boston City Hospital. Although he entered medical school with the intention of becoming a psychiatrist, he decided to instead specialize in oncology after meeting a rabbi with cancer on the first day of his surgery rotation.While working as an emergency room physician, Khuri was sued for medical malpractice by a patient who was left brain damaged and severely disabled after an asthma attack. The case is featured in a textbook on medical law to illustrate what the textbook's authors called "the possible consequences of inaccurate or ambiguous medical record documentation."
Academic career
Khuri subsequently became a faculty member at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas from 1995 until 2002. In 2002, he joined the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He was appointed the Roberto C. Goizueta Chair in translational research in 2007. Khuri was instrumental in leading the development of some of the most important cancer-related programs in the United States and was the principal investigator on a number of National Cancer Institute grants. Khuri is particularly well known for the research projects he led to develop molecularly targeted therapy for lung and aerodigestive cancer prevention and treatment.Khuri has authored more than 350 peer-reviewed articles and more than 50 editorials and perspectives in leading journals. He has also written more than 100 reviews and book chapters. Among his most important and most frequently cited publications are “A controlled trial of intratumoral ONYX-015, a selectively-replicating adenovirus, in combination with cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil in patients with recurrent head and neck cancer,” Nature Medicine, “Cyclooxygenase-2 overexpression is a marker of poor prognosis in stage I non-small cell lung cancer,” Clinical Cancer Research, “Phase I study of the farnesyl transferase inhibitor lonafarnib with paclitaxel in solid tumors,” Clinical Cancer Research, “Activation of Akt and eIF4E survival pathways by rapamycin-mediated mammalian target of rapamycin inhibition,” Cancer Research, and “Randomized phase III trial of low-dose isotretinoin for prevention of second primary tumors in stage I and II head and neck cancer patients,” Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
He has received many awards in recognition of his scholarly achievements including the 2006 Nagi Sahyoun Award of the Middle East Medical Assembly, the 2013 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Memorial Award by the American Association for Cancer Research, and TAKREEM's Scientific and Technological Achievement Award in 2015.
Khuri has been a trustee of the American University of Beirut since 2014, a member of the Naef K. Basile Foundation Board of Trustees since 2005, and a member of the Atlanta International School Board of Trustees since 2009. He has chaired the American University of Beirut Medical School International Advisory Committee since 2010.
Leadership at AUB
Khuri was motivated to return to Lebanon to assume the position of university president by his and his family's strong personal connections to the country and the University, his appreciation of the enormous impact that AUB has on the Arab world, and its role as “a fundamental driver of the American liberal arts ethos in the region.”In his inaugural address as AUB president, Khuri outlined his vision for the University: to increase the financial aid budget so that an AUB education is affordable for all academically qualified students; to develop the service and leadership aspects of the curriculum and imbed them in the basic teaching of undergraduate and graduate students; to strengthen AUB's research mission; to invest in infrastructure; and to develop a sustainable global health sciences initiative.
Throughout his tenure, Khuri has stressed the importance of transparency and accountability.
Under his leadership, AUB has formed partnerships with other universities in Lebanon, and strengthened relationships with institutions in Lebanon and around the world. AUB and Saint Joseph University work together to organize an annual NGO Fair.
Several incidents have raised concerns about AUB under Khuri's leadership. In 2017, AUB paid a $700,000 penalty to the United States government for having used U.S. federal funds to train associates of Hezbollah, which has been identified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and other international governments. According to the terms of the settlement as announced by the U.S. Justice Department, AUB "admitted to and accepted responsibility for" these actions. Later that year, AUB punished AUB graduate students who peacefully protested funding cuts. AUB later withdrew the sanctions under pressure. In 2018, Khuri publicly denied that he had endorsed Lebanese billionaire Fouad Makhzoumi's candidacy for a seat in the Lebanese parliament after a video surfaced suggesting that he had done so. Makhzoumi was subsequently elected.
On January 31, 2020, Khuri was criticized in AUB's University Senate for threatening disciplinary action against AUB faculty and Senate member Angela Harutyunyan, who had disagreed with his policies in an e-mail exchange. A past leader of AUB's faculty association found Khuri's actions "deeply unsettling." In May 2020, AUB was sued for violating the civil rights of a New York company that had registered to participate in an AUB job fair but was removed due to alleged discrimination on the basis of nationality. On July 7, 2020, Lebanon's Prime Minister Hassan Diab, an AUB faculty member and administrator, sued AUB for $1 million in unpaid severance compensation. Three days later Khuri described Diab's government as "the worst government in Lebanese history with regard to their understanding of, and their care of higher education" and claimed that it "does not care about higher education."
On May 5, 2020, Khuri announced a projected 60% decline in AUB's revenue in the next academic year and stated that "this deficit is beyond the capacity of the university to absorb for even one year."
On June 15, 2020, Khuri announced that AUB would fire up to 25 percent of its employees due to severe financial distress. AUB also announced voluntary and mandatory salary reductions of 10 to 15 percent from its remaining employees. AUB's Workers and Staff Syndicate denounced Khuri's decision, which affected 1,500 employees, as a "collective massacre" and stated its intention to pursue legal action. AUB fired 850 employees on July 17, 2020, in the presence of Lebanese military and internal security forces summoned in response to unspecified "threats," provoking major criticism from members of the AUB community and a public protest calling for Khuri's resignation. Khuri admitted that "the security presence should have been better managed."
According to AUB's publicly available U.S. tax filings, Khuri received $979,149 in total compensation in 2017. His current compensation is undisclosed.