Ambassador (ret.) Greta C. Holtz joined Amideast in August 2023, following 35 years as a career diplomat with extensive experience in the Middle East and North Africa. She served as the U.S. Ambassador to Oman from 2012 to 2015, the Chargé d'affaires in Qatar from 2020-2021, and the Minister-Counselor for Provincial Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad from 2009 to 2010.
Ms. Dana Al-Ajlani is currently Senior Director of Corporate Affairs at Eli Lilly, with close to 20 years’ experience in public and government affairs. She is a strong leader who held different positions in the corporate and nonprofit industries.
Ambassador (ret.) Michael Ratney served for over three decades as a distinguished U.S. diplomat, most recently as the U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Amb. Ratney served as the U.S. Consul General in Jerusalem, as the Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Embassy to Israel, as well as postings in Baghdad, Beirut, Casablanca, Doha, Mexico City, Tunis, Bridgetown, and Washington DC. Over his career, Amb. Ratney has been at the center of high-profile diplomatic initiatives throughout the Middle East, including as U.S. Special Envoy for Syria.
Larry will be responsible for designing, developing, and implementing knowledge management strategies, structures, and best practices across Amideast’s global operations and programs. He will play an instrumental role in shaping and driving Amideast’s organizational approach to knowledge management and promoting a culture of continuous collaboration and innovation. Larry will lead the development of a knowledge management strategy to include digital tools, staff training, and policies to establish and to maintain an organization-wide knowledge management system.
F. Gregory Gause III is Professor of International Affairs and John H.
Mr. Jonathan McKay currently serves as the Vice President Product at Microsoft. Previously he was Head of Growth at OpenAI, where he was responsible for driving user and revenue growth for ChatGPT. His responsibilities also extend to the strategic allocation of the GPU fleet and developing product infrastructure to support GPU allocation, internationalization, and comprehensive A/B testing initiatives across ChatGPT platforms.
Dr. Meriem Guetat is an experienced professional in international education and program management. Currently serving as the Director of Programs at Amideast, she brings over a decade of hands-on experience from her work in North Africa. In her present role, she oversees a diverse range of educational and training programs across the organization as well as manages the implementation of Amideast proprietary exchange programs. Before her current position, Dr.
Mr. Ayad Zein has been supporting the Fulbright Program in different capacities for 16 years. As Director of the Fulbright Program, he oversees Amideast staff at our Washington, DC headquarters and in the MENA region who support the Fulbright Foreign Student program and Amideast’s administration of the program.
Ms. Oliver serves as Amideast’s Director of Advancement. In this role, Ms. Oliver manages the planning and implementation of a comprehensive advancement plan, including major and planned giving programs, foundation and corporate support, and donor relations.
As Director of Finance, Rashid Khalfallah manages the regional finance function and overseeing the work of the field accounting staff to ensure accurate, timely and efficient processing of financial transactions and effective controls that prevent or timely detect errors and fraud. In addition, he is responsible for developing, implementing, and monitoring Amideast’s annual budget and periodic forecasting and providing critical analysis that supports major corporate decisions of the CFO, Senior Leadership Team, and the Board of Directors. Mr.
