Founding Values

Key values of the donor of the Chair:

• Family culture and beliefs:
  • The late Said Khoury left “a legacy of family values” that is deeply engrained in the organizational culture of CCC that he co-founded and where a family-like atmosphere continues to flourish and prosper.  
• Youth growth and development:
  • Mr. Samer Khoury is a board member of Education for Employment (EFE), a non-governmental institution which focusses on creating valuable employment opportunities for youth in the MENA region by connecting university graduates with prospective employers.
• Transparency and accountability:
  • CCC is one of the founding partners of the Pearl Initiative, a non-profit organization that promotes best practices in the field of ethics, corporate governance and social responsibility.  

Key values of the university:

• Education and innovation for positive societal impact
• Trust and shared responsibility
• Leadership, respect, distinction, integrity and inclusiveness 

Chairholder’s definition of leadership:

• Leadership is defined in its broadest sense, acknowledging that it can embrace different connotations and manifest itself through a variety of cues and means.
• This definition suggests that leadership is not merely specific to an individual, but can also be a property of a team, an organization, and even an entire government, nation or state.
• This implies a cross-silo and cross-disciplinary conceptualization of leadership that generates impact across individual, group, and organizational levels and spans across industries, sectors, and national boundaries. 

The donor of the Chair—Mr. Samer S. Khoury and all the members of the Khoury family —is an active promoter of integrity, diversity, inclusiveness, and youth engagement and empowerment. These are also the values that are profoundly rooted in the foundational pillars of American University of Sharjah. At the same time, leadership is about real actions and interventions that are influenced by valuable research insights and have practical relevance.