DUBAI // A networking event for Harvard University graduates in the region is to be held in Dubai this week, but organisers were keen to stress it is not an “old boys’ club”.
The Harvard Arab World Conference will be held tomorrow at Atlantis, The Palm in an attempt to connect professionals and leaders across the region who once studied at the US Ivy League university.
The event, featuring a keynote speech from Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, Minister of Culture, Youth, and Community Development, will be organised loosely around the theme of how the Middle East is a key crossroads for business between East and West.
It is the 9th time the annual gathering has been held in the GCC region but a first for Dubai.
Goulam Amarsy, president of the Harvard Business School Club in the UAE, said there were about 700 Harvard graduates living and working in the Emirates, and about 1,600 across the GCC.
“Not everyone becomes CEO, but most of them are in top position and decision makers,” he said. “Most of them, if not all of them are in those positions. You will not find anyone on our database in a junior position.”
The club, along with the Harvard Alumni Society of the UAE, holds regular meetings in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
“It’s not an old boys’ network,” he said. “I hate that term. That’s an antique, it doesn’t apply to us.
“For one, around 45 per cent of our graduates are women. In addition, we regularly invite like-minded people from other universities to attend our events, so it’s not a closed society.”
But he said there was a network that formed between graduates of the same university.
“Being a graduate can open a few doors,” Mr Amarsy said. “You have access to influential people through the network. The network is very strong and there’s a support system.”
More than 25 speakers will take the stage during the one-day event, mostly Harvard graduates.
Amer Lahham, the President of the Harvard Arab Alumni Association, said: “The Harvard Arab World Conference is an opportunity to convene the next generation of thinkers in the region, alongside accomplished leaders from a variety of fields.
“Through such events we hope to foster a constructive conversation around the critical issues facing the Arab world.”
mcroucher@thenational.ae