Governance

Paul Griffiths is CEO of Dubai Airports, with the responsibility for the operation and development of Dubai International (DXB) – the world’s busiest airport for international passengers, as well as Dubai World Central (DWC).

Paul joined Dubai Airports as its first CEO in October 2007. A year later, on 14 October, Paul was instrumental in the flawless launch of Terminal 3 at DXB and on 27 June 2010 successfully opened the Emirate’s second airport, DWC. He achieved another milestone in Dubai’s aviation history on 2 January 2013 with the opening of Concourse A, the world’s first purpose-built A380 facility and again with Concourse D on February 24, 2016. Paul also oversaw the opening of the passenger terminal at DWC on 27 October 2013. On December 20, 2018, Paul joined Dubai Airports’ Chairman HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum in welcoming DXB’s billionth passenger.

Under Paul’s leadership, Dubai Airports successfully managed through the Covid-19 crisis – acknowledged by the world’s aviation and airline industry as a challenge unprecedented in history and became one of the earliest hubs to welcome back international tourists. He led the teams at DXB and DWC to support a massive repatriation operation in close coordination with diplomatic missions, UAE authorities, airlines, and other service partners to help nearly half a million people get back to their homes during the first global lockdown in 2020. Paul played a crucial role in the recovery of DXB’s operations and growth through travel corridor arrangements with several key markets as well as by lobbying the industry to push for standardised testing based travel protocols. Paul spearheaded a campaign to keep the hibernating parts of the airport ready for reopening at very short notice which played a critical role in enabling the timely and smooth reopening of Terminal 1 and Concourse D in June 2021 and Concourse A in November 2021.

Prior to moving to Dubai, Paul was MD of London’s Gatwick Airport. Before joining airport operator BAA in 2004, he spent 14 years with the Virgin Group, working closely with Sir Richard Branson as a Board Director of the Virgin Travel Group, responsible for the commercial activities of both Virgin Atlantic Airways and Virgin Trains.

Peter is the Chief Operating Officer for Microsoft Africa, leading a team of dedicated experts to support organisations of all industries and sizes spanning more than 50 countries across the continent.

Peter has been a resident of the UAE for 40 years and he and his wife are proud alumni, with their two children being current students. Having joined the Board of Governors in 2012, Peter serves on the Finance & General Purposes Committee. In 2023, he was appointed Deputy Chairman and also leads the Governance Committee.

Stuart is the Chief Financial Officer of Advanced Inhalation Rituals (AIR), prior to this, he spent twenty three years with British American Tobacco (BAT), gaining a wealth of international business experience whilst working and living in ten different countries. His previous roles at BAT included, Head of Finance for the European Region and prior to that, Area Director for North Africa.

Stuart has a degree in Economics and Accountancy, has completed executive studies at both Harvard Business School and IMD and is a Chartered Management Accountant. He has recently taken on the voluntary role of school Treasurer and is Chairman of the Finance and General Purposes Committee. He is also a member of the Development Board.

Stuart is married to Raluca (who sits on the Board of the FDC) and has a son, who is a current student at the school.

Bishoy Azmy is the Founder and CEO of Innovo Group, a London headquartered business with interests in construction, real estate development and related functions operating across four continents and over a dozen countries. (www.innovogroup.com)

Bishoy’s construction journey began in 2002, upon joining the family business ASGC in Dubai, UAE. During the following twenty years, last ten of which as CEO,  Bishoy was part of the growth of ASGC to be one of the leading construction players in the UAE, employing over 10,000 people and churning revenues of billions of dollars, and working on some of the most iconic projects in the UAE such as Dubai International Airport, Dubai Mall, Etihad Museum, MBR Library, Citywalk development, Bluewaters Island, etc. (www.asgcgroup.com)

Following on the success of ASGC, Bishoy’s vision behind the creation of Innovo was to continue the successful operation in the UAE and also focus on a geographic expansion as well as a gradual shift from commoditized construction services to more knowledge based offerings, with a special emphasis on the adoption of technology in the built environment to provide more future-proof real estate solutions to the world, with a nod to key challenges in the sector such as sustainability and affordability.

Bishoy holds a Bachelors in Construction Engineering from The American University in Cairo (Egypt), a Masters in International Construction Management from the University of Bath (UK), an EMBA from London Business School (UK) and is a graduate of Harvard Business School (US).

Bishoy sits on several boards, including serving as a member of the Board of Trustees for his alma mater: AUC, and as a non-executive Director on the board of one of the UK’s leading infrastructure public companies; Costain plc. He also serves as a Governor on the Board of Governors of Dubai College, the pre-eminent British curriculum secondary school in the GCC region. Bishoy lives with his wife Mary and their two boys in Dubai and both of them go to Dubai College.

Professor Eman Gaad is the Dean of the Faculty of Education and a Professor of Special and Inclusive Education at the British University in Dubai (BUiD). She is also an Affiliate Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, UK. Professor Gaad led BUiD’s special and inclusive Masters programme for many years and currently leads the Doctoral Programme. She has established herself as a world-class researcher, advocate, international social development consultant and expert in the field. Additionally, Professor Gaad is a regular invited keynote speaker, certified assessor, and a professional social trainer.  Over the last 25 years she has become a frequent national and international media figure on hundreds of live on-air radio and TV programmes, as well as writing and appearing in hundreds of articles published in local and regional newspapers.

Professor Gaad is a sound academic, an External PhD Examiner for reputed universities around the world (UK, Australia, Canada and India) and is a recognized international scholar in the field of special and Inclusive Education as well as social development. She co-founded one of the largest NGOs in the UAE, the Emirates Down Syndrome Association (EDSA), where she also acts as a Senior Educational Consultant.  She has advised policy and decision makers as a senior consultant for both governments of Dubai and Abu Dhabi on disability related issues. She is also a winner of HH Princess Haya Award for Special Education in the category of best-distinguished individual research in 2012, and in the same year was awarded the Global Leadership in Education Award from the Asian Leadership Award Board. For her services as an international leader in education, in 2017 she was awarded the ‘Prof. Idira Parikh 50 Women in Education Leaders’ which is an international award from the World Education Congress in India.  In 2020 she was awarded yet another international award (Asian Pacific Down Syndrome Federation Excellence Award).

Professor Gaad is also on the international advisory board for international peer-reviewed journals and is an associate editor for others. She was seconded for two years as the first Director of Disability Services in Dubai Government’s Community Development Authority (CDA). In 2011, she was appointed as one of the assessors of DEGP (Dubai Government Excellence Programme) and she is certified as an international quality management assessor by EFQM (European Framework for Quality Management). A committed advocate for the educational and social rights for people with disability, she is a UNESCO Consultant on inclusion of learners with disabilities in regular schools.  Professor Gaad has published the findings of her research work in international journals and her single authored book ‘Inclusive Education in the Middle East’ by Routledge in 2010 is very popular among scholars and researchers internationally. Professor Gaad is currently, and has been since 2008, a National Representative of the World Forum on Early Care and Education (WOFO). She has extensive experience in supporting and training families and workers in the field of social development. From 2013 to 2017, she designed, delivered  and managed the first long-term parental training programme in the region (Ta’alouf) funded by Al Jalila Foundation. 

In 2022 Professor Gaad became a UN Goodwill Ambassador for Bangladesh.  She is a member of the Education Committee. 

Razan Jafar is a Director at the Crescent Group of companies, based in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Razan works in the Chairman's Office of Crescent Petroleum, focusing on the companies’ legal matters and business services. Razan also serves as Board Member of the Crescent Group and Secretary of the Dana Gas International Advisory Board.

Prior to joining Crescent, Razan qualified as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales with the Norton Rose Group, having worked in its London, Paris and Dubai offices. She also worked alongside Professor James Crawford as a Research Associate at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL) at Cambridge University, where she assisted Professor James Crawford and his colleagues on various important international law publications.

Razan sits on the Board of Trustees of The Borne Foundation, a medical research charity based in the UK funding the best quality scientific research with the ultimate aim and mission of preventing premature birth.

Razan obtained her BA, and subsequently MA, in Law from Cambridge University.

Razan lives in Dubai with her husband Adnan and their four children.

Girish C Jethwani is Managing Director of Geebee Group, one of the founding business firms established in 1950 in Dubai, UAE. This family-owned business has a broad range of interests encompassing manufacturing, exports and imports, trading and distribution, real estate and investments throughout the UAE, GCC, MENASA and Indian subcontinent. Initially focused on steel, cement and textiles, Geebee Group more recently diversified and ventured into plastics and garment manufacturing.(www.geebeegroup.com)

Since graduating with a BSc in Economics from the prestigious London School of Economics, he has been actively involved in expanding the family business. Over the course of more than three decades, he has played a pivotal role in driving the growth and prosperity of the group by spearheading new ventures and has been instrumental in the ongoing global expansion efforts of the group. He currently oversees a workforce of over 6000 employees worldwide and is actively involved in various philanthropic and humanitarian activities.

Until recently, he has served as the Honorary Chairman of the The Indian High Group of Schools, the first and oldest not for profit educational institution in the region, currently providing high quality affordable education to over 13,000 students. Girish and his wife, Sangeeta (also part of FDC) reside permanently in Dubai and their twin daughters are students at Dubai College.

Amanda has broad international business experience. She has spent the last 30 years living and working in Europe, Asia and the Middle East and has extensive experience in professional services and business startups. As a passionate believer in the value of continuing professional education, Amanda founded the largest provider of financial training in Singapore. Working together with UK and US based training companies, she expanded the business across Asia. During this time, she also lectured extensively on a range of corporate finance and risk management topics.

Since moving to the UAE, Amanda has provided consultancy services for educational businesses, established the Middle East office of the ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountant in England and Wales) as well as being an early mover in vertical farming by starting a business to provide sustainable, nutritious local produce. Until her retirement from the firm in June 2023, Amanda was a partner at PwC where she headed up the regional education and skills business.

Amanda qualified as a chartered accountant in London and has been a member of the ICAEW since 1989. She currently holds several board and advisory positions across the education and food sectors.

Graham Lovett is a partner and Head of Litigation for the Middle East at Akin Gump, Stauss, Hauer & Feld LLP, a US law Firm.  Graham specializes in complex and high-value litigation and arbitration.  Having trained and qualified in 1995 at Clifford Chance in London, he became a partner in 2003 before moving to Dubai the following year (ostensibly for two years!) to help the firm develop its offering in the Middle East.  Graham then spent 9 years as the Firm’s Regional Managing Partner overseeing its growth from 22 lawyers in 2004 to around 120 lawyers as of 2015.  Graham is Chairman of the DIFC Authority Legislative Committee and a Member of the Advisory Board of REACH (the first DIFC not-for-profit organization whose aims are to support and develop the skills of female professionals in the area of financial services and its related sectors through mentoring).  Graham regularly appears as an advocate before the DIFC Courts and sits as an arbitrator in both domestic and international arbitrations. In 2021 he was appointed by His Highness the Ruler of Dubai as the only expatriate member of the Board of Directors for the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC). He also sits as a member of the DIAC Arbitration Court.

Graham has three children, two of whom being Dubai College Alumni.

Anju was born and raised in Jamaica before moving to America. She graduated with Honours in Sociology and Education at Brandeis University in Boston and worked as an editor with Addison-Wesley Publishing in the Maths and Science College Division. She is very involved in various philanthropic and community organisations and has served on the board of the Young Presidents’ Organisation as the Youth and Family Officer. She has undergone training with the Dubai Foundation for Women and Children and is currently involved actively in many community service projects that involve supporting the workers in the Dubai labour camps. She has three children who have graduated from Dubai College and has been an active parent supporter of the school.

Sue is an experienced Headteacher, having been Principal of both The Grammar School at Leeds and The British School of Brussels. In 2023-24 she was elected by her peers to be Chair of HMC, the oldest Heads’ association globally that represents the leading independent schools in the world. She is also an experienced governor and trustee, having served on various governing bodies, internationally and in the UK.

Sue always wanted to teach and graduated in English before studying for a PGCE, then the NPQH and, in 2014, a Master’s in Educational Leadership.

Sue has worked in a variety of schools: state and independent, UK and international, single-sex and co-educational, selective and fully comprehensive. She believes in the power of education to transform lives and set children and young people up for success as well as to prepare them to be the inspiring and responsible global citizens of the future.

Sue is an avid reader and loves the theatre, from the toughest dramas to grand opera. She is married with two adult children - and she is also a doting grandma!