TAG-Org News

04-Jul-2011
Speech by Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh On the occasion of the Third Graduation Ceremony of MBA students

Talal Abu Ghazaleh Graduate School of Business

Speech by Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh
On the occasion of the Third Graduation Ceremony
of MBA students
June 28, 2010

Your Royal Highness Princess Basma Bint Talal
Distinguished Guests, Parents and Relatives of our Graduating Students
My sons and daughters, members of the 2011 graduating class

It is my great privilege to be here with you to celebrate the graduation of our third group of MBA students.

We are especially honored to have HRH Princess Basma Bint Talal as patroness of this ceremony. Your Royal Highness, your work with our youth and especially your work towards promoting women’s rights and gender equity are recognized worldwide. You have been effective in guiding the efforts to amend a number of laws and legislations that enhanced the status of women in this great country. You will be pleased to know that as a result of your efforts, our business school can claim a 57% enrollment of women students.

I therefore wish to make a special acknowledgement to our female members of the graduating class of 2011! Her Royal Highness has worked hard to elevate the status of women like yourselves in this society. The work has begun and your challenge is to continue in the footsteps of Her Royal Highness.

Whenever I address graduates like you, I tell them that, 51 years ago, I listened to speakers, like me today, and that today I do not remember a single word of what they said. Therefore, I will not infect upon you words of wisdom which you will forget any way. Instead, I will tell you tell you part of my life story and why I stand here.

I have been asked by many people for the reason that I got involved in higher education. Having provided professional business services in all parts of the Arab world for almost four decades, and having interviewed and hired thousands of staff over the years, I came to the conclusion that we need to improve the quality of the human resources that our economy demands. I hope you do not mind me saying that the average student graduating from an Arab university business program is not prepared to handle the demands of the global economy. Over the years I have dedicated my personal and business resources to one overriding goal, which is the socioeconomic development of the Arab world and the Arab people. In the early years I was busy developing professional organizations, promoting prudential regulation and reform of outdated business laws. Later our efforts moved to globalization and trade. In the 90’s we began our work to channel information and communication technologies into concrete economic and social progress. But at every stage there was one obvious and overarching reality that could not be ignored, and that is the primacy and critical importance of education in every step we take.

But there is still another component to the story, and that is the relation of the business sector to education. Every step of my own journey that led to this school and your graduation today highlighted the importance and centrality of a cross-sectoral approach to development, one that embraces the private sector, government, non-governmental organizations, science and academia and global institutions and instruments. And within the academic sphere the value of mutli-disciplinary approaches has continued to grow in significance as well.

The need for cooperation and close proximity of academia and business is widely acknowledged. And at the center, the focus of all this activity, cross-pollination and effort is you, the next generation of businessmen and women, politicians, and entrepreneurs.

For these reasons I committed all the necessary resources of my organization to launch a business school to prepare our next generation of leaders, the movers and shakers of the future. We have developed a business curriculum that meets the highest international standards and that allowed us to receive the prestigious European accreditation from the Foundation for International Business Administration Accreditation. We have committed to hiring the most qualified teaching faculty and to maintain high levels of selectivity in recruiting the best students who have the potential to benefit from our rigorous and innovative programs. My objective is not only to make our business school the premier business school in the Arab world but also to become an internationally recognized business school; I will not spare any resources to help us reach that goal.

My sons and daughters, members of the 2011 graduating class. Today you are celebrating a milestone that you worked hard to achieve. We commend you for all your diligent and hard work that qualify you for the degree that is about to be bestowed on you. This, however, is only the corner stone, the foundation of what is to come. You will be facing many challenges in your careers. We have prepared you to face those challenges and become a great contributor to our economy and our society. With the skills that you now possess coupled with your integrity and high ethical standards, you will succeed In Shaa Allah. May God always bless you and guide you.

Some leading universities tell their graduates to be arrogant because they are the best. Not you. Not arrogant.

TAGSB graduates deserve to be proud but not arrogant.

This is a school where the gifted become leaders. You are ready to lead. Go ahead and lead us.

Finally, knowledge is like an island in the sea of the unknown. The wider this island of knowledge gets, the longer its borders with the unknown become. Likewise, we are; the more knowledge we possess, the more we realize how little we know of the unknown. That is the greatness and beauty of science; it's endless. The more we learn, the greater our need to learn becomes.

Thank you Your Royal Highness Princess Basma Bint Talal for honouring us with your patronage and for agreeing to deliver personally to the certificates to our privileged graduates.

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Speech by Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh On the occasion of the Third Graduation Ceremony of MBA students

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