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H.E. Dr. Sahar Nasr ’85, ’90
Egypt’s Minister of Investment and International Cooperation

Her Excellency Dr. Sahar Nasr was sworn in as the Egyptian minister of investment and international cooperation on February 16, 2017, following her appointment as minister of international cooperation on September 19, 2015.

Nasr earned her professorship from the Supreme Council of Universities. She is a professor of economics at AUC and a lecturer at several Egyptian and international universities. Throughout her academic career, she published over sixty research papers, technical reports and books.

Since assuming her role as Egypt’s minister of investment and international cooperation, Nasr has made several strides in enhancing the business environment and the investment climate in Egypt, such as the recent passing of the long-awaited Investment Law, which introduces incentives towards making Egypt one of the top investment destinations in the region.

Nasr has focused on strengthening Egypt’s ties with its existing international partner and exploring new opportunities for cooperation through the establishment of mutually beneficial partnerships. This has involved consolidating Egyptian-Gulf relationships, expanding and deepening ties with African states, and exploring new relationships with Asian partners.

Nasr also serves as Egypt’s governor to several institutions such as the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

As a former member of the Presidential Office’s Economic Development Council, Nasr provided economic consultations to the Egyptian president and drafted proposals for the development of the country’s economic policies. In recognition of her outstanding accomplishments, the Union of Arab Banks and the World Union of Arab Bankers recognized her as the most influential woman in the Arab economic sector in 2015.

Nasr has extensive experience in negotiating and securing international grants and loans, especially within her role as lead economist at the World Bank. She has managed funds exceeding $4.3 billion, injected into the Egyptian economy in the areas of economic reform, economic policy development, small and medium enterprise (SME) development, and social housing.

Nasr’s career has involved designing and supervising numerous reform and finance programs around the globe, in addition to her influential work in Egypt. She has made significant strides in areas of economic development, including the development of micro, SMEs to promote inclusive growth and job creation. She has also constructed partnership schemes between the World Bank Group, governments of developing countries, and other local and international organizations.

 

Distinguished CASA Alumna Susan Peters (CASA ’98)
Senior Advisor, ABANA

Susan Peters (CASA ’98) is a co-founder and producer at Twelve Letter Films. She has a long history in nonprofit management, with a focus on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). She is a senior advisor to and former president of ABANA, an association for finance professionals with interest in the MENA region, and was executive director to the board of King’s Academy, where she led strategic planning, development and policy for a new co-ed boarding school outside of Amman, Jordan.

She has lived in Egypt and Jordan, as well as in Morocco, where she was assistant director of the Arabic Language Institute in Fez from 1994 to 1997. Susan was a founding board member and president of ArteEast, a New York-based nonprofit that promotes the contemporary arts of the Middle East, and is on the advisory committees of Noor Theatre and The Welfare Association. She is a partner at Terratron, a real estate and hospitality company.

In 2017, Twelve Letter Films, co-founded with her husband Jim Cricchi, released its first documentary, Los Lecheros, about undocumented workers in Wisconsin dairy farms. Susan holds a BA from the University of Michigan and a MA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was a fellow at the Center for Arabic Studies Abroad at AUC and has completed language studies at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, Middlebury College and the Arabic Language Institute in Fez.


Master of Ceremonies Lois “Elle” Johnson
TV Writer and Producer

Elle Johnson is a TV writer and producer. She lives in Los Angeles and is currently an executive producer of the Amazon series Bosch. She has written and produced shows such as CSI: Miami, Law & Order, Ghost Whisperer, Saving Grace, The Glades, and The Fosters.

Elle was born and raised in Queens, New York. She graduated from Harvard College and has had many adventures in her life, including riding a bicycle across America from San Francisco to Boston; living in Cairo, Egypt where she rowed crew on the Nile River; and helping to start the first women’s Rugby team at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England when she was a Rotary Scholar. Elle was an AUC presidential intern in 1986 - 1987.