Fadlo R. Khuri

Khuri was motivated to return to Lebanon to assume the position of university president by his and his family's strong personal connections to the country and the University,[5] his appreciation of the enormous impact that AUB has on the Arab world, and its role as “a fundamental driver of the American liberal arts ethos in the region.”[6]

In his inaugural address as AUB president,[7] Khuri outlined his vision for the University: to increase the financial aid budget so that an AUB education is affordable for all academically qualified students; to develop the service and leadership aspects of the curriculum and imbed them in the basic teaching of undergraduate and graduate students; to strengthen AUB's research mission; to invest in infrastructure; and to develop a sustainable global health sciences initiative. In a speech he gave in March 2017, Khuri asserted: “Our vision for the University is nothing less than restoring AUB to the rank of world-class universities.”[8]

The president's priorities have informed the $650 million BOLDLY AUB fundraising campaign that the University launched in January 2017. The University's renewed focus on medicine and health is also reflected in AUB's Health 2025 Vision “to establish the first Health Sciences campus in the Arab region that will allow AUB to become a global player in health with global relevance and impact.”[9]

Throughout his tenure, Khuri has repeatedly stressed the importance of transparency and accountability: “We have to have transparency, we have to have accountability, and we have to have agreement on what the joint mission of the place is.”[10] Starting September 15, 2016, Khuri has sent twice-monthly messages to the AUB community entitled President's Perspective[11] to provide both “regular updates on my administration’s activities and . . . the opportunity to feed back about the developments that are taking place.” The messages typically address three topics per issue related to student life and campus events, research, grants, initiatives, etc.

Under his leadership, AUB has formed partnerships with other universities in Lebanon, and strengthened long-standing relationships with institutions in Lebanon and around the world. AUB is collaborating, for example, with the Lebanese American University (LAU) under the auspices of Lebanon's Civic Influence Hub (CIH) to provide recent graduates from AUB and LAU with paid internships at Lebanon's Chamber of Commerce and its Ministries of Economy, Finance, and Industry.[12] AUB and Saint Joseph University work together to organize an annual NGO Fair.[13]

Several incidents have raised concerns about AUB under Khuri's leadership. In 2017, AUB paid a $700,000 penalty to the United States government for having used federal funds to train associates of Hezbollah, which has been identified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government and other international governments. According to the terms of the settlement as announced by the U.S. Justice Department, AUB "admitted to and accepted responsibility for" these actions.[14] Later that year, AUB punished AUB graduate students who peacefully protested funding cuts.[15][16] AUB later withdrew the sanctions under pressure. In 2018, Khuri publicly denied that he had endorsed Lebanese billionaire Fouad Makhzoumi's candidacy for a seat in the Lebanese parliament after a video surfaced suggesting that he had done so.[17] Makhzoumi was subsequently elected. On January 31, 2020, Khuri was criticized in AUB's University Senate for threatening disciplinary action against AUB faculty and Senate member Angela Harutyunyan, who had disagreed with his policies in an e-mail exchange. A past leader of AUB's faculty association found Khuri's actions "deeply unsettling."[18]

On May 5, 2020, Khuri announced a projected 60% decline in AUB's revenue in the next academic year and stated that "this deficit is beyond the capacity of the university to absorb for even one year."[19][20]

On June 15, 2020, Khuri announced that AUB would fire 22 to 25 percent of its employees due to severe financial distress. AUB also announced voluntary and mandatory salary reductions of 10 to 15 percent from its remaining employees. This will be voluntary for those earning up to $150,000/year and compulsory above that amount.[21] According to AUB's publicly available U.S. tax forms for 2017, Khuri receives $979,149 in total compensation.[22]

Khuri was born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Beirut, Lebanon. He attended AUB in 1981-82, received his bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1985, and his MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1989. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Boston City Hospital. Although he entered medical school with the intention of becoming a psychiatrist, he decided to instead specialize in oncology after meeting a rabbi with cancer on the first day of his surgery rotation.[23]

While working as an emergency room physician, Khuri was sued for medical malpractice by a patient who was left brain damaged and severely disabled after an asthma attack. The case is featured in a textbook on medical law to illustrate what the textbook's authors called "the possible consequences of inaccurate or ambiguous medical record documentation."[24]

Khuri subsequently became a faculty member at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas from 1995 until 2002. In 2002, he joined the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He was appointed the Roberto C. Goizueta Chair in translational research in 2007.[25] Khuri was instrumental in leading the development of some of the most important cancer-related programs in the United States[26] and was the principal investigator on a number of National Cancer Institute grants.[27] Khuri is particularly well known for the research projects he led to develop molecularly targeted therapy for lung and aerodigestive cancer prevention and treatment.[28]

Khuri has authored more than 350 peer-reviewed articles and more than 50 editorials and perspectives in leading journals. He has also written more than 100 reviews and book chapters. Among his most important and most frequently cited publications are “A controlled trial of intratumoral ONYX-015, a selectively-replicating adenovirus, in combination with cisplatin and 5-fluorouracil in patients with recurrent head and neck cancer,” Nature Medicine (6:879-885, 2000),[29] “Cyclooxygenase-2 overexpression is a marker of poor prognosis in stage I non-small cell lung cancer,” Clinical Cancer Research (7:861-867, 2001),[30] “Phase I study of the farnesyl transferase inhibitor lonafarnib with paclitaxel in solid tumors,” Clinical Cancer Research (10:2968-76, 2004),[31] “Activation of Akt and eIF4E survival pathways by rapamycin-mediated mammalian target of rapamycin inhibition,” Cancer Research (65:7052-7058, 2005),[32] and “Randomized phase III trial of low-dose isotretinoin for prevention of second primary tumors in stage I and II head and neck cancer patients,” Journal of the National Cancer Institute (98:441-450, 2006).[33]

He has received many awards in recognition of his scholarly achievements including the 2006 Nagi Sahyoun Award of the Middle East Medical Assembly, the 2013 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Memorial Award by the American Association for Cancer Research,[34] and TAKREEM's Scientific and Technological Achievement Award in 2015.[35]

Khuri has been a trustee of the American University of Beirut since 2014, a member of the Naef K. Basile Foundation Board of Trustees since 2005, and a member of the Atlanta International School Board of Trustees since 2009. He has chaired the American University of Beirut Medical School International Advisory Committee since 2010.[1]

In 2013, Khuri received the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award from the American Association for Cancer Research. Khuri was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2014. In 2015, he was elected a full member of the Lebanese Academy of Sciences.[3]

Fadlo Khuri is married to Lamya Tannous Khuri, PhD, who attended AUB from 1981 to 1984. They have three children: Layla, Raja, and Rayya. Fadlo and Lamya Khuri's AUB roots run deep. Both of his maternal great grandfathers graduated from AUB: Jirjis El-Khoury El-Makdisi obtained his diploma from AUB in 1888; Fadlo Hourani earned his diploma in 1894. His paternal grandfather, Najib N. Khuri, obtained his BA in mathematics from AUB in 1910. His father, the late Raja N. Khuri, graduated with high distinction, winning the Penrose Award, the University's highest scholastic honor, on two occasions (1955 and 1959). He was named chairman of the Physiology Department in 1968, dean of medicine in 1979, and acting president in 1984-85.[36] Khuri's mother, Soumaya Khuri, graduated from AUB with high distinction in mathematics in 1959. She went on to earn an AM from Harvard and a PhD from Yale University before returning to AUB where she was a professor in the Department of Mathematics from 1974 to 1986.[37]

Lamya Khuri's grandfather, Dr. Izzat Tannous, earned his undergraduate and MD degrees at AUB. Her parents, Dr. Raja and Lydia Tannous, also attended AUB. Dr. Raja Tannous was founding chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences at AUB's School of Agriculture (later renamed the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences) and also served as acting dean of the school on two occasions.[38]

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