The Middle East Institute Advisory Board was established in 2006 to help the Institute plan its development and fundraising activities and to expand its contacts and influence nationally and internationally. The board is composed primarily of individuals from the worlds of business, government, philanthropy and the media with connections to the Middle East.

Middle East Institute Advisory Board Members:

• Rita Hauser (Chair), is President of The Hauser Foundation. She is an international lawyer and of counsel to the New York City law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan where she was a senior partner for more than twenty years. Known for her public service and philanthropic work, she is interested in international conflict resolution, security and human rights. Dr. Hauser chairs The International Peace Academy (a research organization affiliated with the United Nations) and is Chair of the Advisory Board of the International Crisis Group.
  
  
• Nina Ansary is President of The Ansary Foundation, a Houston-based, nationwide non-profit organization dedicated to the cause of education, healthcare, child care, youth-related problems, adult literacy and other public welfare issues, as well as greater international cooperation and better understanding among the community of nations. She oversees a wide-ranging program in support of the philanthropic activities of a long list of institutions in the United States including the Ansary Fellows Program at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and the Ansary Fellowships at Texas A & M University.
  
  
• David Cuthell is the Executive Director of the Institute of Turkish Studies in Washington, D.C., and an adjunct professor of history at both Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs and Georgetown University. He previously worked in the capital markets in New York and London with Citibank and Morgan Stanley. Dr. Cuthell has also taught at Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey where he headed the Turkish, Middle East and Central Asian Studies Program from 2000 through 2004.
  
  
• Richard Debs is an Advisory Director of Morgan Stanley and a member of its International Advisory Board. He is Chairman Emeritus of the American University of Beirut, and Chairman of its International Advisory Council. He is also Chairman Emeritus of Carnegie Hall and serves on its Executive Committee. He is a trustee of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Institute of International Education, the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, and the Barenboim Said Foundation, and has been decorated by the governments of Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.
  
  
• Gordon Gray is the founder and CEO of G Force Capital, LLC. He worked as a journalist in the Midwest and South at The Milwaukee Journal and Louisville Courier Journal before earning an MA in Near Eastern Languages and Culture in 1975 at Columbia University and later on established a radio and cable company. Mr. Gray has given Columbia and Harvard money to establish permanent lectureships for the teaching of Arabic and has contributed to the Edward Said Chair of Modern Arab Studies and Literature at Columbia University.
  
  
• Jerrold (Jerry) Green is Senior Advisor for Middle East/South Asia at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. He has also served as a Visiting Professor in the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California and in the Department of Political Science at UCLA. Green has written widely on Middle East themes focusing on American Middle East policy, the role of religion in the region, inter-Arab relations, Iranian politics, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
  
  
• Zachary Karabell is Executive Vice President, Chief Economist, and Portfolio Manager of the China-US Growth Fund at the investment firm, Fred Alger Management. He has taught at several universities, including Dartmouth and Harvard. He is also the author of a number of books, including The Last Campaign, which won The Chicago Tribune's Heartland Award; Parting the Desert: The Creation of the Suez Canal; and Peace Be Upon You: The Story of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Coexistence, which will be published by Knopf in early 2007.
  
  
• Dennis Loh is the former Vice President for Research of the Pharmacy Division of Hoffmann-La Roche and a former Professor of Medicine, Genetics and Immunology at Washington University in St. Louis. He has had a career on Wall Street, working for Merrill Lynch, Kadem Capital and Sage Capital, specializing in the pharmaceutical and biotech sectors. Prior to that, he was the Vice President for Preclinical Research and Development at Hoffman La-Roche. Since 2004, he has been on his own, engaged with personal investments and social activism.
  
  
• Enzo Viscusi is Senior Vice President of the Eni Group and Chairman of Eni’s affiliates Eni Petroleum Company Inc. and Sonsub International Inc. He is a member of many advisory boards and councils, including the Dean’s Council of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, the Economic Sanctions and Energy Task Force and Middle East Strategy Group at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Advisory Council at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and the Advisory Board of RAND’s Center for Middle East Public Policy.