Professor Vincent Emery graduated with a first-class BSc in Biochemistry with Chemistry and then a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Southampton, UK. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Virology, Oxford and then academic appointments at the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and University College London (UCL) he was awarded a Chair in Virology at UCL in 2000. At UCL he led a number of areas including quality assurance of postgraduate programmes, acting as chair of senior quality assurance boards, acting as a Vice-Head of UCL’s Graduate School and as a Pro-Provost for South Asia and the MENA and subsequently for Middle East and Africa.

Professor Emery was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor (international relations) at the University of Surrey in 2012 and in this role and his subsequent roles as acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation and Senior Vice-president (Global) led on internationalization of the University of Surrey’s research, teaching and student mobility portfolios. Professor Emery has an international research profile in infectious diseases especially in immunocompromised hosts and has a Google Scholar H-index of 72 having published 241 articles with over 16,400 citations and is the inventor on 5 patents.

Professor Emery has worked extensively with government agencies worldwide in the area of Higher Education and frequently acts on advisory boards to the pharmaceutical industry in the area of virology. For example, in recent years, Professor Emery has worked closely with UUK international, the British Council, the Council for at-risk academics (CARA), the Association of Commonwealth Universities, FAPESP (Brazil), FIICI (India), CII (India), CBBC (China-UK) and the Supreme Council of Universities in Egypt.

Dr. Alaa Ata is the Provost and Vice-President of University of Hertfordshire (UH) hosted by Global Academic Foundation (GAF) in the New Administrative Capital. Before joining UH hosted by GAF on 2019, Dr. Ata maintained faculty and administrative positions at Zagazig University, Egypt, where he was most recently the Dean of Engineering (2016-2019). Over his academic career he maintained active teaching and research portfolios in several Universities in Egypt and USA. Dr. Ata has over 50 publications in local and international periodicals and conferences. His research interests include piled foundations, soil improvement, biopolymers and grouting.

He is the recipient of several awards including the Zagazig University Honors Shield. The Zagazig University Promotional Award for Engineering Science and Advanced Technology, and the World Bank Funds Reward for Upgrading the Geotechnical Laboratory. In addition to academics, Dr. Ata is a geotechnical consultant engineer specialized indalia soil mechanics and foundations. In his capacity as a certified consultant, he has participated in numerous geotechnical consultations and projects in Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.

Mr Ashraf Halim is a senior Executive with over 32 years of strategic and operational experience. with multi-national companies in Egypt and outside of Egypt.
In his last position before joining GAF, he was appointed as the CEO of “Orascom Pyramids Entertainment”, carrying the responsibility of developing the Giza plateau and introducing new services to the visitors of the Pyramids of Giza.

With Orange Egypt (formerly Mobinil) he held several positions playing a vital role in the success of the company. As Deputy CEO he oversaw the company performance, spearheading strategic objectives and leading relationships with government institutions and strategic partners. As Commercial Vice President he spearheaded the commercial strategy and operation of the consumer and business segments. He was managing more than 1000 employees in the fields of Marketing, Sales and communication.

In 2007, Mr Halim joined Orascom Telecom Holding as Senior Director, strategic marketing, and in 2009 he was appointed as the Group Chief Commercial officer overlooking commercial operations of ten GSM mobile operators in Africa, Asia, Europe, Canada and Far East.
Mr.Halim worked with Lucent technologies (formerly AT&T) for more than 10 years where he held several positions in Egypt and the UK. Mr.Halim holds a Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering from Cairo university.

Mr Ahmed Sadek has a long experience in senior finance roles in the University sector and brings a wealth of knowledge to contribute to Global Academic Foundation and UH-GAF.

Mrs Ghada Hazen holds an undergraduate degree of Bachelor of Science, Chemistry major, and a Master degree in Public Administration from the American University in Cairo. Her professional career started in 1985 as an office assistant in the AUC admissions office. Over the years, she has held several positions that have contributed to assisting young students who are working hard identifying their academic and career passion and their mission in life. Mrs Ghada has more than 35 years of experience in higher education with a strong passion for helping the youth in their career path by delivering services to both students and faculty, that helps enhance the alumni chances of securing employment opportunities to meet the rapidly changing career needs for today's global job market.

After graduating from the American University in Cairo (AUC) in 1990, Issa committed herself to working in the field of higher education in Egypt. She coached and mentored students and adult learners at AUC; first as an instructor at The School of Continuing Education, then Manager of Cultural Programs, followed by her role as Associate Director for Student Organizations, and finally Director of Student Engagement.
Being a licensed “Professional Certified Trainer” by the School of Executive Education at AUC, Issa taught and trained students, as well as professionals from various disciplines, as part of the LEAD and First Year Experience (FYE) Programs, as well as the HR’s language program for supporting staff.
Issa was selected as part of the Egyptian executive team for the US State Department’s “Big Read Program” 2008-2009, which was implemented in coordination with the Arts Midwest Foundation in three other countries: Egypt, India, and Brazil.
In 2017, and with the aim of expanding her experience to other parts of the Middle East, Mrs Issa moved to the United Arab Emirates to serve as Senior Director of Student Life and Athletics at Ajman University (AU). She returned to Egypt in 2018 as Dean of Students at the University of Science and Technology UST, determined to take on the challenge of working with academically gifted students from different Governorates.
It is noteworthy that Dean Issa has also taught various cohorts of adult learners at Egypt Peoples' Assembly (Parliament), The State Information Service (SIS), and the Cabinet of Ministers in Egypt from 1997-2005. She also taught students at both the Peer Leaders and Ambassadors Programs both at AUC and UST, from 2017-2019.
In the wake of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011, and in recognition of her contributions and significant role in Citizenship and Services, Dalia Issa was awarded AUC's reputable “Catalyst for Change Award” in 2012.

Dr. Aly Ahmed Abdelbary is an Associate Professor of Pharmaceutics and Industrial Pharmacy. He is working now as the Acting Dean, School of Life and Medical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire hosted by Global Academic Foundation. He was a visiting research scholar in Thomas J Long School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, University of the Pacific, Stockton, CA, USA from October 2009 till August 2011. He received his PhD degree from Cairo University in 2011. Since then, he delivered many undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Cairo University and other private universities. He has published about 22 manuscripts focusing on the development of novel drug delivery systems and he has an h-index of 9. He is a member of the committee in charge of pricing of medicines and supplements and a member of the technical committee for drug registration in the Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA). He is also attending other different committees responsible for the evaluation of bioequivalence studies, quality of documentation of pharmaceutical products and registration of cosmetic products.

Dr Neveen Ahmed, Acting Dean of the school of Business, University of Hertfordshire hosted by GAF, holds a PhD from North Carolina State University. She has experience teaching both graduate and undergraduate courses in finance, economics, and econometrics. She has earlier teaching experience in American University of Beirut, American University in Cairo (AUC) and North Carolina State University. Her teaching portfolio is rich and includes courses at both graduate and undergraduate levels. Her primary teaching area is International finance, Business finance and Portfolio and Investment Analysis. Her current research interests include corporate finance, investments and performance of SMEs. Dr. Ahmed has been involved in several multidisciplinary research grants among which is a grant by Qatar National Research Foundation and a grant with Magdi Yacoub Foundation. She received the School of Business “Excellence in Research Award”, AUC, 2019. Dr. Ahmed served as a board member of Holdi Pharma. In addition, Dr. Ahmed has a strong service record on different levels, she passionately served as student’s mentor in several case competitions, achieving first place in EngCom competition, 2019. She was a co-chair in the steering committee of Middle State Commission on Higher Education 2016-2018, AUC. She was the director of the Master of Science in Finance at AUC and played a key role in introducing and managing the fintech concentration in the MSF program. She received the AUC school of Business “Excellence in Service Award” in 2016 and 2018.

Professor Amira Draz graduated from the faculty of physical therapy at Cairo University and was awarded her PhD at the same University in 2009. She was appointed as a Lecturer of Physical therapy Basic science department, then in 2014 she was promoted as assistant professor of Physical therapy, basic science department, in 2016 she awarded a diploma in clinical nutrition therapy, and finally in 2019 she acts as a professor of Physical therapy, basic science department, Faculty of Physical Therapy, Cairo University.

In 2014, Professor Amira Draz joined/worked in the physical therapy department of the Faculty of Applied Health Science, King Abdelaziz University Jeddah, KSA.

In addition to her departmental roles in research and teaching, since 2015 she has been the Head and Leader of the Quality assurance Unit in the Faculty of Physical Therapy, Cairo University, leading the Faculty to obtain international accreditation from WCPT in 2017 and renewing the national accreditation for another five years 2019-2023.
Dr Amira also works as external auditor for Higher Education, Ministry of Higher Education, Egypt (as the Representative of Physical Therapy, Egypt).

HR director BIO :
A human resource executive with over 30 years of responsible and progressive experience in human resource management. Mrs.Nagwa’s professional experiences include executive level management, strategic program management, training/employee development, resource and budget forecasting, organizational development and employee relations. She is currently the Human Resources Director of the University of Hertfordshire hosted by Global Academic Foundation. Prior to her role as HR Director at UH-GAF, she served as the HR Director for Zewail City for 4 years serveing about 2500 employees, academic staff and students, Zewail City of Science, Technology and Innovation is a non profit organization, independent institution of learning, research and innovation.

Before ZC she served TAQA Arabia for 8 years where she was responsible for the HR services to 5000 employees who work in lubricants, Natural Gas, Utilities and construction. Before that, she was the Director of Human Resources Team Misr Consultants for 7 years with 2500 employees. In every HR role, she provided strategic business collaborating to the senior leadership team as well as managing a group of HR professionals responsible for supporting the managers and their employees.
Before Providence, she was the Human Resources Head for BJ Petroleum Services for 9 years.

She started her professional career at Americana – Tarek Noor where she worked for 4 years. She was the Human Resources Manager, Operations Manager, during her career at Americana, she has managed and supported all HR functions and served 650 employees. She got her bachelor’s degree in Business administration from Cairo University 1991 & the HR Diploma from the American University in Cairo 2000
Her Areas of Expertise are Organization Restructuring, Workload assessment, Performance management,Training and development, Recruitment, Employee Relations, Succession Planning, Centralization, and Startup HR Infrastructure.

Dr Amani Ismail holds a BA in Journalism and Mass Communication from Iowa State University, an MS in Journalism from Ohio University, and a PhD in Mass Communications from The University of Iowa. Prior to joining UH-GAF, Ismail taught at California State University-Northridge, Lindenwood University-Belleville, and the American University in Cairo. She taught Media and Terrorism, International Communication, News Reporting and Writing, Mass Communication Research, Media Ethics, Media Theory, and Public Speaking. Her research centers on international communication, with an emphasis on political conflict, and appears in Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism, The Communication Review, Journalism Studies, Journalism Practice, and Global Media and Communication. She was editor of Journal of Communication Inquiry, associate editor of Journal of Media Sociology, and guest co-editor of Journal of Human Values. She supervised multiple Master of Arts theses in the U.S. and Egypt and has worked as a news reporter in the U.S. and Kuwait.

Maaly Khalil is the Executive Director of Operations at the University of Hertfordshire in Egypt hosted by Global Academic Foundation.

Prior to that, Maaly joined Global Academic Foundation in 2017 as one of the founding team members, where she was appointed as the Secretary of the Board of Trustees.
Maaly has extensive professional and academic experience in the tourism and hotel management industry, having worked there since 2006. Maaly holds several certificates in "Total Quality Management", “Six Sigma”, “Green Belt“ and "Executive Management" from the American university in Cairo.

Seif is an experienced education management executive who is focused on building scalable educational solutions. Prior to joining UH-GAF, he co-founded ACT Microschools, which aims to build a network of small schools around the African Continent. He was also the co-founder and CEO of Mavericks International Schools, where he acquired management contracts for 3 schools serving 1000+ families in less than 3 years. He is also the co-founder and former CEO of Tahrir Academy, a blended learning platform that created mind-stimulating learning experiences for hundreds of thousands of Arab students, and which was awarded the best learning platform in the developing world by the University of Pennsylvania in the United States and the best Social Enterprise in the Arab World by the MIT Enterprise Forum.

Seif is a leadership fellow of the prestigious Archbishop Tutu Fellowship Program, which awards a fellowship to a group of Africa’s highest potential young leaders, representing a wide range of sectors, He was also selected as an Arab Youth Pioneer, an award that was given to the top 100 youth who influence the Arab world by the World Government Summit in UAE in 2019. He is a Global Shaper, selected to be part of the World Economic Forum’s community for 20-30 year old global leaders in 2011. He was also selected as a fellow for the Youssef Jameel Public Leadership Fellowship at the American University in Cairo in 2013.

Abou Zaid has a BA in Political Science and a Masters in Public Policy from the American University in Cairo.

Dr. Hashem Taher, Associate Dean of Creative Arts, holds a PhD from the University of East London. He received Pro-Vice-Chancellor Scholarship for Academic Excellence from Cardiff University. Dr. Taher’s PhD and expertise were mainly focusing on the Mayor of London’s Plan to make London the greenest city in the world by 2050. He worked in collaboration with the Greater London Authority (GLA) and the Transport for London (TfL). His PhD research was one of the top research papers in the School of Architecture, Computing and Engineering in 2019 from UEL. 

Dr. Taher’s masters in Sustainable Mega-buildings utilized the most recent technologies and software that helps in minimizing the energy consumption. His research interests are in the area of  Environmental and Sustainable Energy. Dr. Taher’s research papers revolved around significant projects such as the Broadgate high-rise project in London and 'Smart' carbon positive energy house.  

Dr. Taher promotes change in education through innovative learning models and linking it with professional practices and real-world experience. He has teaching experience in the University of East London (UK) and The American University in Cairo (AUC).