Board of Directors

Board of Directors – 2011/2012

ONTARIO

Sanabel Elrayes (President) is a seasoned management consultant with over 11 years of rich and diverse experience leading strategy, technology, and transformation projects in one of the Big 4 consulting firms. Her clients ranged from Fortune 500 organizations, governments, to medium and small organizations. Sanabel has a strong passion for, and experience working with, the Not for Profit (NFP) sector. She helped NFP organizations transform their operations and boost their impact. She served as an NCCAR Board member and helped plan and organize key events. She is particularly passionate for Canada – Middle East affairs issues, and strives to build strong and positive bridges between Canada and people of the Arab world. Sanabel has experience consulting in Canada, the Middle East, the United States, Europe and Asia. She is currently working as the Director of Business Transformation at Consequal Consultants, and is currently completing an Executive MBA at Cornell University.

Linda Belanger is a retired public servant. She has been involved in the Palestinian Human Rights movement since 2002 and has had a number of articles published in the Palestine Chronicle, Counterpunch and Dissident Voices.

Mazen Matar is an MBA student, specializing in Community Economic Development. He hasabout eight years of financial and investment experience in different positions, last of which was his role as an Investment Manager. Mazen is a CFA charter holder, Certified Risk Analyst and is a member of many professional associations and societies. his interest is in promoting business ties between Canada and the Arab world brought him to become a board member with NCCAR.

Omar Burgan is a published environmental health researcher with extensive experience in the public sector. He has been a volunteer and supporter of NCCAR for three years and has coordinated events and media analysis projects as well as playing a key role in the organisation of the Annual General Meeting and Conference 2011. His many interests include Canadian foreign policy, western media coverage of the Middle East and cultural identity issues. Born in the Middle East but raised and educated in Montreal, Omar brings with him a firm understanding of Canadian and Middle Eastern culture and politics. He is fluent in English, French and spoken Arabic.

Hani Mustafa is a member of the Canadian Forces and is currently serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force as an Aerospace Engineering Officer. He was a volunteer member of the organizing committee for NCCAR’s National Conference 2011. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, both obtained from the University of Western Ontario. He also holds a Technological Entrepreneurship Certificate from the same university. He was an Undergraduate Member of the Canadian Institute of Traffic and Transportation. In addition to English, he is fluent in Arabic and intermediate-level Japanese.

Peter Larson has an extensive history of research and consulting in public service management. He has wide experience in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. He specializes in strategic planning, executive development and machinery of government. Organizations he has worked with or consulted to include Public Policy Forum, Canadian Conference Board of Canada, Le Droit, Southam Newspapers and several Federal departments and agencies. He has also worked internationally on projects for the Commonwealth Secretariat and the UNDP. He is a board member of the National Capital Chapter of the Canadian International Council, and serves as the Chair of its Middle East Study Group. Peter graduated in Economics from the University of Western Ontario in 1968.  He also holds a Bachelor of Education from the University of Regina, and obtained a Ph.D. in Political Economy from Université de Grenoble, France. In addition to English, he speaks fluent French and Spanish and passable Italian.

Dr. John Menzies a practicing physician in Pembroke Ontario He finished his medical studies in 1982. Since then, Dr. Menzies served with the Canadian military as a Doctor in Canada and Europe, and completed his Radiology training in Ottawa. He is married and has four sons.

David Comerford (ex-Officio, Immediate Past President) is an international development project management and evaluation specialist with experience in over 20 countries. As a Middle East specialist he has a functioning knowledge of spoken and written Arabic and has visited, lived and studied in many countries in the Arab region including Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, UAE, Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. In addition, he has worked with stakeholders in, and conducted missions to, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Timor Leste, Laos, Haiti, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Africa, Guatemala, Georgia and Russia. Much of this work has focused on initiatives in the formal and informal education and skills training sectors. He has held senior positions both overseas and in Canada with Oxfam-Quebec, El Taller International, the Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) and CUSO. He currently works as an independent consultant and a Senior Advisor with Integrated Development Enterprise Associates (IDEA) in the National Capital Region. Mr Comerford is married and has four boys. Fully bilingual in French and English, he is a graduate of political science and international development from the University of Ottawa in Canada.

QUEBEC

Rula Odeh is Managing Director and Founder of Consequal Consultants (located in Montreal and Ottawa), a firm serving a wide range of organizations with strategic planning and transformation, improvement of operations, marketing and communications, and IT strategy and software solutions. Rula holds a M.Sc. in Pharmacology, an MBA and is a Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma. She has extensive experience in management, leadership and consulting that spans across small, medium and large enterprises, healthcare and education, as well as associations and charities. Rula has served as an NCCAR board director for 3 years including as President in 2009-2010. She has played a leadership role in several organizations advocating for Canadian policies in the Middle East based on human rights, equality and freedom. Her interest in Canadian media’s representation of Canada ’s foreign policy in the Middle East and related current affairs has resulted in a CBC ombudsman review of a biased news report, several published letters-to-the-editor, an opinion piece in a major national paper, as well as numerous appearances on TV and radio. Rula has participated in regular interactions with parliamentarians and diverse community organizations.

Fouad Sahyoun is an electronic engineer with a career as a businessman. Initially, based in Kuwait, Fouad set up major companies in the Arabian Gulf area, Lebanon and Jordan. He, then, moved to Canada in 1990 when his children became of university age wanting to provide them with the best education. Fouad was elected city councilor in the Town of Mount Royal in Montreal. He was born in Haifa and took refuge in Egypt after 1948. This is where he grew up and obtained his B.SC in Electrical Engineering and then moved on to the U.S.A. where he obtained a M.SC. in Computer Sciences then an MBA from New York University. Fouad made his début at the United Nations in New York, then in Geneva. Since his student life, Fouad has been a political activist and an advocate of economic development. He is the father of three children and four grandchildren.

ALBERTA

Ahmad Jawad is the President of Intellimedia Inc., a technology solution and consulting firm located in the Edmonton Research Park . He has a B.Sc. from the University of Alberta and an MBA from Athabasca University. Ahmad has served on many non profit boards as president of the Canadian Arab Professional and Business Club in Edmonton, previously served on the board of the World Lebanese Cultural Union in Edmonton and the Alberta Association for Media Awareness.

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Gail Miller is a Social Worker in a Psychiatric Unit. She has an MSW and MBA. In 2002, she started to learn Arabic and from then on became increasingly interested in the Middle East. Gail is passionate about human rights and was involved with Amnesty International in the past. Today she is a member of the Autistic Society of BC and recently co-authored a children’s book.