AUB launches Randa Bdeir Leadership Award

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the American University of Beirut (AUB) launched the Randa Bdeir Leadership Award in recognition of remarkable leadership in support of women’s careers. The award will be handed every year to one person for his/her outstanding accomplishments and contributions in backing women careers at AUB, in Lebanon, the region and the world in general. The awardees are selected from a group nominated by the AUB. Randa Bdeir, an AUB alumna currently heading Bank Audi’s electronic payment solutions & card services department. Bdeir underlined in her words that the award does not only honor women, but also acknowledges the efforts made by other people who support them. “Despite the fact that men and women can be equal in their qualifications and capacities, yet women are faced with tougher challenges,” Bdeir noted. “In our society,” she said, “women have to cope with unjust civil laws and banking laws, as well as, with the way society looks at them and their obligations to their families,” she added. Women, she concluded, need every possible support to be able to realize their dreams and goals. For his part, AUB President, Fadlo Khury, thanked Bdeir for her initiative stressing the significance of the award in the development of the professional and career life of women. (Al Diyar, March 19, 2017)