ADMINISTRATION & STAFF

The development of KAUST as an international graduate-level research university has been entrusted by King Abdullah, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, to His Excellency Minister Ali Ibrahim Al-Naimi, the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Saudi Arabia.

Minister Al-Naimi has drawn on Saudi Aramco, the leading corporation in the Middle East, to plan and develop the campus and the organizational and academic structure of KAUST. In January 2008, KAUST appointed Professor Choon Fong Shih as president designate to lead the University.

Minister Al-Naimi and a team of interim KAUST executives seconded from Saudi Aramco are being supported by a distinguished International Advisory Council and leading consultants in academic and research design and physical planning.

One of the priorities of President-designate Shih in 2008 will be to begin to recruit and hire key staff and faculty.