News Release
QATAR FOUNDATION
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FOR RELEASE
Monday
Oct. 13, 2003
RAND-QATAR POLICY INSTITUTE OPENS
AND SELECTS BOARD OF OVERSEERS
DOHA, Qatar -- The RAND Corporation and the Qatar Foundation today announced the creation of a Board of Overseers to guide the development of the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute. The new Board will be co-chaired by Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Misnad and RAND Executive Vice President Michael Rich.
The nine-member Board of Overseers will provide counsel to the director of the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute and the president of RAND on the Institute's public affairs, and project and business development efforts. The board's first meeting was held today in Doha, after formal opening ceremonies were held for the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute.
Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Misnad -- who is Chairperson of the Qatar Foundation and Consort of the Emir of Qatar, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani -- said she decided to co-chair the Board of Overseers of the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute because "this new institute will help our citizens and our neighbors advance development for the benefit of our region. The RAND-Qatar Policy Institute will be a valuable resource as we work to construct our own course for the future that utilizes the full capacity of our citizens and preserves our cultural identity."
Rich said: "The RAND-Qatar Policy Institute will enable us to expand our analytical work for governments, businesses, and foundations through the Middle East, South Asia, and Northern Africa."
The Qatar Foundation and RAND established the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute in April to harness the research and analytic skills of hundreds of RAND experts in the United States and Europe to study important issues facing the greater Middle East region.
The Qatar Foundation and RAND each appointed a co-chair and two board members. The co-chairs will select another person to serve as an independent board member unaffiliated with either organization. The panel also includes two non-voting members.
Members of the Board of Overseers will offer the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute their perspectives and counsel, drawn from their careers in the public and private sectors. In addition to the co-chairs, the members include:
The Institute will strengthen Qatar's standing as the Middle East's center for analysis and research and help build regional policy analytic capabilities. Qatar has been in the forefront among Middle Eastern nations in applying careful and objective analysis to key policy problems.
The RAND-Qatar Policy Institute is the latest of several education and research initiatives launched by the Qatar Foundation. The Institute is a part of the Education City being created in Doha as a regional center of excellence in learning, research and technology development. It will forge ties with medicine, science, engineering and other educational programs opening in Doha, and train the region's policy analysts in research methods that can help leaders make informed policy decisions.
RAND officials expect the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute to grow significantly in the future, adding staff from other RAND locations, hiring analysts from the Middle East and using consultants from the branch campuses of top quality universities in the Qatar Foundation’s Education City and other universities in the region. Like RAND, the new institute will be a non-profit organization.
RAND enjoys a worldwide reputation for research excellence, providing policy analysis to the United States and many other governments around the world, as well as to businesses and organizations in the private sector. Creation of the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute extends the worldwide reach of RAND's applied research and analysis efforts.
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The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world.
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