Hassan Diab
Prime Minister of Lebanon (2020-21)
Hassan Diab
Prime Minister of Lebanon (2020-21)
Biography
Professor Diab is a Lebanese academic, professor, engineer, executive, and politician with over 33 years in academia as professor, chair, dean, vice president, and president; including almost 20 years in executive roles leading organizations across government, academic, and non-profit sectors. He served as the 26th President of the Council of Ministers of Lebanon and was the first Prime Minister (PM) in Lebanese, and probably the region’s, history to form a cabinet with 30% female ministers (6 out of 20). He took on a Herculean task by serving as Prime Minister (19 Dec 2019 - 10 Sept 2021) during the worst crisis period in Lebanese history and his cabinet managed to pass many decrees and laws on anti-corruption. His technocrat cabinet, an exception in Lebanese politics and the closest to the specification of a technocrat cabinet in the history of Lebanon, approved for the first time in Lebanese history forensic audit on the central bank as well as the first National Reform Plan to address the economic, financial and social problems resulting from three decades of mismanagement. A plan which was commended by many including the UN, EU, World Bank, and the IMF. He strongly believes effective leadership means having moral authority rather than formal authority and that leadership is about creating leaders not followers. On 13 June 2011, he was appointed as Minister of the Ministry of Education & Higher Education (MEHE) in the Lebanese Cabinet to take over the largest ministry in Lebanon. He was a technocrat minister which was an anomaly in Lebanese politics. During his term as Minister of Education & Higher Education (June 2011 – Feb 2014) an unprecedented number of accomplishments were realized including a new Higher Education (HE) law to replace a 40-year old one. He also passed the Community Service decree for the first time, which required high school students to serve 60 hours of community service, creating hope through promoting the culture of volunteerism. Additionally, after two and a half years of implementing reforms, the 2013 World Economic Forum report gave Lebanon the following ranking in HE (out of 144 countries): (i) Quality of Management Schools ranked 13th, (ii) Quality of Education ranked 10th, and (iii) Quality of Math and Science education ranked 4th which was only preceded by Singapore, Finland, and Belgium. He is an advocate for educational reform in Lebanon and authored books on the topic.
