…recognizes an individual of Lebanese heritage for exceptional achievement in business public service and philanthropy. It is named for Issam M. Fares, the former deputy prime minister of Lebanon, successful industrialist and global philanthropist.

H.E. Nayla Moawad is the founder and president of the Rene Moawad Foundation in Lebanon and Honorary Chairwoman of the Rene Moawad foundation USA. As the widow of the assassinated president of Lebanon, Rene Moawad, she sought to honor her husband’s legacy of promoting peace and social justice by founding the Rene Moawad Foundation in 1991 and Rene Moawad Foundation USA in 1993. She has succeeded in taking this organization from a small charity to a multifaceted developmental organization that works across Lebanon. The Rene Moawad Foundation enjoys broad international and U.S support for its efforts to promote sustainable human development in Lebanon

From 1962 to 1965, Mrs. Moawad worked as a journalist for the daily newspaper, L’Orient. In 1965, she married Lebanese Member of Parliament Rene Moawad. Her husband was assassinated in 1989, two months after being elected president of Lebanon. In 1991, Nayla Moawad started her political career as a member of parliament, and in 2005, she was appointed Minister of Social Affairs/ During her decades-long career as a politician, she has campaigned for women’s and children’s rights and has opposed political corruption, serving on numerous parliamentary committees, specializing in finance, children’s rights and education. Mrs. Moawad has worked to pass important legislation affecting the lives of children, including a law that increased the minimum age of employment from 8 to 14 years old and a law that made basic education compulsory and free of charge. She is a founding member of several political groups like Kornet Chehwane and the Democratic Forum.

Nayla Moawad was born Nayla Issa El-Kouri in Bsharri, Lebanon. She graduated from Saint Joseph’s University with a B.A. in French literature and history. She later studied English at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. Mrs. Moawad has a daughter, Rima and a son, Michel. Rima earned her LLM from Harvard University and is an attorney at law at Proskauer Rose in New York. Michel is a former member of the Lebanese Parliament and Director of the Rene Moawad Foundation.

..recognizes exceptional achievement in business. It is named for the late Dr. Joseph J. Jacobs, a founder of the American Task Force on Lebanon. Dr. Jacobs started Jacobs Engineering in 1947 as a one-man consultancy and built it into a firm that today employs 70,000 people worldwide.

Roula Khalaf made history in 2020 when she became the first female editor of the Financial Times of London in the paper’s 131-year history. She was previously deputy editor from 2016 to 2020, overseeing a range of newsroom initiatives and award winning editorial projects and leading a global network of over 100 foreign correspondents.

Before taking up the deputy editor role, Khalaf was the FT’s foreign editor and oversaw the FT’s operations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Before that, as Middle East editor, she launched a Middle East edition and led coverage of the Arab Spring.

Khalaf was named foreign commentator of the year at the Editorial Intelligence Comment Awards in 2016 and her series on Qatar won the Foreign Press Association’s Feature story of the year in 2013. She joined the FT in 1995 as North Africa correspondent and before that was a staff writer for Forbes magazine in New York.

Khalaf grew up in Lebanon during the civil war. She earned her Master’s in International Affairs from Columbia University and her bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University in the United States.

..recognizes exceptional achievement in public service. It is named for The Honorable Philip C. Habib, who was described by The New York Times as the “outstanding professional diplomat of his generation in the United States” upon his death in 1992. In 2006, Ambassador Habib was one of six historic diplomats honored with his own postage stamp.

Ambassador David Hale is a Distinguished Diplomatic Fellow at the Wilson Center, on sabbatical from the State Department. He was the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from August 2018-May 2021, reporting directly to the Secretary of State. Ambassador Hale was responsible for the conduct of U.S. foreign relations globally. He supervised the Department’s six regional bureaus and the bureau for international organizations, as well as all American embassies, consulates and missions abroad. He interacted regularly with world leaders to advance America’s foreign policy agenda, traveled to over 50 countries in that role, and spoke to a wide variety of audiences.

Ambassador Hale has served in the U.S. Foreign Service for 37 years and was appointed to its senior-most rank, Career Ambassador, in 2018. A Career Ambassador is a lifetime rank, Senate-confirmed, and equivalent to a four-star general. He was nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate to senior positions in the administrations of Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump. In 2013, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave him the Distinguished Service Award. Hale received three Presidential Rank Awards and several Department Superior and Meritorious Honor awards over the years. He served as: Ambassador to Pakistan (2015-2018), Ambassador to Lebanon (2013-2015), Special Envoy for Middle East Peace (2011-2013), Deputy Envoy (2009-2011), Deputy Assistant Secretary of State covering Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Syria, the Palestinians, and Lebanon (2008-2009), and Ambassador to Jordan (2005-2008). He served twice in Lebanon (1992-94 and 1998-2001) before his ambassadorship there. His other overseas assignments were in Israel, Tunisia, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. In Washington, Hale was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israel, Egypt and the Levant (2008-9) and Director for Israel-Palestinian Affairs (2001-3). He held several staff posts, including Executive Assistant to Secretary of State Albright. He graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 1983 and speaks Arabic.

…recognizes an individual of Lebanese heritage for exceptional achievement in business public service and philanthropy. It is named for Issam M. Fares, the former deputy prime minister of Lebanon, successful industrialist and global philanthropist.

Mr. Marcello Damiani, on behalf of Moderna, Inc. 
Chief Digital and Operational Excellence Officer

Mr. Said Francis, on behalf of Moderna, Inc. 
Senior Vice President and Head of Business Development and Corporate Strategy

Charbel Haber, PhD, MPH, on behalf of Moderna, Inc.
Senior Vice President for Regulatory Affairs

Francois Nader, MD, MBA, on behalf of Moderna, Inc. 
Board Member, Moderna, Inc.- Board of Directors Member, ATFL

Dr. Joe Sarkis, on behalf of Moderna, Inc.
Associate Director of Cellular Pharmacology

Mrs. Joyce Kfoury Sousa, on behalf of Moderna, Inc.
Associate Director of Analytical Science and Technology

The American Task Force on Lebanon is proud to issue the 2021 Issam M. Fares International Leadership Award to six Moderna, Inc. executives and scientists of Lebanese descent. Their contributions toward the battle against the global COVID-19 pandemic have created groundbreaking pharmaceutical technologies that are one of our best tools in the effort to protect public health in the United States and throughout the world.

Mr. Marcello Damiani, of Tripoli, is the Chief Digital and Operational Excellence Officer. Mr. Said Francis is the Senior Vice President and Head of Business Development and Corporate Strategy and comes from the village of Miyeh wa Miyeh in the Saida region. Charbel Haber, PhD, is the Senior Vice President and Head of Regulatory Affairs and comes from the village of Bserrine in the Aley region. Mrs. Joyce Kfoury Sousa is the Associate Director of Analytical Science and Technology and comes from the village of ‘Ain Al-Soufsaf of the Metn region. From the Metn village of Abadiyeh, Francois Nader, MD, MBA, is a member of Moderna, Inc.’s Board of Directors and a member of ATFL’s Board of Directors. Joe Sarkis, PhD,  from Hrajel, Keserwan is the Associate Director of Cellular Pharmacology.

We honor these distinguished individuals of Lebanese heritage for their collective leadership in developing the now widely distributed ModernaCOVID-19 vaccine, and we proudly welcome them into our extended family as recipients of the 2021 Issam M. Fares Award for International Leadership.

..recognizes exceptional achievement in public service. It is named for The Honorable Philip C. Habib, who was described by The New York Times as the “outstanding professional diplomat of his generation in the United States” upon his death in 1992. In 2006, Ambassador Habib was one of six historic diplomats honored with his own postage stamp.

Elizabeth Richard served as the US Ambassador to Lebanon from 2016 to 2020 and is currently a Senior State Department Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy of Georgetown University. She previously served for nearly three years as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Foreign Assistance. Prior to holding this position, she was the Deputy Chief of Mission in Sanaa, Yemen, from 2010 to 2013. With a career in the foreign service spanning over thirty years, Ambassador Richard was recently nominated by President Biden to serve as Coordinator for Counterterrorism at the Department of State, with the rank and status of Ambassador at Large.

From 2008 to 2010, Ambassador Richard was the Border Coordinator in Islamabad, Pakistan, where she worked to preserve U.S. military and ISAF supply lines through Pakistan and to coordinate U.S. programs on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

Her previous assignments included a year as director of counter-narcotics and civilian police training programs in Afghanistan, two years as deputy to the special Ambassador for War Crimes issues, where she worked on Guantanamo bay issues and on U.S. support for international war crimes tribunals, and a year as special assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, where her responsibilities included non-proliferation and political-military issues. Her other overseas assignments included Rome, Italy, where she was detailed for one year to the Italian Foreign Ministry and then joined the U.S. Embassy. She also served in Bangkok, Thailand, where she was special assistant to the Ambassador.​

 Ambassador Richard is a graduate of the National War College in Washington DC, and of the NATO Defense College in Rome, Italy. She has a law degree from Southern Methodist University and practiced admiralty law in Texas before joining the Foreign Service.

…recognizes exceptional professional and personal achievement. It is named after Dr. Ray R. Irani, a founder of the American Task Force for Lebanon. During his remarkable 30-year career with Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Irani attained the positions of chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president.

Hania Ahmar established the Ahmar Family Foundation with her husband, Mohamed “Mike” Ahmar, in 1999 to support educational and charitable projects, with a focus on serving Lebanese communities across the United States. Currently, Mrs. Ahmar is the Vice President and Co-founder of Ahmar Investment Inc., a real estate development company, where she is responsible for the accounting, financial, and design aspects of the company’s real estate portfolio.

Mrs. Ahmar is also a licensed California Broker, as well as a Lecturer at Chapman University School of Business. Mr. and Mrs. Ahmar are active leaders in the community and support various charitable causes and organizations.

Mr. Ahmar founded ICG in 1985, a company that was twice listed as one of the 500 fastest growing US companies by Inc. Magazine. Currently, he is the President of Ahmar Investment Inc. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Partners Bank of California. Mr. Ahmar’s passion for serving the Lebanese community has been widely recognized, and he has been instrumental in sustaining multiple community and educational organizations. Since 2018, Mr. Ahmar has also been the Chairman of the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation. Under his leadership, the LAFD Foundation increased its fundraising to provide LA firefighters with adequate equipment and aid in their fight against the devastating 2018 and 2019 California wildfires.

Mr. Ahmar is also a member of the following boards: Cedars-Sinai Board of Directors; The American Task Force on Lebanon; Lebanese American University (LAU); USC Marshall School of Business, Board of Leaders; Chapman University, Board of Counselors; and House of Lebanon.