Bio: Yousif Asfour, Chief Innovation and Transformation Officer, American University of Beirut (AUB), Lebanon
Dr. Yousif Asfour is an experienced executive with more than 30 years of experience in the higher education, technology, and finance sectors at organizations in the US and the Middle East.
Dr. Asfour currently sits on the boards of several startups and serves as Chief Innovation and Transformation Officer at the American University of Beirut where he leads the Office of Information Technology, the Talal and Madiha Zein AUB Innovation Park and the AUB Online business unit.
Most recently, Dr. Asfour was the President of the CIO Lebanon Association, the founding CIO at NYU Abu Dhabi, and played a key leadership role in establishing TechCARE, the Lebanese National Research and Education Network (NREN).
Dr. Asfour received a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Northeastern University and a Ph.D. in cognitive and neural systems from Boston University. In addition to several publications in professional journals, Dr. Asfour also holds a patent related to fast data transfer for multi-processor systems.
Abstract: "Why even have an NREN?"
Internet and Managed Service Providers are getting better at delivering services that were traditionally the realm of NREN’s. So this raises the question of why should we even build or run an NREN anymore? This short talk will highlight the value and strengths of NREN’s and what they need to do to stay relevant in this changing world.
