JEDDAH — The Minister of Education Dr. Hamad Al-Sheikh, announced Thursday the appointment of Dr. Lilac AlSafadi as president of the Electronic University — the first woman president of a Saudi university that includes both male and female students. Al-Sheikh announced the issuance of royal approval to appoint five university presidents, including Prince Dr. Mamdouh Bin Thunayyan Al Saud as president of the Islamic University, Dr. Muhammad Al-Shayea as president of Al-Jouf University, Dr. Yusuf Asiri as president of Taif University, and Dr. Muhammad Safhi as president of Bisha University. Dr. AlSafadi is considered a distinguished intellectual and executive. She has worked as Chief Executive Officer for over 20 years in business development, business consulting and strategic leadership, in addition to her accumulated experience in project management. Dr. AlSafadi possesses a steady record of success in identifying business opportunities, strategic partners, markets and channels, with the greatest potential. She has also worked in developing successful implementation plans for developing strategies and evaluating initiatives as part of the Saudi National Transformation Program (NTP), and she is a member of a number of steering and advisory councils (boards?). Dr. AlSafadi has contributed over 50 research papers in conferences, and articles to the print media in research areas of interest such as e-commerce, and artificial and commercial intelligence. She worked as vice president and national technology officer at Microsoft in January 2020, and is a member of the faculty of King Saud University, and director of The Women's Technology Incubator, in-charge for developing the center for entrepreneurship in the women's and medical sciences departments. She also worked as an adviser to the Governor of the General Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (Monshaat), and consultant for the university vice presidency for planning, quality and development at the Saudi Electronic University. Dr. AlSafadi is a graduate of the University of Wollongong with a Ph.D. in Computer Science 1998-2002 and M.Sc. in Computer Science from 1993–1995 and a major in Software Engineering. The University of Wollongong is an Australian public research university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales. It has a branch in the UAE.
