Falih, president and chief executive officer of Saudi Aramco, is one of five new appointees to the International Advisory Board (IAB) of the King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). The appointment of Al-Falih brings to three the number of Saudis sitting on the IAB. The other two are KFUPM president Dr. Khaled S. Al-Sultan, and Mohammad H. Al-Mady, vice chairman and CEO of Sabic. The other new members of the IAB appointed along with Al-Falih are Charles Elachi, director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Nam Suh, president of the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology; Olivier Appert, chairman and CEO of IFP (Innovation, Energie, Environnement) of France and Wolfgang Herrmann, president of Technische Universitat Muenchen of Germany. Founded in March 2007, IAB provides guidance to KFUPM academic programs, research activities, faculty recruitment, and others. The IAB also provides guidance for the development of action plans and specific strategies on key educational and research areas of national interest. Other members of the IAB are Andrew F. Gould, chairman/CEO of Schlumberger; Dr. Choon Fong Shih, president of KAUST; Dr. John Etchemedy, provost of Stanford University; Dr. Henry Rosovsky, Geyser University professor emeritus at Harvard University; Dr. Hugo F. Sonnenschein, distinguished professor at University of Chicago; and Dr. Martin C. Jischkei, president emeritus at Purdue University.
