Board of Directors

Mr. Abu-Dayyeh is the Pres­i­dent of NET Tours with offices in Jerusalem, Amman, Istan­bul, Athens and Rome. Mr. Abu Dayyeh ini­ti­at­ed the estab­lish­ment and has served as Pres­i­dent, Board Mem­ber and Direc­tor of the High­er Coun­cil of the Arab Tourist Indus­try (HCATI), the Union of Arab Tourist Trans­port, the Pales­tin­ian Devel­op­ment Fund (PDF), Beth­le­hem 2000.
Mr. Abu-Dayyeh was a mem­ber of the Mid­dle East group for Cen­ter for Strate­gic and Inter­na­tion­al Stud­ies (CSIS), Beth­le­hem Arab Soci­ety for Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Hos­pi­tal (BASR), Chair­man of the Direc­tors of Beth­le­hem Devel­op­ment Foun­da­tion (BDF) and the Beth­le­hem Uni­ver­si­ty Tourism Insti­tute (BUTI). He has rep­re­sent­ed Pales­tine inter­na­tion­al­ly and nego­ti­at­ed on behalf of the Pales­tin­ian Author­i­ty, includ­ing the Paris Agree­ment on Tourism and Trans­port.
Mr. Abu Dayyeh holds degrees in Chem­i­cal Engi­neer­ing from Van­der­bilt Uni­ver­si­ty, Ten­nessee, a BSc in Chem­istry from Bel­mont Uni­ver­si­ty, Ten­nessee and an MA in Inter­na­tion­al Affairs and Eco­nom­ics from School of Advanced Stud­ies-SAIS, the Johns Hop­kins University.

Hani Abu — Dayyeh

Chair­man

With an edu­ca­tion­al back­ground in eco­nom­ics and busi­ness man­age­ment, Mrs. Khoury had a rich and diverse pro­fes­sion­al life and held respon­si­ble posi­tions. She also served as the Ambas­sador of Pales­tine in France from 2006–2010 and Min­is­ter of Jerusalem Affairs in 2005–2006.
Hind Khoury is a Pales­tin­ian Chris­t­ian, an econ­o­mist, a for­mer ambas­sador, and served as the Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary of Kairos Pales­tine locat­ed in Beth­le­hem. She is also the pres­i­dent of the Beth­le­hem Rotary Club and an exec­u­tive board mem­ber of Beth­le­hem Bible Col­lege. She is pres­i­dent of the Applied Research Insti­tute of Jerusalem (ARIJ), which is high­ly respect­ed around the world for its metic­u­lous research and map­ping of the region. She is vice-pres­i­dent of the Arab Thought Forum and has served as vice pres­i­dent of Sabeel Ecu­meni­cal Pales­tin­ian Lib­er­a­tion The­ol­o­gy Cen­ter. She has spo­ken at many con­fer­ences and sem­i­nars local­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly, and she serves as a con­sul­tant to MASARAT, a research cen­ter on Pales­tin­ian strate­gic directives.
Hind Khoury

Vice Chair­man

Dr. Fadi Kat­tan holds a PhD in Account­ing from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Brad­ford in the UK. He has been the Dean of the School of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion at Beth­le­hem Uni­ver­si­ty since 2002. Dr. Kat­tan is a mem­ber of sev­er­al inter­na­tion­al account­ing pro­fes­sion­al bod­ies includ­ing the AICPA, the IIA, and the IMA. In addi­tion to his exper­tise in the field of account­ing and finance, Dr. Kat­tan has lec­tured in the field of devel­op­ment and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment both in Beth­le­hem Uni­ver­si­ty and world­wide in uni­ver­si­ties in Italy, Nepal and Ethiopia. Dr. Kat­tan serves as a mem­ber of sev­er­al boards of dif­fer­ent insti­tu­tions in Palestine.
Dr. Fadi Kattan

Trea­sur­er

Dr. Kifah holds a Ph.D. from Moutha Uni­ver­si­ty, Jor­dan, Col­lege of Social Sci­ences. Dr. Kifah is a full-time lec­tur­er at the col­lege of human sci­ences, Istiqlal Uni­ver­si­ty (Pales­tin­ian acad­e­my for secu­ri­ty sciences).
Dr. Kifah Manasra

Sec­re­tary

Dr. Jal­lad is a finan­cial con­sul­tant at Con­sol­i­dat­ed Con­trac­tors Group CCC, Athens. He is hold­ing a Ph.D. in Eco­nom­ics and Bank­ing from Uni­ver­si­ty of Notre Dame USA, and a B.A. in Eco­nom­ics from the Amer­i­can Uni­ver­si­ty of Cairo.
Saleh Jal­lad

Head of Gov­er­nance Committee 

Nafez Hus­sei­ni, is cur­rent­ly a retired CCC exec­u­tive emer­i­tus, serv­ing as the Strate­gic Advi­sor to the BoD Chair of the Greece based Con­sol­i­dat­ed Con­trac­tors Com­pa­ny (www.ccc.net), a mul­ti-bil­lion dol­lar engi­neer­ing group and the largest con­struc­tion com­pa­ny in the Mid­dle East.
Nafez focus­es on ICT, Dig­i­tal Busi­ness, and ESG top­ics.
Nafez is very active in pro­mot­ing knowl­edge-based soci­eties, advanc­ing economies toward greater and well gov­erned use of tech­nol­o­gy, infor­ma­tion and the apply­ing of inno­v­a­tive skills and solu­tions towards fair devel­op­men­tal access to all from both the busi­ness and pub­lic sec­tors.
Nafez has been a key found­ing mem­ber of many Pales­tin­ian edu­ca­tion ini­tia­tives.
He is a strong advo­cate of the lead­ing role lead­ing of the Pales­tin­ian pri­vate sec­tor in trans­form­ing and build­ing sus­tain­able capac­i­ties in the local econ­o­my. Nafez believes that well-designed eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment prop­a­gates inte­gral­ly inno­va­tion and dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion.
A Pales­tin­ian native of Jerusalem, Nafez holds a bachelor’s degree from the Amer­i­can Uni­ver­si­ty of Beirut and a Master’s from Cal­i­for­nia State Uni­ver­si­ty — Sacra­men­to in Man­age­ment & Infor­ma­tion Technology.
Board mem­ber of Mid­dle East Invest­ment Ini­tia­tive, Part­ners for Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment, Edu­ca­tion For Employ­ment, Arab Ameri­Care Foun­da­tion, Has­sib Sab­bagh ICT Cen­ter at the Arab Amer­i­can Uni­ver­si­ty Jenin, Pales­tine Eco­nom­ic Pol­i­cy Research Insti­tute (MAS).
Nafez Hus­sei­ni

Mem­ber

Ph.D. from the Jor­dan­ian Uni­ver­si­ty, Jor­dan, Col­lege of Edu­ca­tion­al Sci­ences, full-time lec­tur­er at col­lege of edu­ca­tion­al sci­ences, Jerusalem Open Uni­ver­si­ty (Pales­tin­ian Pub­lic Uni­ver­si­ty). Dr. Abdel Rah­man is the Direc­tor of Orphan Care Asso­ci­a­tion in Beth­le­hem, and the rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Pales­tin­ian Aca­d­e­m­ic Council.
Nael Abdel Rahman

Mem­ber

M.A., Mod­ern Mid­dle East­ern and North African Stud­ies; the Uni­ver­si­ty of Michi­gan, 1995. Vice Pres­i­dent for Devel­op­ment & Out­reach, DIYAR Beth­le­hem, Palestine.
Rana Khoury

Mem­ber

Mr. Al Ama is a researcher on the Pales­tin­ian cul­tur­al her­itage and con­tem­po­rary art, and a col­lec­tor of arte­facts and art­work includ­ing tra­di­tion­al cos­tumes, pho­tographs, lith­o­graphs, man­u­scripts, maps, books, moth­er of pearl and olive­wood relics, dead sea stone engraved items and Armen­ian pot­tery, in addi­tion to a col­lec­tion of Pales­tin­ian con­tem­po­rary art pieces.
Mr. Al Ama is an expert and deal­er of antique and mod­ern icons for the past 16 years and worked as an exclu­sive importer and deal­er of Sil­ver Axion Icons Com­pa­ny in the Holy Land for a year in addi­tion to work­ing as an Assis­tant Man­ag­er in Lama Broth­ers Com­pa­ny in whole­sal­ing and retail­ing sou­venirs of the Holy Land for 15 years.
George Al’Ama

Mem­ber

Mrs. Kas­sis is a busi­ness­woman with a pas­sion for hors­es; mem­ber of the Fed­er­a­tion of Chilean Horse Breed­ers; man­ages fam­i­ly ranch in the breed­ing of Ara­bi­an, Chilean and Frisian horses.
Direc­tor in sev­er­al fam­i­ly busi­ness­es group com­pa­nies; respon­si­ble for trans­form­ing her ances­tral fam­i­ly home in Beth­le­hem into Dar Al Sabag Dias­po­ra Stud­ies and Research Cen­tre.
Stud­ied Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion and Visu­al Arts. Host of horse-relat­ed TV shows; Pro­duced­her film “Artax a new begin­ning”, which deals with the use of hip­pother­a­py in the treat­ment of Asperg­er’s dis­ease, was screened at the Pales­tin­ian Film Fes­ti­val in 2018 in Beth­le­hem, Ramal­lah and Nablus; her band, Diás­po­ra Trío, which res­cues tra­di­tion­al and ances­tral Pales­tin­ian music and trans­forms it into con­tem­po­rary music, per­formed 12 con­certs in Palestine.
Eliz­a­beth Kassis

Mem­ber

Founder’s Honor Circle

The late Mr. Said Khoury

Founder of Beth­le­hem Devel­op­ment Foun­da­tion (BDF)

H.E. Eng. Ziad Al Bandak

Served as the first Chair­man of BDF Board of Directors.

Mr. Al Ban­dak served in the PA as Min­is­ter of Tourism, Min­is­ter of Local Gov­ern­ments, and Min­is­ter of Labor.

Cur­rent­ly he is the advi­sor to the Pres­i­dent for Chris­t­ian Affairs and head of the Pres­i­den­tial Com­mit­tee for the Restora­tion of the Church of Nativity.

He holds a degree in Elec­tri­cal Engi­neer­ing from the Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­si­ty of Dresden.

Eng. Mr. Mazen Karam

First Man­ag­ing Direc­tor from 2013–2021.

Mr. Karam was respon­si­ble for the project and con­struc­tion man­age­ment of BDF interventions.

He came from CCC with over 45 years of expe­ri­ence in con­struc­tion of heavy civ­il, petro­chem­i­cal and gen­er­al build­ing projects. He is board mem­ber of Beth­le­hem Busi­ness Incu­ba­tor, Beth­le­hem Uni­ver­si­ty Tourism Insti­tute, and Has­sib Sab­bagh IT Cen­ter for Excel­lence at the Arab Amer­i­can Uni­ver­si­ty of Pales­tine. He will be assum­ing an out­reach role in BDF Board of Directors.

He holds a Civ­il Engi­neer­ing degree from Bagh­dad Uni­ver­si­ty, 1976.