Four Middle Eastern professors - two Israelis and two Palestinians - will come together at Bentley University to participate in the sixth annual Global Business Ethics Symposium and the four-day Global Business Ethics Teaching Workshop that follows. To begin the week, the professors will lead a panel discussion titled, "The Business of Peace: Seeking a Sustainable Future for the Israeli and Palestinian Peoples" as part of the Symposium that will be held on May 17, 2010, followed by the Teaching Workshop held from May 18 to May 21. Both the Symposium and Workshop are made possible through sponsorship from the State Street Foundation, Inc.

The four visiting professors are:

• Professor Samir Ahmad Abuznaid, deputy governor of Hebron and vice president of Academic Affairs for Hebron University, Palestinian territories
• Professor Mohammed Bader, Head of the department of banking and finance, Al-Quds University, Jerusalem
• Professor Eugene D. Jaffe, head of MBA Programs at the School of Social Sciences and Management, Ruppin Academic Center and emeritus professor at the Graduate School of Business Administration, Bar-Ilan University, both in Israel.
• Professor Liora Katzenstein, president ISEMI, Entrepreneurship College, Israel

The Israeli and Palestinian scholars' participation in the program is part of the Business for Peace Initiative led by Robert E. McNulty, Ph. D., director of programs at the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University and executive director of the nonprofit organization Applied Ethics, Inc., a non-profit organization whose Pax Populi program is dedicated to advancing people-to-people peacemaking.

Through this outreach to Palestinian and Israeli scholars, the specific goals of the Business for Peace Initiative are:

• To reflect on the shared problems Israelis and Palestinians face in confronting global ecological problems
• To investigate ways in which destructive conflict may impede progress in resolving both global and local problems pertaining to sustainability
• To search for ways in which business and education can contribute to arriving at a just and equitable solution that is responsive to the economic and security needs of the Israelis, Palestinians, and all people in the region.

According to McNulty, "This initiative draws on Bentley University's core strength in business ethics and puts our intellectual resources to work in order to help solve one of the most difficult and important conflicts facing the global community. It is our hope that this will be one of many steps in a sustained effort to put the talents and innovative capacities of academic and business leaders to work in advancing peace in the Middle East."

Professor Biographies

Samir Ahmad Abuznaid is Deputy Governor, Hebron Governorate. Abuznaid is also an associate professor of management and behavior at Hebron University, West Bank, Palestine Authority, where he established the school of finance and management in 1994. Before that Abuznaid taught business and marketing at An-Najah National University in Nablus, West Bank for eleven years. More recently he was selected as a Fulbright Scholar where he taught cross-cultural management courses at Portland Community College, Oregon, USA. He is key founder of several institutions in the West Bank, including Palestine for Credit and Development, Palestine Development Fund, Technical Development Corporation.

Eugene D. Jaffe is Professor and Head, MBA Programs at the School of Social Sciences and Management, Ruppin Academic Center and Emeritus Professor, Graduate School of Business Administration, Bar-Ilan University, both in Israel. He has been a Visiting Professor in the United States, Denmark and Mexico. Professor Jaffe's research interests are in International Marketing, Business Ethics and Research Methodology. He holds B.S. (Econ.) and Ph.D (Econ.) degrees from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and an MBA in International Business from the Graduate School of Business, New York University.

Mohammed Khaled Bader was born in the Jerusalem, Israel. He worked as an accountant for six years at the Arab Bank plc. Currently, he is an assistant professor and the head of the Department of Finance and Banking at AlQuds University (the Arab University in Jerusalem). He holds a BBA from Birzeit University, an MBA from AlQuds University, and a PhD in banking financial management from the Graduate School of Management, University Putra Malaysia. His research has been actively presented in many International conferences in Australia, Malaysia, Japan, and Indonesia. He also serves in the consultancy committee of the MOHE- Palestine for auditing banking and finance programs at the Palestinian universities.

Liora Katzenstein is Founder and President of the Institute for the Study of Entrepreneurship and Management of Innovation (ISEMI) College, Israel. Her involvement with early stage high tech and low tech ventures spans more than two decades, including role as investor, advisor, board member and a founder of a number of successful ventures. As a founder of Forum International - Business Development Consulting, she established partnerships between Israeli companies and firms in Asia and the US, and the provision of strategic advice and fund raising support for Israeli technology start ups. As a partner in Consult Associates, she assisted European companies in evaluating and entering the Israeli market.

For more information please visit http://alliance.bentley.edu/symposium or contact Robert E. McNulty, Ph. D. at  (781) 891-2501.