Open Minds Talk with His Excellency Zaki Nusseibeh

In this talk, His Excellency Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh will discuss cultural diplomacy, Zayed Legacy and the Year of Tolerance. RSVP HERE.

Zaki Anwar Nusseibeh has been active in Government service and interpreter for the Presidents of the United Arab Emirates since 1968. He is currently a Minister of State in the UAE Government. He was before that the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation at the Foreign Ministry and the Cultural Advisor at the UAE Presidential Court.

He was appointed in 2018 as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Sorbonne University of Abu Dhabi that he helped in establishing and served on its Administrative Council since the year 2006.

Born in Jerusalem and educated in Jerusalem and the United Kingdom before settling in Abu Dhabi, Zaki Nusseibeh began his career as a journalist in 1967 and worked for the newly established Government of Abu Dhabi Civil Service Department. He then became Director of Information in the Abu Dhabi and, after 1971, the UAE Ministry of Information and Tourism. In this capacity he edited the first English newspaper to be published by the Abu Dhabi Government and participated in establishing its first Arabic newspaper. He also worked as a broadcaster and program producer and helped in developing Abu Dhabi’s Broadcasting and media services. 
In 1975 Mr. Nusseibeh became the Director of the Press Office for HH the President and subsequently Advisor while continuing his role as the President’s personal interpreter. He was actively involved during that period in the preparation of official State visits and in the formulation of Government briefs.

Mr. Nusseibeh has also served on several public and private bodies dealing with the development of cultural and educational strategies in Abu Dhabi. He was Deputy Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Culture and Heritage Authority since 2006 until it was amalgamated with the new Abu Dhabi Authority for Tourism and Culture in 2012, becoming a member of the Board on the new Authority and contributing to the development of some of Abu Dhabi’s major cultural and Art initiatives. He is also a member on several Boards including the Board of Trustees for Abu Dhabi University.

Other positions of responsibility included serving as a Trustee of the Sheikh Zayed Award and the International Prize for Arab Fiction (IPAF or Arab Bookers Literary Prize) since its foundation. He was the Chairman of the London School of Economics LSE Middle East Centre Advisory Board and member of London School 
of Oriental and African Studies SOAS Middle East Centre Advisory Board, and of the Alliance Française Foundation in Paris. He was also the President of the Alliance Francaise Abu Dhabi and the UAE chapter of the International ‘Friends of Richard Wagner’ society. He helped in founding the Abu Dhabi Classics program in Abu Dhabi and the Al Ain Music Festival in Al Ain. In 2014 he was also asked to chair the Wagner Foundation in Leipzig, Germany and is a member on the Board of Trustees of the Agha Khan Museum in Toronto and of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris.

Mr. Nusseibeh graduated from the University of Cambridge, UK, with a Masters degree in Economics. He has published translations of Gulf and Arab poetry into several European languages and contributed a series of articles to journals and newspapers.

RSVP on Eventbrite here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/open-minds-talk-with-his-excellency-zaki-nusseibeh-tickets-59660695747