Fuad El-Hibri was born in Hildesheim, Germany. He spent his childhood equally in Europe and the Middle East before coming to the United States to get an economics degree from Stanford and an MBA from Yale.
El-Hibri worked most of his career in the telecommunications industry. Between graduate school and working for BioPort and Emergent, he worked abroad, in countries including Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela and El Salvador. El-Hibri served as president of Digicel from August 2000 to February 2005. He served as the president of East West Resources Corporation from September 1990 to January 2004. He was a member of the senior management team of Speywood, LTD. in the United Kingdom and organized and directed the management buyout of Porton Products Ltd. El-Hibri reorganized Porton, and was advisor to the senior management team involved in the oversight of operations and served as a senior associate and resident project manager at Booz Allen Hamilton and as a manager of Citicorp in New York City, and in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. El-Hibri has been chairman of East West Resources Corporation, a venture capital and financial consulting firm, since June 1990. He served as the chairman of Digicel Holdings from August 2000 to October 2006. He serves as executive chairman of the board of Emergent BioDefense Operations Lansing Inc.
Emergent BioSolutions and BioPort
El-Hibri has been the Emergent BioSolutions board of directors executive chairman since April 2012. He was both the board chairman and the CEO of the company from 2004 to 2012. He was the board chairman and CEO of BioPort Corporation from 1998 to 2004. Emergent acquired BioPort in 2004. His main role as the chairman of Emergent is to develop corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions. After the 2001 anthrax attacks, some conspiracy theorists posted Internet websites that tried to imply that El-Hibri was connected to Osama Bin Laden and was connected to the anthrax attacks. USA Today interviewed El-Hibri in 2004 for an article about Muslim CEOs of companies helping to fight terrorism, and wrote, "El-Hibri calls the Web sites annoying and jokes that he's lucky to be in the vaccination business so that he can inoculate himself from the pain of accusers who can't be confronted." When El-Hibri was the CEO of BioPort, BioPort recruited Admiral William Crowe, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to serve on the board of directors.
Awards and recognition
El-Hibri received a number of leadership- and philanthropic-based awards and recognitions, including:
Biotech CEO of the Year – from the World Vaccine Congress
Citation for Public Service — from U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski
Distinguished Community Service and Achievement Award — from the Rene Moawad Foundation
Entrepreneur of the Year for Greater Washington — from Ernst & Young
In 2001, El-Hibri and his family started The El-Hibri Foundation as a tribute to El-Hibri's father, Ibrahim El-Hibri. The El-Hibri Foundation is a philanthropic organization that empowers and equips Muslim leaders and their allies to build thriving, inclusive communities. EHF makes grants and implements innovative programs to provide resources and skills, forge collaborative relationships, and increase inclusion of and within American Muslim communities. Its mission is to "support building an inclusive America by advancing peace and respect for diversity, inspired by the universally shared values of Islam." EHF "envisions a society where everyone can achieve the American Dream in a diverse and inclusive world." To work toward this goal, the foundation provides grants, gives awards and runs several programs. The foundation awards an annual El-Hibri Peace Education Prize, as well as graduate scholarships. The El-Hibri Foundation is a 501 charitable foundation. El-Hibri is currently the chairman of the foundation.
El-Hibri Peace Awards
The El-Hibri Foundation Peace Awards recognize three individuals each year who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in advancing inclusion, building capacity, and organizing communities for positive social change. The largest of the awards is the El-Hibri Peace Education Prize. It was established by the El-Hibri family in 2007, and awards $30,000 to leaders who have dedicated their lives to making outstanding contributions and demonstrating long-term leadership in building inclusive and socially just communities in the United States.
Boards and leadership activities
El-Hibri serves on the boards of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, International Biomedical Research Alliance, and National Health Museum. He also serves on the advisory boards of the Heifetz International Music Institute and Yale Healthcare Conference.
Personal life
El-Hibri's mother is a German Catholic, and his father is a Lebanese businessman. As a child, he lived in Germany and Lebanon. He became a U.S. citizen in 1999.
