Dubai: The American University of Sharjah (AUS) expects to become a family business knowledge hub, according to a statement on Monday.
Bjorn Kjerfve, AUS Chancellor, met Shaikh Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, managing director of Al Saud Company, and Shaikh Saud Majid Al Qassimi, deputy managing director of Al Saud Company, to discuss the Shaikh Saoud Bin Khalid Bin Khalid Al Qassimi Chair in Family Business.
The chair’s mission is to foster the university’s sustainable support to family business by creating value for business families and regional communities through conducting research and developing teaching activities to connect family generations.
“The purpose of establishing this chair is to honour my grandfather’s legacy. He was a Sharjah businessman who founded a family business back in the 1970s that is now in its third generation,” stated Shaikh Saud. “This is a modest contribution on our part to give back to the community,” he added.
“AUS is a prominent university that is preparing the next generation of leaders in the UAE and the region. We would like to thank His Highness Dr Shaikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al Qassimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, for establishing American University in Sharjah, which has become a beacon of education in the region,” he added.
The Shaikh Saoud Bin Khalid Bin Khalid Al Qassimi Chair in Family Business activities are integrated in three main areas: research, teaching and knowledge transfer. These areas are aimed at creating knowledge pertaining to family business that will be useful for building sustainable firms and cohesive and happy families to boost regional competitiveness as well as well-being, AUS said in the statement.
The chair will develop new lines of research in order to contextualise family business in the UAE and the region; publish academic articles; participate in national and international research conferences; strengthen research links with local, regional, and international researchers and scholars as well as research groups; and improve students’ analytical skills by involving them in research activities.
The chair will also develop family business courses, as well as family business workshops and seminars for business families; create external educational activities within the community; and develop specific programmes for family business executive education as part of its teaching activities.
The activities also include developing a family business incubator lab as an integrated space for new generations of family business members who wish to develop their entrepreneurial competencies.
