Randa Bessiso is the founding director of the Middle East Centre at Manchester University.[1][2] She is a Lebanese national of Palestinian origin.[3][4]

Bessiso began working in business education as the Vice President for Training & Consultancy at PROJACS International.[5] She then worked with the UK eUniversities initiative.[5] In 2006, she founded Manchester University's Middle East Centre in Dubai, which she currently administers as the Director.[1][5] The centre is part of a two-year Manchester Global part-time MBA programme,[6] which as of 2019 had taught more than 2,500 students.[1] This centre is the largest and the fastest-growing of the six centres in the Manchester Global MBA programme, representing more than half the students in the program worldwide.[1][6] In 2019, Manchester University was named Best MBA Program by the Forbes Middle East Higher Education Awards.[1] Bessiso is also the Chair of the UAE-UK Business Council's Higher Education Group.[4]

Bessiso has been recognized as one of Forbes Middle East's 100 Most Powerful Arab Women every year from 2014 to 2018.[1] In 2019, she was named one of the 30 Most Influential Women in the Arab World by Arabian Business,[2] and received Entrepreneur Middle East's 2019 Achieving Women award in Education.[7]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f 2019 World's most powerful Arabs. 40 Randa Bessiso Arabian Business. Retrieved 18 April 2023
  2. ^ a b 2019 most influential women in the Middle East. 30 Randa Bessiso Arabian Business. Retrieved 18 April 2023
  3. ^ "MBS Mideast director named in Forbes list". Tradearabia.com. 19 October 2015.
  4. ^ a b "University of Manchester ME Director ranked in Forbes list of Most Influential Women". Edarabia.com.
  5. ^ a b c "Interviews with leading UAE businesswomen Randa Bessiso". www.hays.ae. Archived from the original on 23 December 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  6. ^ a b "University of Manchester-Middle East Centre signs MOU with DTP". Intelligentcio.com. 16 January 2019.
  7. ^ "The Recap: Achieving Women Awards 2019". Entrepreneur.com. 4 October 2015.