Our Trustees
Ayman Asfari
Born in Syria, son of a Syrian Diplomat, Ayman lived in Turkey and Czechia in his early life before completing his education in Aleppo, Syria. Having gained an MSc in Civil and Urban Engineering in 1980 from the University of Pennsylvania, Ayman started his early career in Oman as a project engineer for a civil construction business. Followed by 10 years managing a major civil and mechanical consulting co with focus on supporting the emerging oil and gas industry.
In 1991 Ayman led Petrofac Ltd from a small US-based Oil and Gas company to a successful initial public offering (IPO) in 2005. He stepped down in 2020, but remains on the Board of Directors, and Petrofac’s largest shareholder. In 2021 Ayman founded Venterra plc supporting the offshore wind industry’s rapid expansion, and he serves as it’s Executive Chairman.
In 2010, Ayman was heralded Ernst & Young’s UK Entrepreneur of the Year and, in both 2011 and 2012, he was named Oil Services Executive of the Year at the World National Oil Company Congress. He was elected a fellow of the Energy Institute and a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK.
It was in 2006 that Ayman, along with his wife Sawsan, founded the Asfari Foundation to provide educational opportunities for young Middle Eastern scholars, and to promote civil society in the Arab world. He serves as the Chairman of the Foundation and is its principle benefactor. More recently Ayman established Madaniya, a Syrian led and funded initiative, independent of political and foreign influence aimed at supporting the Syrian civic space, where he is now serving as Chairman.
Ayman is a member of the Board of Trustees for The American University of Beirut (AUB). He serves Panel of Senior Advisors for Chatham House and he also serves on the Board of Trustees for Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Sawsan Asfari
Sawsan Asfari is a trustee and co-founder of the Asfari Foundation, and is an executive director of the Galilee Foundation, which supports the development of the Palestinian community in Israel.
Sawsan is active in various other charities and is a board member of the US Middle East Project. She co-founded the film production company Cactus World Films.
Adeeb Asfari
Adeeb is the Co-Founder of Energy Growth Momentum, a growth capital fund focused on investing in digital solutions as an enabler of sustainable energy infrastructure.
Previously he was an investment professional at First Reserve Momentum, a platform with a focus on upstream equipment and services. He previously spent five years with Simmons & Company, a corporate finance advisory, having worked in Aberdeen, Oslo, and Dubai.
Adeeb holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA in Economics from the University of Nottingham.
Kareem Asfari
Kareem Asfari is a junior legal associate with Guernica 37 Chambers with a focus on accountability for human rights abuses.
He holds an LLM in international law from SOAS, an MPhil in English Studies from the University of Cambridge.
John Ferguson
Formerly financial director of Shell Syria, John Ferguson has extensive experience of senior financial management.
Now retired, he is a trustee of several charities working in the Arab world and is a member of the Charity and Voluntary Group of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Marwan Muasher
Marwan Muasher is vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment, where he oversees the Endowment’s research in Washington and Beirut on the Middle East. Muasher served as foreign minister (2002–2004) and deputy prime minister (2004–2005) of Jordan, and his career has spanned the areas of diplomacy, development, civil society, and communications. He was also a senior fellow at Yale University in 2010-2011. He was senior vice president of external affairs at the World Bank from 2007 to 2010.
He is the author of The Arab Center: The Promise of Moderation (Yale University Press, 2008), and The Second Arab Awakening and the Battle for Pluralism (Yale University Press, 2014). He is a member of the American University of Beirut Board of Trustees, Chair of an international jury on Global Pluralism Award, given bi-annually by the Global Centre on Pluralism in Canada, an ex-member of the Global Centre for Pluralism Board of Directors, and a member of the Asfari Foundation Board of Trustees.
Rasha Elmasry
Rasha Elmasry is a jewellery designer based in London. She earned a BA in journalism from New York University and a publishing certificate from Radcliffe College. Rasha worked for various magazine titles for many years before leaving the corporate world to focus on her family.
Rasha has been supportive of several organizations that help Syrian refugees. In London she came across Syrian refugee children at Newman Catholic College in need of academic support. With Newman's help, she organized an academic camp and helped recruit volunteer teachers in English, math and science. She also serves as Board chair of Karam Foundation, a US based organization that provides innovative education to Syrian youth, and supports families in Istanbul and the Hatay region of Turkey.
Rasha also volunteers with Human Rights Watch London dinner committee and was instrumental in launching the annual dinner auction.
Saba Almubaslat
Saba Almubaslat is the Regional Director of Middle East and North Africa. She has more than 25 years of international development and humanitarian response and experience with special focus on youth and women participation and civil society empowerment, particularly in the Global South.
Prior to joining Ford, Saba was Chief Executive Officer of The Asfari Foundation, where she provided grants to ensure civil society organizational resilience and professionalization in the Middle East, as well as creating incubators and accelerators for youth innovation and entrepreneurship in the region.. She previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Humanitarian Leadership Academy, a subsidiary of Save the Children UK, where she oversaw the establishment of a network of 6 regional hubs in the Global South, focusing mainly on the designing and documentation of indigenous learning and knowledge at the local level, positioning local partners and connecting them to global decision makers as well as democratizing access to contextualized knowledge. Before that, Saba was with Save the Children International for 15 years, her last position was the Country Director in Jordan, leading the Syria Crisis Response and leading a consortium of INGOs to ensure coordination and responsiveness to affected populations, both from refugees and host communities.
Saba has a Master’s Degree in Education from Framingham University, MBA in Executive Leadership, and a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Jordan University.