Lebanese American University to Honor Diplomats at Inaugural Gala

News provided by

Mar 31, 2010, 02:49 ET

NEW YORK, March 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Lebanese American University (LAU) will honor two Lebanese ambassadors as part of its Inaugural gala in North America. LAU's guests of honor include Ambassadors Antoine Chedid and Nawaf Salam. Both guests will be honored for their public service during the event, which will be held in New York on April 30th.

Antoine Chedid is Lebanon's ambassador to the U.S., arriving in Washington, DC in 2007. Chedid has spent much of his life serving his home country through its foreign service, joining in 1978 and holding different diplomatic positions in the U.S., namely in Los Angeles and New York. Chedid also served as ambassador to Greece before his actual appointment in Washington, DC. Chedid held many positions in Lebanese foreign affairs, working as a presidential advisor on American affairs and as the head of the International Organizations Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Before joining the Foreign Service, Chedid earned French and Lebanese law degrees from the Saint Joseph School of Law in Lebanon and a post-graduate degree from La Sorbonne University in Paris.

Nawaf Salam is Lebanon's ambassador to the United Nations, heading the mission since 2007. Before his assignment there, Salam has spent many years in education, spending time at universities in the U.S., France and his native Lebanon since the 1970s. Ambassador Salam has also earned degrees in history as well as a master of laws degree from Harvard Law School in 1991. His experience and education has also allowed him to write about legal and political issues, writing prolifically on those subjects since the 1980s.

Lebanese American University dates back to 1835 when it was established in Beirut as the American School for Girls by Presbyterian missionaries. Today LAU is a non-profit, co-educational, private university that operates under a charter from the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York. It offers graduate and undergraduate degrees of study in seven academic schools housed on two campuses in Beirut and Byblos, Lebanon.

SOURCE Lebanese American University