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United States Gibran Khalil Gibran - Poet and Philosopher Hassan Kamel Al-Sabbah - Inventor Michael DeBakey - Heart Surgeon Donna Shalala - U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services George A. Joulwan - Military Officer Ralph Nader - Consumer protection advocate Sam Maloof -
Woodworker Joseph Jacobs - Entrepreneur
Danny Thomas
- Actor Carlo and Mario Kassar – Film
makers Paul Orfalea
- Entrepreneur
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Edmond Safra - International banker Bobby Rahal
- Winner of the Indy 500 race Casey Kasem - Radio legend Philip Habib - Diplomat Joseph Abboud - Fashion designer Tom Shadyac - Movie director Najeeb Halaby -
Businessman Joseph Jamail - Attorney Rony Seikaly
- Pro Basketball Player South America Edward Seaga - Politician Carlos Massad - Director of the Central Bank of Chile Jamil Mahuad - Former President of Ecuador Michel Temer - President of the Chamber of Deputies of
Brazil Shakira Mebarak -
Singer Alfredo Harp Helu -
Banker Paulo Maluf - Politician
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do for your country." Many of us know this as a quotation from
a speech made by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1961.
Hassan Kamel Al-Sabbah was a technological innovator whose inventions in electricity
had a great impact on the development of 20th century technology. In August 1921, Sabbah traveled to
the U.S. to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for one year. In 1922, he enrolled at
the University of Illinois, where he earned a master's
degree in engineering sciences in 1923. He was hired by the engineering laboratory of the
General Electric Company (GE) at Schenectady, N.Y.
in1923. It was not long before his research efforts resulted in a number of patents. However, Sabbah had signed a contract with GE whereby all his inventions
became the property of the company, and so he received a reward of one dollar
for each of his patented inventions. Between 1927 and 1935, Sabbah invented 52 different applications.
Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., is chancellor emeritus of Baylor College of Medicine and director of the DeBakey Heart Center, a joint venture of Baylor and The
Methodist Hospital. DeBakey's surgical career has earned him world renown as a surgeon, innovator, medical educator, and international medical statesman.
DeBakey's fame stems largely from his innovations in treating cardiovascular conditions. He was the first to do successful excision and grafting of arterial lesions. A
pioneer in the development of the artificial heart, he was the first to use a heart pump successfully in a patient. DeBakey has also developed more than 70 surgical
instruments. While still a medical student, he devised a pump that years later became one of the essential components of the heart-lung machine that made open-heart
surgery possible. He also conceived the idea of lining a bypass pump and its connections with Dacron velour 
Donna Shalala is the longest serving Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) in U.S. history. She joined the Clinton Administration in January 1993 to lead
the federal government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. With a Fiscal Year 2000 budget of
approximately $395 billion and over 61,000 employees, HHS administers a wide variety of programs including Medicare, Medicaid and federal welfare and
children's programs.
General George Joulwan, "His efforts have built a foundation for a Europe that is safe, secure and democratic." 
consumer rights movement in the U.S. Since the 1960s, his crusading passion for greater consumer
awareness and for corporate and government accountability, has attracted many young lawyers, students and other activists to his mission. Today, more than 50
nonprofit organizations in the U.S. are staffed by thousands of people who learned from Nader how to conduct fact-finding investigations and then follow these up with effective legislative lobbying.
celebrities, including three former American presidents, own wood furniture designed and made by Maloof. In 1948, Maloof received his first commission to design a
piece of furniture, and his career as a furniture designer took off. Today, more than 4500 pieces of furniture bear the name of Sam Maloof. His sculptures are
exhibited at some of the largest and most famous museums of the United States, including the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the St. Louis Art Museum, the Dallas Museum of Art, and the Detroit Institute of Arts, among others.
one of the ten leading engineering and construction firms in the United States, with 1999 revenues
exceeding $2.9 billion. Dr. Jacobs was born in 1916 in New York. In his book
"The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur", Jacobs tells the story of his parents who left
Lebanon to the United States at a young age with the hope of escaping the hardships during the Ottoman Empire.
J.M. Haggar, founded the Haggar Clothing Company, little did he know that one day his business would become a
multimillion dollar enterprise and one of the largest clothing companies in the U.S. J.M. Haggar was born
in Jezzeen, Lebanon. In 1906, at the age of 13,Haggar
emigrated from Lebanon to Mexico, later settling in Texas. In 1926, he founded the Haggar Clothing Co. in Dallas. Today, Haggar markets clothing throughout the 
Hospital. Thomas
starred in the Emmy Award-winning television series "Make Room For
Daddy", and produced long-running hits like "The Andy Griffith Show" and
"The Dick Van
Dyke Show". The fifth of ten children in a Lebanese-American family, Danny Thomas was born Amos Jacob in January 1914. At the age of ten he was selling newspapers and candy to help his parents make ends meet.
Now the president of Ford Motor Company, Nasser's long climb has paid off handsomely. Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Nasser moved to Australia where he joined Ford of Australia in 1968 as a financial analyst, proving himself to be both good with numbers and a keen businessman. He transferred to America in early 1973 to work with Ford's North American Truck Operations as part of the finance staff. Later that year, he returned to his native land, this time as a profit analysis manager.
open a small photocopy shop. Today, Orfalea is
chairperson of Kinko’s, Inc., a chain of 24-hour copy and printing stores with more than 1000 branches in the United States, Canada,
Britain, the Netherlands,
Japan, South Korea, China, Australia and the United Arab Emirates. As a child, Orfalea suffered from such severe dyslexia that he could hardly read or write. In
college, Orfalea had problems with every subject. While he was attending the University of California at Santa Barbara, Orfalea rented a little garage for $100 a
month on the main road of campus, which was the perfect location for his business. Starting with a single copying machine and a $5,000 loan, Orfalea founded
Kinko’s Copy Centers with a simple idea: to provide college students with products and services they needed at a competitive price. Today, Kinko’s is the world's
largest business-services chain operating more than 1000 branches worldwide. Kinko's provides photocopiers, computers, desktop publishing services, and offers
its clients video conferencing, e-mail access, and a multitude of other work-related tools and services.
Born into a Lebanese banking family, Edmond Safra set up banks in South America, the U.S. and Europe, and, until his death in 1999, managed a worldwide
financial empire. In 1948, the Safra family left Lebanon for Brazil, where they founded Banco Safra S.A., which is today one of the country's biggest banks with over
50 branches. In 1966, Edmond Safra founded the Republic National Bank of New York. The bank grew to include over 80 branches in the New York area alone, 
Bobby Rahal is a man who has lived his life in the fast lane--the REALLY fast lane. One of the most accomplished auto-racers of the last thirty years, Rahal's life is a
road to riches story. When he was seventeen years old, Rahal's father helped him enter his first auto race by convincing racing officials that Bobby was eighteen
years old, when in fact he was seventeen. His father also loaned him his car to drive in the race.
negotiation under difficult circumstances, and his effective solutions for complex international situations. 
Joseph Abboud holds the distinction of being the only fashion designer ever to have been awarded the Council of Fashion Designers of America's much-coveted
Menswear Design of the Year award for two consecutive years. Abboud joined the prestigious retail store Louis of Boston in 1968 where, over the course of
twelve years, he served as a buyer, a merchandiser, and finally progressed to coordinator of promotion and advertising.
Abboud's own vision of men's fashion was also honed at Polo/Ralph Lauren, where he spent three years as director of menswear design. In 1986, Abboud launched his signature menswear collection.
smash hit debut
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. The film earned $72 million at the box office in the U.S.
alone. The film's success made Jim Carrey an overnight superstar and transformed him from a little-known actor into one of Hollywood's leading comics of the
decade. Shadyac moved to Los Angeles in 1983, and at the age of 23, became the youngest staff joke writer ever for the legendary comedian Bob Hope.
Shadyac received
his master's degree in film from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1989. He worked for the Fox TV network and in 1991, re-wrote and directed
Frankenstein: The College Years.
also been cited as one of the 100 most influential attorneys in the U.S., and is included in the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans,
with a net worth estimated at $1.2 billion. Jamail earned both his bachelor's and law degrees at the University of Texas at Austin. He practices law in Houston, Texas as a partner in his law firm, Jamail & Kolius. Jamail received widespread exposure when, in 1987, he won a $10.5 billion settlement for Pennzoil Co. against the
Texaco Corporation, the largest settlement ever reached in a U.S. court. The verdict, which Pennzoil and Texaco later settled for $3 billion, drove Texaco into
bankruptcy.
At
the age of 17, Rony Seikaly
was offered the chance of a lifetime. The
tall teenager was asked to play basketball for Syracuse
University in New York. This opportunity was the beginning of
Seikaly’s career in professional basketball.
modest, and tolerant person. Yet he is also a charismatic and powerful politician who has held many
different offices in
from 1980-1989, helped revive a
desperately ailing economy. American-born Seaga spent his childhood in Jamaica, attending the Wolmer's Boy's School. He later attended
Harvard University, and at the age of 22, received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Sciences. Seaga first found himself introduced to the political world in 1959
when Jamaica Labor Party founder Sir Alexander Bustamante nominated him for the Jamaica Legislature. At age 29, Seaga
became the youngest member ever to serve on the committee. Eventually, Seaga became the head of the Jamaican Labor Party, and campaigned for the Prime
Minister position in 1980.
Carlos Slim Helu as
one of the richest men in the world. When looking at Helu's conglomerate company Grupo Carso, it is not surprising that Helu is listed among the ranks of Bill Gates
and Sam Walton. Considered to be the richest man in Latin America, there is little in the world of finance that Helu has not explored. His reputation for turning failing
companies into successes has earned him respect from business-leaders worldwide.
economics courses for over 20 years and has written extensively on the subject. In addition, he bears the admirable distinction of being elected Chile's central bank director twice. A world-renown
expert on finances and economics, Massad has been honored in countries from Italy to Lebanon. He has held political positions ranging from Minister of Health to
Chile's Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund. Massad has also written 14 books and over 100 publications on economics.
1998 to January
2000. His term as president ended early due to his efforts to replace the national currency, the sucre, with the U.S. dollar. Despite this controversy, Mahuad is still well
regarded in Ecuador for his efforts on behalf of the country and its people during his long career
in business and politics. Mahuad was the manager of the National Vital Products Corp. from 1981 to 1984. Since 1981, Mahuad has been affiliated with the
Popular
Democratic Party, and has served twice in the National Congress, from 1986 to 1988 and from 1990 to 1992. He was the presidential candidate for the Popular
Democratic Party in Ecuador's 1988 election.
The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Temer holds one of Brazil's most important positions. Temer has
served on the Chamber of Deputies since 1987. He was elected president of the Chamber of Deputies in 1997 and was re-elected in 1999. Temer has held other
political positions as well, including the elected leader of the Partido do Movimento Democratico Brasileiro (Brazilian Democratic Movement Party). He has also
been elected several times as the Federal Deputy for the State of Sao Paulo.
