Sheikh Hussein Al-Banawi ’78 ’80MBA Global visionary ■ Whether leading a successful business or setting a course for academic pursuits, Sheikh Hussein Al-Banawi ’78 ’80MBA is a man of vision. When he chose to cross the world to attend Rollins College, the native Saudi Arabian had three criteria in making his decision. First, Sheikh Al-Banawi preferred to be in a southern climate, having received his associate of arts degree in Switzerland. Second, he wanted to attend a small, high-quality institution. And finally—and perhaps the most unique requirement: he wanted a place where no Arab students had preceded him. His vision, he explained, was to pioneer a positive image and connection to the West. “And I hope I did a fair job,” Al-Banawi said. “That’s something my successors can determine… those who came after me as students from the Arab world.” After graduation, Al-Banawi returned to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and his new role as chairman and CEO of the Banawi Industrial Group (BIG)—a leader in the specialty chemicals and packaging industry in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region since 1956—with new concepts for Middle Eastern business practices. He has been at the helm of the family business ever since and finds that his dual major in political science and business administration continues to give him perspective. “There is such a thing as the politics of business and the business of politics,” he noted. He credits the tools and relationships gained at Rollins with helping him successfully guide BIG through an era of globalization and massive changes in technology. Creating a performance-driven corporate culture that focuses on customer satisfaction while enhancing shareowner value has been the key to keeping the business thriving in the midst of change, he said. As he looks to the future, Sheikh Al-Banawi sees two challenges
facing the Arab business world as it continues to seek growth opportunities. “One is the ability for us to continue to provide the right education for future generations, because business is first and foremost about people,” he said. The second is being in an area that historically has had its fair share of political turmoil. The remedy to this, he believes, is continuing to engage internationally. The melding of his business acumen and interest in academia led Al-Banawi to establish the Chair of Islamic Economics, Finance, and Management at Rice University, his brother’s alma mater. He sees the chair as a way of showing gratitude to the country that gave him the opportunity for higher education, as well as a means for American students to examine past contributions of the Arab civilization to the science of economics in order to help solve today’s complex economic issues. “A lot of dust has settled on this science over many years, but maybe the world can take a look at it again, in today’s terms, and perhaps adjust for the future,” Sheikh Al-Banawi said. “Over the years, academia has proved to be the right home for such initiatives.” He hopes to launch future efforts that will bring MBA students into closer dialogue with business executives internationally. Commenting on the importance of maintaining a balance between the fast-paced world of business enterprise and the slower-paced world of academia, Sheikh Al-Banawi said: “As human beings, this is God’s gift that we have two eyes. One eye has to be on today, and one eye has to be on tomorrow.” (ceo@banawigroup.com)—Alice Smetheram Bass ’88
Jon Darrah ’64 The wanderer ■ Jon Darrah’s long career as a goodwill ambassador has paid dividends in so many countries that it is difficult to pin him down on his favorite assignment. It could be Russia, where in 1992 he was the Peace Corps’ first country director. Perhaps Bataan, where he ran a large training project for Indo-Chinese refugees of the Vietnam War who were being resettled in the United States. And then there is his current post in China, where he oversees training for Chinese teachers of English. It’s a tough call. Along the world journey—which began in 1965 when he became a Peace Corps volunteer—he has acquired fluency in four Asian languages and a deep understanding of how people come to know one another. Darrah joined an organization that makes careerism difficult: From its beginning in the Kennedy Administration, the Peace Corps has prevented bureaucratic overgrowth by limiting employment to five-year terms. And so, Darrah has built his life’s work around periodic shifts— from volunteer to administrator, from the Peace Corps to other agencies and back to the Peace Corps again. The scheme has worked well. As country director with the Peace Corps, he holds the highest position that is not a political appointment. Darrah has served nine countries in this role, “each with its challenges and satisfactions,” he said, “but my current work in China has been probably the most interesting.” Working from Chengdu in the Sichuan Province—the size of France with 60 million people, located 1,500 miles
south and west of Beijing—he leads 110 volunteers who teach English language, literature, writing, and culture to Chinese university students who will go on to teach English in their hometown schools. With 20 percent of the world’s population and 200 million school-age children, China promises nine years of schooling, including study of a foreign language. According to Darrah, the country needs 500,000 more English teachers. “So the Peace Corps still has plenty of work to do,” he said. Married on Christmas Day 1980, Darrah and his wife, Jirapa, who goes by Gee, have two children, Jennifer ’00 and Jack, a junior at Boston University—both born in their mother’s home country of Thailand. On his first volunteer hitch, Darrah drew heavily on the economics education he had received at Rollins, but a skill he acquired from his plumber grandfather also came in handy. Working in a Malaysian jungle with the native Ibans, Darrah constructed 18 gravity-fed water systems for their bamboo longhouses. There, he said, “I came to learn about a group of people who were different from those I had known, and they, in turn, had come to know an American in a way that they wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.” Once the dream is over, he said, “I must sit down and write it all down— if for no other reason than for my children’s offspring. They will wonder what their wandering grandfather actually did. My father’s family are all Scots; they are all wanderers,” said Darrah, son of the late Theodore S. Darrah ’73H, dean of the Knowles Memorial Chapel from 1947 to 1975. “I’m the wanderer for my generation.” (chelseakirakira@yahoo.com) —Stephen M. Combs ’66 FALL 2007 31