"Former Diplomat Of The Middle East"

Travels from: Washington D.C.

Mr. Walid Maalouf is a professional businessman and diplomat in the metropolitan Washington, DC area for more than 20 years tackling international issues on cultural, educational and political levels.

He served as the Director of Public Diplomacy for Middle Eastern & MEPI Affairs at U.S. Agency for International Development from 2004 till 2009. He was responsible for enhancing communications between the agency and the broader Middle Eastern community in America and abroad. He also served as the Alternate Representative of the United States of America to the General Assembly of the United Nations in 2003. While at the US Mission in New York, he was the first United States representative to deliver a speech at the United Nations in Arabic.

Prior to these two presidential appointments Mr. Maalouf was an international banker for fourteen years. He served on a number of civic boards and organized several conventions. He is a member of numerous organizations including the Consular Corps of Washington, DC, and is a Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.

Mr. Maalouf received several awards including the 2006 Distinguished Wall of Fame from his alma mater, USAID’s Meritorious Honor Award in 2005 and two certificate of appreciation in 2008. He was the recipient of the Patriarchal Golden Cross of Jerusalem from the Melkite Patriarch of Antioch and all the East, Alexandria and Jerusalem in 1998.  He also has been recognized for his dedicated commitment to public service and community organizations. Mr. Maalouf has been interviewed and written for numerous magazines and newspapers. His book, How Many Times… I Told You - Reflections, Memories and Hope for Lebanon was published in 2007.

He served as Heritage Co-Chair, Middle Eastern of the Catholic Task Force of the Republican National Committee and Co-Chairman of the American Dreamers on behalf of the Lebanese American community in support of President George W. Bush.

In 1983, Mr. Maalouf founded the Metrolina Phoenician Club in North Carolina and in 1988 was a founder and former national Vice President of the National Alliance of Lebanese Americans. In 1987 he was the national executive director of the American Lebanese League and was instrumental and behind the establishment of the Lebanese American Coalition in 2004 through which he hoped to unite all Lebanese American activists behind a free and democratic Lebanon. Mr. Maalouf initiated and spearheaded the Lebanese American Renaissance Partnership mission to Lebanon and serves as current President. He ran in the 2009 Parliamentary Elections and was able to place his candidacy on the map of the Shouf District with a notable record for an independent candidate running within the complex election law that is currently implemented in Lebanon.

Mr. Maalouf was born in Beirut, Lebanon and graduated from Belmont Abbey-Sacred Heart College in Belmont, North Carolina. He and his wife live in Arlington, Virginia and they have two children.

Speech Topics

US Policies in the Middle East
Democracy in the Broader Middle East
Christian - Muslim Relations
Plight of the Christian in the Middle East