Ibrahim Oweiss
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Dr. Ibrahim Oweiss is an Egyptian-born American economist, international economic advisor, and professor of economics at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, United States. He coined the influential term "petrodollars" in 1973 to describe the US dollar-denominated income of many oil-rich countries, particularly the OPEC states of the Persian Gulf region. Oweiss is an Associate Professor Emeritus of Economics, and is currently on staff at Georgetown's recently established School of Foreign Service in Qatar's 'Education City'.
[edit] Life and career
Dr. Oweiss received a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Alexandria University in Egypt majoring in economics and political science before moving to the United States to earn Masters and Ph.D. degrees in economics at the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Oweiss joined the faculty of Georgetown University in 1967. While on leave from Georgetown, he was appointed to the cabinet of the Egyptian government as First Under-Secretary for Economic Affairs in 1977 and with rank of Ambassador, held the position of the Chief of the Egyptian Economic Mission to the United States in New York.
Dr. Oweiss has authored over fifty scholarly publications including Petrodollar Surpluses, Arab Civilization, The Political Economy of Contemporary Egypt, and in a pioneering work on oil revenues, he coined the term "petrodollars." (This is a frequently used term in economics and in research in global economics and business: e.g. this 2007 New York Times article.) The also influential Oweiss Demand Curve was first presented at Oxford University. He has been an important faculty member who shaped generations of students at Georgetown in economics, international affairs, and related fields. His academic interests have focused on international trade, especially free trade, and the economics of the Middle East. He has advocated for greater international cooperation and mutual understanding among countries. Oweiss is often noted by students for his humanistic, optimistic approach and his emphasis on maintaining values in the midst of scholarship and economic development.
Oweiss has served as an economic advisor for several governments, multinational corporations, and individuals, in the United States and abroad. He formerly worked for magnate Armand Hammer as an advisor.
Oweiss is President of the Council on Egyptian-American Relations and was one of the founding members of Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) at Georgetown University as well as the College of Commerce and Economics at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman.
In a 2005 article by the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram, Oweiss stated that Egyptian expatriate scholars, like himself, "never let go of their ties with their home country." The article suggests this bond with his native Egypt was Oweiss's motivation for having "offered his services to the Egyptian government" to be "assigned by [then] President Anwar El-Sadat as chief of the Egyptian economic mission to the US in 1977." [1] In this article, Oweiss goes on to state, "I have always been involved in Egyptian affairs. [...] I have twice presided over the Egyptian American Scholars Association and have overseen several projects that aimed at technology and knowledge transfer back to Egypt."
[edit] Family
He is married to Céline Oweiss, professor in the Department of French at Georgetown. They have two children, a daughter, Yasmeen, and a son, Kareem, who is an accomplished pianist.
