Karim Kawar

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Karim Kawar is the former ambassador to the United States from Jordan. He was succeeded by HRH Prince Zeid Ra'ad Zeid al-Hussein. Mr. Kawar served four years in the United States, and now lives in his home country of Jordan. He was recently appointed as president of Kawar Group. Kawar Group was founded by his grandfather. His brother Rudain is the CEO.

Ambassador Karim Kawar
President of the Kawar Group of Companies

His Excellency Karim Kawar rejoined the Kawar Group of Companies, a leading business group based out of Jordan and serving the MENA region with diversified interests and investments in shipping, logistics, travel and tourism, information and communication technologies, real estate, energy, multimedia, health insurance, services, manufacturing, infrastructure, international trade and development.

Mr. Kawar is the Chairman of IrisGuard, Inc., which specializes in the deployment of iris recognition systems for border and homeland security. He’s a principal shareholder and advisor to Optimiza, a public shareholding company traded on the Amman Stock Exchange that is a major provider of management consulting, technology enablement and outsourcing services in the Middle East.

Mr. Kawar has recently completed his tour of duty as Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the United States of America and the Republic of Mexico where he served from July 2002 until January 2007. He was one of the youngest of Jordan's Ambassadors, who had a well established reputation as a prominent leader in developing Jordan's Information and Communications Technology sector.

Mr. Kawar contributed significantly to the economic development of the country and participated in developing "Jordan Vision 2020", an ambitious initiative that aims to achieve a clearly stated private sector-driven economic strategy to aggressively guide Jordan into the 21st Century. Mr. Kawar's vision for developing Jordan's productive capacity and human resources in the age of information technology has offered an important model and endless opportunities for Jordanian youth and businessmen.

Mr. Kawar grew up in Amman, Jordan. He graduated from Boston College, MA, in 1987 with a B.Sc. in management, finance and computer science. At the age of twenty, Mr. Kawar established his first company and headed an umbrella group that encompassed ten information systems and software companies.

Mr. Kawar was appointed, in 1999, as a member of the Economic Consultative Council, by His Majesty King Abdullah II. The Economic Consultative Council was the first 21 member body that included public and private sector leaders established to advise the Monarch on economic and social issues. Mr. Kawar served as a member of several Consultative Council task forces on Investment, eGovernment, Public Sector Reform as well as Computer and English Education.

As a pioneer in Jordan's technology and business sector, Mr. Kawar contributed largely to the development of Information Technology (IT) in the Kingdom. In 1999, Mr. Kawar applied his experience and savoir-faire to lead a team of 40 Jordanian IT professionals under the REACH Initiative. The team worked to develop a strategy to launch the IT industry in Jordan. Mr. Kawar also served as Chairman of the Information Technology Association of Jordan (INTAJ) and before that as President of the Jordan Computer Society.

Mr. Kawar was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and was also selected as an Eisenhower Fellow for the year 2000. He is a founding member of several business associations and NGO's among which are the Jordan American Business Association (AmCham), the Young Entrepreneurs Association (YEA) and the Jordanian Intellectual Property Association (JIPA). He is also a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO). He also served as Vice Chair and is currently a member of the board of the Jordan River Foundation, chaired by Her Majesty Queen Rania. The foundation empowers women through its income-generating projects, business development services for micro-entrepreneurs as well as preventing child abuse. Mr. Kawar also served as the Network Coordinator of the UN ICT Task Force - Arab Regional Network.

Mr. Kawar together with his wife Luma formed Bridges of Understanding Foundation a nonpolitical nonprofit organization that aims to support projects and initiatives that foster better understanding between the people of the US and the people of the Arab and Muslim world- starting with women of the U.S and Jordan.