Ismail Srag ElDin
First lets start with who is Ismail Srag ElDin , he is the first Egyptian to become vice president of the international monarchy fund and he is now elected to be president of the UNESCO foundation with over 200 international celebrities backing him among them are 31 scientists which have been awarded the Nobel prize .
He was born in 1945 , his father is Anees Serag ElDin who was a famous contractor and the owner of the contracting companies which were nationalized in the sixties and he died in a car accident . He is also the cousin of Foad Serag ElDin president of the Wafd Party in Egypt , his mother is Mrs. Lila Ibrahim Professor of Egyptology and his son is Dr. Ali Ibrahim the famous doctor , so as you can see most of the family has excelled in a certain field .
He got his education at ElNaseria and ElOrman Schools in Giza state , he tells his story with success saying :
I have always dreamed of building cities and projects that help and serve people and I was always interested in heritage and I was deeply effected by my father in that field , and for that reason I decided to join the faculty of Engineering to become a Architect and I graduated in the year 1964 and I was the No 1 graduate in my class and I worked as a professor in the college and at the same time I sent my CV to Harvard University and they replied agreeing to grant me a scholarship to study there . So I traveled to the States and started my studying and thought about changing from Architecture to {City Planning} and I proposed the idea to Dr. Edward Mason and I explained my point of view that I am interested in social problems and housing of the poor and I found that studying regional planning requires the knowledge of Local Planning and for all that to happen I must be aware of economics so I proposed to the university getting my BCE in that field because in my opinion development is not a matter of money but it is a matter of human affairs and for that I got the permission of the administrator and I studied the effect of Education in development and after completing my study I asked my professor to help me work in the UNESCO so he advised me to work in the international monarchy forum ..I was surprised at first specially that working there is not at all easy . There were 400 candidates to get posts in the forum and they were all of the top students in there universities , they handpicked 20 people and I was very happy to be one of them , and I was very happy when the head chief Mr. Robert Macenra said: " We want the bank to help the poor especially that most of the banks interests were in economical affairs ."So I started work there and I was granted many posts and responsibilities to the extent that in only four years I became manager of a sector in the bank although many people spend all their life working there and they never reach that post , then I became the manger of the department of cooperation with Arab countries in technical affairs then the manger of the department responsible for the housing problems in the middle east , until I was selected to be vice president of the bank . I have gained a lot of experience while working in the bank for instance when I worked in the education sector the bank was concentrating on practical education and higher education they weren't concentrating on primary education and education of women so I proposed these changes to the bank and I participated in developing this part . In the seventies I had many achievements in the field of economy in many countries like Tunisia , Ireland , Saudi Arabia , Yemen and Morocco .
Many people ask me why I want to leave the international monarchy fund which has stock of over 30 billion dollars and want to join the UNESCO which has stock of only 300 million dollars , and to all of them I say that UNESCO has a very important role in achieving cooperation between the nations of the world in the fields of education , culture and science , and it also upholds human rights without reference to colour , sex or religion . I aim to develop UNESCO to be able to face the challenges of the next century and I say that every year 440 thousand people die of starvation and illness although there are many breakthrough in science and every day the stock markets of the world deal in over 140 billion dollars .
Also it is the only foundation that has a law that over 186 nations have signed , it also deals with all sorts of affairs and makes many programs that can deal with the challenges of the next century . The UNESCO is like a dynamo it can move the international society and affects the international public opinion .
Dr. Ismail Serag ElDin is not the only candidate to the post of the chairman of the UNESCO there is also the Saudi Dr. Ghazi Elksiby the Saudi ambassador in London and there is also another candidate . We asked him what he thinks his chances are of getting that post he said : " I am happy to have 110 people representing 50 nations backing me among them are scientists and novelists that have all been awarded the Nobel prize some of them are Nagib Mahfouz "Egypt" , Jan Deceit "France" , Peter Dorty "Australia" , Kenneth Aro "USA" , Geomel Davous "Portugal" and Wool Snoike "Nigeria" . These and many others have voted for me because they believe that I will the problems of the world concerning the rights of women , education , culture and human rights and they all believe that I will be the spark that will bring the solution to all these problems .
Dr. Ismail Serag ElDin got many honorable Bc form universities all over the world among them is a Bc in social science form Bucharest university in Romania and a Bc in Agriculture form the university of Melbourne in Australia as well as being the head of the judging committee in the Afghan Architectural forum twice .As for his hobbies Dr. Ismail very much enjoys diving and he must get two vacations a year one at Sharm ElSheikh in Egypt where he disconnects all his contacts and enjoys his diving and the other at the Caribbean for the same hobby and he is very much concerned with getting his recreation and rest to make him relax and work with more concentration .
