Father Professor Hady J. Mahfouz was elected in August 2016 as the Second Assistant General to the Superior General of the Lebanese Maronite Order (O.L.M.) after serving as President of the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK) for nine consecutive years. Currently, he is a member of USEK Board of Trustees and Chairman of its Institutional Planning and Sustainability Committee, a committee that focuses on exploring further strategic plans to promote USEK’s role as a leading institution of higher education in the Middle East.

In the role of president of the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (USEK), Fr. Prof. Mahfouz sought to implement a roadmap for a sustainable future and to shape a distinctive mission and identity of the University as a Catholic institution of Higher Education, and doing this in the spirit of Evolution in Continuity while always remaining faithful to the tercentenary tradition of education, culture, and community service promoted by the Lebanese Maronite Order of Monks. He focused his efforts on moving USEK towards a shared governance framework that led to the formal appointment of the first Board of Trustees in 2015 that reflects the mission of the University and its commitment to deliver a high quality American-Style Education. He has consolidated pillars of excellence, quality and accreditation at the University that were, during his mandate, subject to many internal and external evaluations of the institutional, its programs and student services provisions. He worked fervently towards comprehensive internationalization by establishing new overseas partnerships while strengthening the existing ones. He initiated a modern administration framework based on a successful balance between centralization and decentralization.

Fr. Prof. Mahfouz has also held several leading roles on the international level. In 2013, he was elected as the President of the Conference of Rectors of the Middle East (CONFREMO) which brings together 46 Middle Eastern universities and promotes regional university collaboration. He serves on the Global Advisory Council of World Learning that promotes international development, education and exchanges, and gathers educational, governmental, non-governmental, civil society and private sector leaders from various countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. He serves on the board of the Union of the Mediterranean Universities. He is also a Member of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges in the United States.

He was awarded his PhD in Biblical Sciences from the Pontifical Biblical Institute of Rome in 2002. He also holds a Post-graduate degree in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education from the UT Global Initiative from the University of Texas at Austin (2015). He has lectured and published widely and is the author of several books.