Speakers
2006 Fundraiser
Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaida’ie
Mr. Samir Shakir Mahmood Sumaida'ie was appointed Iraq’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in July 2004. Prior to his appointment, Ambassador Sumaida'ie served as the Minister of Interior in Baghdad. In addition, Ambassador Sumaida'ie served as a member of Governing Council (GC) in Iraq. In the GC, he was Chairman of the Media Committee. He also held positions on the Security, Finance, and Foreign Relations Committees.
Prior to the removal of the Baathist regime, Ambassador Sumaida'ie was actively involved in opposition efforts in the United Kingdom and is founding member of the Association of Iraqi Democrats and the Democratic Party of Iraq.
Ambassador Sumaida'ie was born in Baghdad and resided there until 1960. He graduated from Durham University in the United Kingdom with a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1965. He then returned to Iraq to work with the Baghdad Electricity Board and Iraqi Petroleum Company before leaving the country in 1973. Ambassador Sumaida'ie is married and has five children and enjoys a wide range of cultural activities, including writing poetry and crafting designs in the Islamic decorative medium.
Richard G. Olson
Richard Olson is director of the Office of Iraq, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA/I). From December 2003 to March 2004, he worked for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), Iraq as Governorate Coordinator for the Province of Najaf. Mr. Olson joined the U.S. Department of State as a foreign service officer in August of 1982. He has served overseas in Mexico, Uganda, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia (as the Embassy's liaison officer to General Schwarzkopf during the 1991 Gulf War), Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates (where he served as US Consul General in Dubai).
His Washington assignments include: State Department Operations Center (twice), NATO Desk, and the Office of Israel and Palestinian Affairs (including as Director). Mr. Olson's foreign languages are Arabic and Spanish. He graduated from Brown University in 1981, receiving an A.B. in Law and Society (Honors) and History.
Mr. Olson is married and has two children.
Jane Arraf
Jane Arraf, currently the Edward R Murrow press fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, has been CNN's Senior Baghdad Correspondent and Bureau Chief for most of the past decade. Arraf joined CNN in 1997 as Baghdad Bureau Chief, covering Iraq through crisis, sanctions and finally war. In the late 1990s she was the only Western correspondent permanently based in Iraq. In 2001, she moved to Istanbul, Turkey to serve as CNN's bureau chief there, returning to Iraq as Baghdad Bureau Chief in 2002. Covering the war in 2003 from the north of Iraq, she provided live coverage of the battle and its effect on the civilian population as cities and towns fell to US forces.
From 2004 to September 2005, Arraf served as Senior Baghdad Correspondent, spending most of her time reporting from the front lines in Iraq, including the battle for Najaf, Samarra, Fallujah and fighting in Tel Afar and Western al-Anbar province near the Syrian border.
She has also reported for CNN on the war in Kosovo, covering the flood of Kosovar refugees into Albania, and covered India and Kashmir and the Arab Gulf states.
She began her career as a Reuters correspondent in Montreal and later as a Reuters correspondent/desk editor in New York and Washington D.C. before joining CNN. Arraf also worked for Reuters Financial Television in Washington, covering the White House, Capitol Hill and the Treasury Department. Arraf served as Reuters Bureau Chief in Jordan from 1990 to 1993.
Arraf studied journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa.
Dr. Sabah Sadik
Dr. Sabah Sadik was born in Najaf, Iraq in 1952. He grew up in Baghdad, and later went on to study at Baghdad University. He graduated with a MBChB degree in 1974 and completed his basic training in both Ibn Rushd and Al-Rashad mental hospitals.
Dr. Sadik has extensive training and experience in Academic Psychiatry, Medical Management, Health Economics and leadership. In 1979, Dr. Sadik moved to the United Kingdom for post-graduate training. Receiving his MRCPsych in 1982 and the DPM in 1983, Dr. Sadik went on to be a Consultant Psychiatrist and Senior Lecturer in the UK in 1985. From 1992 to 1996, Dr. Sadik was Chief Psychiatrist for the Armed Forces Hospital in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Sadik received his FRCPysch in 1996. From 2002 to 2005, he worked as an advisor to the National Clinical Assessment Authority in the UK.
Presently, Dr. Sadik is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Senior Lecturer and since 1999 he has been the Medical Director at West Kent in the UK. Since 2004, Dr. Sadik has also worked as a National Advisor for Mental Health for the Iraqi Ministry of Health and is a visiting Professor at Baghdad University.
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