Impact Stories

Imad Gholmieh was a celebrated engineer and business executive. He and his brother, Dr. Marwan Gholmieh, joined Sheikh Saleh AlTurki as founders of Nesma Construction in 1981. (It became Nesma & Alfadl Contracting Co. Ltd. and later (in 2004) Nesma & Partners Contracting Co. Ltd.) He led the Saudi-based engineering and construction company as president and CEO from 1981 until he passed away from complications due to COVID-19 in June 2020.

In recognition of his leadership in the fields of engineering and contracting, Lebanon posthumously awarded Imad Gholmieh the National Order of the Cedar in late July, the most prestigious but not the only accolade that Engineer Imad received during his lifetime. In July 2019, for example, he was ranked 22 in the 2019 Construction Week Power 100 list. In a statement it issued in June 2020, the Lebanese Executives Council described Imad’s passing as “a big loss for the construction sector in the Arab world in general, Saudi Arabia specifically, and for the Lebanese community in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia more particularly.”

Nesma & Partners recently made a $1 million gift to AUB in honor of Mr. Imad to establish the Imad Gholmieh Endowed Scholarship to celebrate the memory, numerous contributions, and extraordinary life of Mr. Imad. This is not the first scholarship at AUB in the name of the Gholmieh family. In 2009, Imad himself established the Shawki Gholmieh Endowed Scholarship Fund in honor of Imad and Marwan’s father, Shawki, to support Lebanese students majoring in civil engineering at AUB. “Imad always emphasized to his children the importance of education and that they develop their innate skills,” remembered his wife, Mrs. Pascale. “He empowered them with his commitment to ethics and integrity – and by how he conducted his life and career according to the principles of good ethical manners and practices.”

“Imad believed in the unparalleled gift of education and in the impact that AUB would make in the lives of the students who would benefit from the scholarship he was establishing,” said VP for Advancement and Business Development Imad B. Baalbaki. “It is a wonderful tribute to him that Nesma & Partners, the company he led as president and CEO, has established an endowed scholarship inspired by the same belief and commitment that Imad had. On behalf of AUB, I thank Mr. Abdulaziz AlTurki, chairman of Nesma & Partners, for deciding to honor the legacy of Imad Gholmieh in this way.”

Commenting on the establishment of the endowed scholarship, Sheikh Abdulaziz AlTurki reflected on his long relationship with Mr. Imad and Dr. Marwan, noting that they had met in 1969 when they were students at George Washington University. Over the years Sheikh Abdulaziz said that he came to know Mr. Imad as “a visionary and influential business leader. He spent his career building and developing Nesma & Partners, playing an active role in making it what it is today – one of the most successful national contractors in Saudi Arabia and the region.” AlTurki said that Mr. Imad “believed in a noble cause, which was to make a difference in people’s lives.”