The National Security Roundtable

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Farid Ghadry was born in Aleppo, Syria to a prominent Syrian family that included politicians and civil servants who served in Syria. The family emigrated to Lebanon because of political turmoil and settled in Beirut where Mr. Ghadry attended the Maristes Brothers School. When civil war in Lebanon erupted in 1975, the Ghadry family, once again, emigrated to the US and settled in the suburbs of Washington DC.

Mr. Ghadry graduated from the American University in Washington DC in 1979 with a degree in Finance and Marketing. He worked at EG&G, Intertech, Inc., a subsidiary of EG&G, Inc., a Fortune 500 defense contractor, for two years before starting his own business in 1983 called International TechGroup, Inc. Mr. Ghadry sold his business in 1989 and has been involved in many entrepreneurial operations since. Because of his father’s work in Saudi Arabia, he was granted Saudi citizenship, but his Saudi citizenship has since been revoked because of his public stand on the issue of democratic reforms in Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Ghadry co-founded - along with other prominent Syrian-Americans - the Reform Party of Syria (RPS), an organization committed to bringing about political and economic reforms in Syria and creating a free and democratic nation which can live in peace with Israel and its other neighbors.  He recently returned from The Democracy and Security Conference in Prague (a/k/a the Dissidents Conference), where he met with former and current dissidents from around the Middle East and the world, as well as heads of state (e.g., Václav Havel, former president of the Czech Republic; José María Aznar, former prime minister of Spain; Natan Sharansky of Israel; President George W. Bush; and many others) to discuss the strategic value of liberty and the urgent need for its advancement. Mr. Ghadry has written columns for several American newspapers, including the Washington Times, and has been invited to speak at various universities, think tanks and European parliaments.