Wassim Beaineh, from Lebanon, has over 12 years’ experience working for the private and non-profit sectors in Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean. Wassim works at Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands, where he manages international cooperation and relations for the Middle East and North Africa.

Wassim holds a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom, and a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer and Communication Engineering from Notre Dame University, Lebanon.

Previous to his current role, he served as a portfolio coordinator for the Dutch Red Cross, managing the West Africa and the Caribbean regions.

Wassim has also worked with Hilfswerk Austria International as country director in Tunisia, where he managed economic development programs to create jobs for young people and women. For the private sector in Sudan and South Sudan, he developed corporate social responsibility programs focusing on education and capacity development. In August 2015, Wassim was selected to represent the Lebanese Emigrants Research Center and the Lebanon Dialogue Initiative as Liaison Officer for the Netherlands and North Africa.

Wassim’s passion is to provide knowledge and global innovations to empower inadequately served populations, particularly those that will suffer most severely from the consequences of climate change and disasters because they live in the most affected areas and have less coping capacity.

Wassim is based in The Hague and speaks Arabic, English, French and Dutch.