Dr. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, gave an open lecture at KAPSARC’s APEX Convention Center on April 29.
Dr. Obaid was the first Saudi Arabian to head a United Nations agency, serving as Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund from 2000-2010. She was also the first Saudi woman to receive a government scholarship to study in the United States and was rated among the 50 most powerful Arab women by Forbes magazine in 2004 and 2011.
The event was moderated by Dr. Noura Yousef Mansouri, a Senior Research Associate in the Energy Systems and Macroeconomics program at KAPSARC, and a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).