Fadi Kattan
Link:https://thisweekinpalestine.com/personalities-of-the-month-2/
From: This Week in Palestine
Special Issue August 2021
Dr. Fadi Kattan holds a PhD in accounting from the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom. He started his accounting career as a student at Bethlehem University where he earned his first degree in the profession. In addition to the academic qualification, Dr. Kattan has also earned several professional certifications in accounting, auditing, and finance. He has been the Dean of the School of Business Administration at Bethlehem University since 2002.
Dr. Kattan is the founder and director of the master’s program in cooperation and development (MICAD) offered at the Shucri Ibrahim Dabdoub Faculty of Business Administration of Bethlehem University. This program has added great value to the faculty, which has especially benefitted from Dr. Kattan’s excellent network of professionals and educators around the world, many of whom have come to Palestine to participate in the program, helping to educate young Palestinians. Dr. Kattan realized that even with the addition of the MICAD program to the faculty offerings, a third pillar of development was still missing: the public sector. This reality led him to initiate a new master’s program to be offered by the faculty in 2021. The new program focuses on governance and administration in the public sector (MGAPS). The faculty now completely covers the development triangle – the private sector is covered by the business and accounting programs, the public sector is covered by the new program, and nongovernmental organizations and developmental agencies are the focus of MICAD.
In addition to his role as the main lecturer in the accounting department at Bethlehem University, Dr. Kattan is a member of several international accounting professional bodies, including the AICPA, the IIA, and the IMA. Along with his expertise in the field of accounting and finance, Dr. Kattan has also lectured in the field of development and the role of the private sector in sustainable development, not only at Bethlehem University but also at universities in other countries such as Italy, Nepal, and Ethiopia.
Dr. Kattan serves as a member of several boards of various institutions in Palestine. His experience in local business and institutions led him to recognize the importance of establishing a nontechnology business incubator at Bethlehem University (BBI). He works on merging academic education with real-world scenarios in Palestine. The business incubation activity offers significant help to young people, and for this reason, the BBI welcomes university graduates and others with smart ideas that need some support to convert them into real sustainable businesses. In many cases, the ideas for businesses with social impact are supported by the Bethlehem University Yunus Social Business Center, which is another arm of the faculty of business. It was created by Dr. Kattan through collaboration with Professor Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur, banker, economist, and civil society leader who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (2006) for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance.
Dr. Kattan works closely with young Palestinians to help them pave their career path into the professional world of accounting, auditing, and finance. In addition to his role as lead trainer in the preparation of these young professionals for international examinations, he is also a major contributor to the materials used by internationally recognized professional educational institutions that offer review courses internationally. He has worked in the field of professional education for over thirty years.
Dr. Kattan can be reached at fkattan@bethlehem.edu. For more information, visit www.kattantraining.ps.