Mr. Ahmed Yanouri, Ph.D., is a businessman in the
hospitality sector. Married for 17 years to Lourdes, with whom he had 3
children, Lamia, Omar and Yahya, he is also a community volunteer and has a passion
for humanity.
Mr. Ahmed Yanouri was born in Berkane, Morocco , where
he grew up and received his early education.
He then moved to Rabat where he got his bachelor’s degree from Mohamed V
University, in 1983. Soon after that, he moved to the USA to pursue his
graduate studies. In 1990, he graduated
with a PhD in Molecular Biology from UNT & TWU in Denton, Texas.
Immediately after graduation, he worked as a Post Doctoral fellow at SMU in
Dallas, Texas. His research concentrated on the study of Penicillin Binding
proteins in the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. The results of the research were published
in the journal of Bacteriology and were presented in multiple conferences in
both the US and internationally.
In 1993, Mr. Yanouri moved to the private
sector and took the position of Associate Director of Molecular Biology
Research at Biosynthesis Inc., a leading Biotechnology company specializing in
genetic engineering. Two years later, he
went to become an entrepreneur, as he ventured into the business world and
started his first company: YAGA Medical CO., specializing in consulting,
marketing, and sales of medical and scientific research equipment. In 1998,
this company branched into other business sectors that are not related at all
to the medical field, including owning hotels, supermarkets and
restaurants.
Mr. Yanouri owns a 136 room Hampton Inn in
Grand Prairie, TX and 103 rooms Hampton Inn & Suites near the Dallas Cowboys
stadium in Arlington, TX. He also takes pride in owning the Kasbah Grill, a
restaurant that brought to North Texas
authentic Moroccan cuisine and was recognised by the Dallas Observer as the
best Middle Eastern restaurant in the Dallas
area two years in a row (2006 & 2007).
Despite his busy schedule, throughout his
professional career and during his
school years, Mr. Yanouri always gave a lot of his time to volunteer work. He
was an activist in high school and college and was involved with many civic
associations that helped the community as a whole. Mr. Yanouri continued
this trend while in the graduate school in the US. He was very active in the
international student community and was elected president of the
International Student Association in 1986 & 1987. He was a board member of
Global Interact which is an organization that matches foreign students with
American host families to help them understand each other’s cultures, and allow
foreign students to have a second family away from their family back
home.
One of Mr. Yanouri’s great achievements
was in 2005, when he mobilized the Moroccan community in North Texas to kick
off the start of the first Moroccan association in the area, and co-founded
AMANT (American Moroccan Association of North Texas). He is a former president
of AMANT, and takes pride in the achievements of the association in helping the
community at the local level to get organized and help each other in many
different ways... He is one of the co-founders and a board member of MAC
(American Moroccan Coalition) and was the Co-Chairman of the 2009 MAC
convention in Washington DC.
Mr. Yanouri was among the few Muslim
leaders to be invited by President George Bush to the Iftar dinner at the White
House in September 2008. He was also a guest of the State Department to
President Obama’s inauguration ceremony in January 2009 and a guest of
President and Mrs. Obama to a reception at the White House in July of 2009.
In May 2009, Mr. Yanouri won the DFW
International Community Alliance award of
“African Businessman of the year” for North Texas.
Mr. Yanouri was one of the representatives
of the Moroccan American community who
participated in the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of King
Mohamed VI access to the throne of the
Kingdom of Morocco (July 2009) .
In 2009 Mr. Yanouri became a board member
of DFW World Affairs Council and was the 2010 WorldFest board coordinator. He
played a major role in bringing the “Moroccan Village” to Addison and making
WorldFest, the reputable international festival a great success in the 2010 and
2011 editions.
In May of 2012, in collaboration with
World Affairs Council, Mr. Yanouri organized a one day workshop “Portrait of
Morocco” for 50 North Texas educators to learn about different aspects of life
in Morocco. A group of these North Texas teachers have been selected to
participate in a two weeks study tour of Morocco this summer. They will explore
the cultural dimensions of Morocco through educational workshops, travel and
community events. This program will support curriculum development that
emphasizes 21st century skills and promote collaboration between American and
Moroccan educators.
Throughout his 29 years in North Texas,
Mr. Yanouri has been involved with many other organizations. To list just a few
of them:
American Society for Microbiology
American Association for the
Advancement of Science
National Federation of Independent
Business
The Leadership Trust
DFW International Community Alliance
Islamic Society of North America
Muslim Public Affairs Council
World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth
SMU Tower Center for Political Studies
FBI Citizen Academy
The Freedom and Justice Foundation
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