The Innovation & Enterprise Support Directorate at Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS)

Dr. Lobna Okashah is a Program Manager at the Innovation & Enterprise Support Directorate at Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences. She earned her Ph.D in Industrial Engineering & Management Systems from University of Central Florida; her M.SC in Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University; her B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the Kuwait University.

Dr. Lobna is in charge of a program that co-funds projects aimed toward developing the private sector’s capacity in Science Technology and Innovation, and sponsoring technology transfer to the private sector.

Dr. Lobna worked as a consultant for a Canadian company (DCG), where she represented the company as the Engineering consultant of the company on various project in Canada and in countries in the Middle East. She provided the company with the technical guidance required to register the company in International Bodies such as the United Nations. She also played a pivotal role in making the company succeed in winning the First Place in Ontario Business Achievement Award.

She worked at Motorola, where she was hired as a Software Quality Assurance Manager, where she ensured that the software developed was based on the CMM model according to Software Engineering Institute (SEI). As she became a lead auditor in ISO 9001 and an internal audit system for Motorola known as QSR, she assumed higher responsibilities as a Quality System Manager at Motorola and other facilities in North America, Asia, and South America.

Her experience was not limited to the private sector, but extended to academia, where she was part of the faculty at the University of Miami in Florida in the Industrial Engineering department and taught undergraduate and graduate courses.

She also worked as a researcher, where she designed and developed an object-oriented simulation application air traffic control system that was funded by the US federal Aviation Administration.

Earlier in her career, she worked at Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research as an associate researcher, where she worked on projects related to the oil industry, and enhancement of construction material.