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American University of Beirut – Mediterraneo: Master of Science in Engineering Management

The MS in engineering manage​ment (MEM) program offers students with a background in engineering and related fields training in management and decision making that leverages their strong quantitative backgrounds. “This is invaluable in an age of data-driven and evidence-based management,” says American University of Beirut Professor Bacel Maddah. “Graduates of this program can advance quickly in their jobs in engineering firms and climb the management ladder – and that’s what they do. They excel in fast-track management roles in engineering firms and as successful career-shifters.”

Michel Matta (MEM ’22) is one of those graduates. He found the courses he took on financial engineering, probability and decision analysis, renewable energy, and strategic management of technology while enrolled in the MEM program especially valuable for his work. “Those courses helped prepare me to make informed decisions based on probability analysis, doing a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis to understand the internal and external factors that can affect your business, and assessing the health of a company by analyzing its financial statements, all skills that are very useful in my new commercial management role.”

Amir El Moghrabi, who is currently enrolled in the MEM program at the American University of Beirut in Beirut, Lebanon, appreciates the fact that the program offers him the opportunity to develop critical management skills as well as analytical, scientific, and engineering abilities. “Such abilities are essential to be successful in today's sophisticated technology surroundings,” he says. He is also taking advantage of the opportunity to focus on a particular area – operations management – something he can do as part his specialization in financial and industrial engineering, one of two specializations that MEM students can select. (The other specialization that MEM students can select is project and program management.)

MEM student Tala Hamadi highlights the importance of the multidisciplinary nature of the MEM program. “The ever changing and complex world we live in today requires more ‘T- shaped thinkers’ and multidisciplinary efforts, which is at the very heart of the program.” Maddah agrees. “You have to be able to adjust quickly in today’s world. This program enables you to do that by providing a strong technical foundation and an understanding of the business environment, which enables graduates to shift their careers and land jobs in service-related fields such as management consulting, logistics, supply chain, management, finance, and e-commerce.”