"Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world”
- Nelson Mandela -
Team >TFL US
TFL-US is a 501(c)(3) Public Charity (click here to see IRS exemption letter) established in 2010 and incorporated in New York state. The TFL-US EIN is 27- 2370827. Contributions are fully tax-deductible if the donor is taxable in the USA.
TFL-US carries out fundraising activities in the United States to support the work of Teach for Lebanon (TFL), which is a non-governmental organization registered through the Lebanese Ministry of Interior, Attestation number 1518, as of November 5, 2008.
TFL-US has a Board of Directors presently consisting of eight people: Remi Geahel, Guitta Barghash, Charbel Tagher, Amal Moussa, Ziad Azar, Diane Kaldany, Ghassan Saab and Eva Farha. The organization’s plan is to expand its membership in the near future to include members from many cities across the USA.
Mr. Charbel Tagher
TFL-US Board of Trustees President
Dr. Amal Moussa
Board Member
Dr. Ziad Raymond Azar
Board Member
Mrs. Guitta Barghash
Board Member
Mr. Remi Geahel
Board Member
Mrs. Diane Kaldany
Board Member
Mr. Ghassan M. Saab
Board Member
Annie Gergi
Executive Director
Anny Moufarrej
Development Manager
Mrs. Eva Farha
Board Member
Charbel Tagher is the president of Specified Technologies Inc (STI), a firestopping manufacturer he co-founded in 1990 (www.stifirestop.com). STI sells US made products in 50+ countries and has personnel in China, SE Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Latin America, in addition to a significant presence in North America. It is known for its advanced technology, innovative solutions, extensive range of tested systems, and outstanding support. Charbel is also deeply involved with numerous industry associations representing manufacturers, contractors, as well as code bodies.
In addition, he is dedicated to helping the less fortunate, principally through improved education. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Teach For Lebanon (a member of the Teach For All organization which includes Teach For America), and co-founded TFL-US which raises a high proportion of the funds needed to support TFL.
Charbel is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Touch Foundation which trains doctors and nurses in Tanzania and helps build hospitals (www.touchfoundation.org).
Charbel studied at the Jesuits in Egypt and Lebanon, earned a BBA from the American University of Beirut , followed by an MBA from the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania in 1976. He then spent 8 years with McKinsey and Company, the management consultancy, working on assignments in Europe, the Middle-East, North Africa and the United States. Subsequently, Charbel became a Vice president of Thomas and Betts, a manufacturer of electrical and electronic components, where he ran a division for three years. Prior to co-founding STI, he spent two years with an investment group.
Charbel has been married to Aida since 1984 and they lived in NYC until 2014, when they became residents of Miami. They have two adult children, Nicholas and Natalie.
Charbel is a U.S. citizen of Lebanese descent. He enjoys reading, gardening, playing golf, and traveling. Charbel and Aida love being with friends and family and sharing good times and good laughs, especially when it’s around delicious food and wonderful wines.
In addition, he is dedicated to helping the less fortunate, principally through improved education. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Teach For Lebanon (a member of the Teach For All organization which includes Teach For America), and co-founded TFL-US which raises a high proportion of the funds needed to support TFL.
Charbel is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Touch Foundation which trains doctors and nurses in Tanzania and helps build hospitals (www.touchfoundation.org).
Charbel studied at the Jesuits in Egypt and Lebanon, earned a BBA from the American University of Beirut , followed by an MBA from the Wharton School of Business of the University of Pennsylvania in 1976. He then spent 8 years with McKinsey and Company, the management consultancy, working on assignments in Europe, the Middle-East, North Africa and the United States. Subsequently, Charbel became a Vice president of Thomas and Betts, a manufacturer of electrical and electronic components, where he ran a division for three years. Prior to co-founding STI, he spent two years with an investment group.
Charbel has been married to Aida since 1984 and they lived in NYC until 2014, when they became residents of Miami. They have two adult children, Nicholas and Natalie.
Charbel is a U.S. citizen of Lebanese descent. He enjoys reading, gardening, playing golf, and traveling. Charbel and Aida love being with friends and family and sharing good times and good laughs, especially when it’s around delicious food and wonderful wines.
Dr. Amal Moussa is a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs where she leads the Single Stocks Exotic Derivatives Trading desk.
Prior to that, Amal held senior level positions in equity derivatives trading at other leading financial institutions such as J.P. Morgan, UBS, and Citigroup.
In addition to her work in Markets, Amal is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University where she teaches a graduate course on Modeling and Trading Derivatives in the Mathematics of Finance Masters program.
Amal has a Ph.D. in Statistics, obtained with distinction, from Columbia University. Her thesis “Contagion and Systemic Risk in Financial Networks” shed light on the importance of the network structure in identifying systemic financial institutions and formulating regulatory policies and has been cited by several scholars and industry professionals including former Federal Reserve president Janet Yellen. She was also awarded the Minghui Yu Teaching Award at Columbia University.
Prior to her Ph.D., Amal graduated with a Masters in Mathematical Finance from Sorbonne University (former Paris VI) and a Grande Ecole engineering degree from Télécom Paris.
Amal is a board member of Teach for Lebanon, an NGO working to ensure that all children in Lebanon have access to education regardless of socioeconomic background, and she is an active member of the Women in Trading network at Goldman Sachs.
Dr. Ziad Raymond Azar is partner at White & Case LLP in New York. Dr. Azar's practice focuses on corporate and financial transactions in the United States and internationally. His expertise involves the tender, development, financing, acquisition, and divestiture of energy, infrastructure, and natural resource projects. Prior to joining White & Case, Dr. Azar was a consultant with the World Bank Group in Washington DC, and taught law and economics at Harvard University. Dr. Azar’s holds a doctorate degree in law from Harvard Law School, master’s degrees in law and economics from the University of Paris, Georgetown University and New York University, and bachelor degrees in law and economics from Université Saint-Joseph and the American University of Beirut.
Guitta was born in Tripoli, Lebanon and graduated from the American University of Beirut in 1979 with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Public Administration. She began working with the International Red Cross during the Lebanese Civil War as well as with the Lebanese Red Cross based in southern Lebanon,
She is an active volunteer at Somerset Medical Center in Bridgewater, New Jersey, where she advocates and represents patients and families. In addition, she has been instrumental in organizing fundraising efforts for the Concussion Center at Overlook Hospital in Summit, New Jersey.
She began to volunteer for Teach
For Lebanon as of 2015, introducing TFL to various new donors,prospects and
other stakeholders, including the Salaam Club in Brooklyn.She currently works
as an accountant at Millenium Marine Corporation in New Jersey and has lived in
the United States since 1981 with her husband, Hani Barghash, and their three
children.
Remi Geahel, Partner at
Cooper-CitiWest, has over 30 years of executive experience in real estate asset
management, development and redevelopment. Since 2005, Geahel has provided a
wide-range of consulting services to REO asset management and marketing
companies including designing, implementing and maintaining web based and EDI
capable REO Asset Management and Marketing Solutions (including workflow
processing and electronic bidding systems). From 1991 to 2005, Geahel’s firm --
CitiWest -- successfully provided REO marketing and management services to the
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development under 16 separate
contracts in more than 20 states around the country with sales totaling over
$2.4 billion.
Diane Kaldany is a professional fundraiser and event planner with a diversified professional background. Her role as Development Director for TFL-US, Inc. over past 7 years, is shifting to board member. Diane will continue to advocate for Teach For Lebanon, NGO and partner of Teach For All, the global network that provides quality educational opportunities to less fortunate children worldwide.
Born in Egypt of Syrian roots with family in Lebanon, she immigrated to the US with her family. After graduating from Fordham University with a B.A. in philosophy, she worked in the real estate industry in sales, leasing and management of residential properties, later in international private banking at HSBC-US and at the Guardian Life insurance as a licensed securities broker.
Having an entrepreneurial spirit, Diane assists small to medium sized businesses with their financial and real estate needs as a NY licensed real estate broker.
Diane lives in New York and has one adult son, is fluent in French, proficient in Italian and Spanish and Arabic. She’s a passionate promoter of entrepreneurship, the arts, children and human rights, serving as a board member of a professional networking group hosted by M&T Bank, advisor to the FJK dance company, as well as Treasurer of the St. Bart’s Episcopal Peace Fellowship.
In 2003, Mr. Saab formed the Uptown Development Group with some of his friends and business associates to rejuvenate and rebuild the neglected and deteriorated downtown area of Flint, Michigan. Ghassan contributes time and resources to numerous charities and civic organizations in his local community, on the national level in the US, and internationally. He is the recipient of many awards and honors including the prestigious Ellis Island Medal of Honor. Ghassan was born in Choueifat, Lebanon on November 22, 1944, the eldest of four children to Mahmoud and Najla Saab. In 1966, he graduated from the American University of Beirut with a degree in Civil Engineering. He is also a graduate of the National College of Choueifat in Lebanon where he obtained the Lebanese Baccalaureates I and II.
A naturalized American citizen, he
and his wife Manal and family reside in Fenton, Michigan, USA.
Annie Gergi joined Teach for Lebanon – US (TFL-US) as Executive Director in November 2022 and is based in NYC. Her role is to help spread the word about the great work that Teach For Lebanon is doing, create chapters of fans around the US, and raise funding to significantly increase the number of TFL Fellows in schools and ultimately impact many more students.
Annie has made education a top priority throughout her life, stemming from the values imparted to her by her parents. As a Lebanese-American, she has always been curious about the history and politics in the Middle East, as well as the profound and lasting impact of US foreign policy in the region. To further this understanding, Annie completed her bachelor’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Manchester and a master’s degree in Gender Studies and Law at SOAS, the University of London.
Annie has held a diverse range of positions; she worked on Sustainable Development Goal 16 at the United Nations Development Program; developed domestic housing policy in the US; and led the development efforts for a nonprofit called Schools That Can – an organization that provides career readiness skills to high school students across the US. However, it was her decision to join the Teach For All family as a Teach For America Corps member that cemented her desire to work in education.
She also worked as a high school English teacher in an under-resourced school in Miami for two years as part of the Teach For America program. Although the experience was trying and not without challenges, working with her students and teacher colleagues inspired her as she saw firsthand the impact dedicated teacher leaders could have on their students and communities.
In 2013, Anny joined TFL as a Fellow. She served as a Fellow for two years (Cohort 5, 2013–15), then started an MS in financial economics with scholarship provided by TFL and the university of Balamand. Around the same time, she joined TFL’s executive team as head of alumni, logistics coordinator, and finance officer. In 2019, she completed her MS and resigned from her duties at TFL to move to California with her husband but remained a proud alumna and advocate for TFL and children’s education. When Anny saw an opportunity to give back to TFL once more, she joined TFL-US as development manager. Anny’s responsibilities include setting development goals and strategies, creating and managing fundraising campaigns, developing prospect portfolios, donor engagement, and more.