Hanine Salem, Ph.D.
Dr. Hanine Salem is a Managing Partner at NOVUS International Consultants where she currently heads both the K-12 Education and the Organizational Performance & Effectiveness Practices. Dr. Salem brings more than 20 years of senior international working and consulting experience in education policy and organizational development. She led several large-scale strategy development and implementation engagements, educational and human capital development initiatives as well as governmental transformation programs. Her interest is concerned with improving leadership’ decision making process through rigorous policy analysis combined with results-oriented public management methods such as strategic planning, organizational performance measurement, and program evaluation.
Nafez Alyan, Ph.D.
Dr. Nafez Alyan is a Managing Partner at NOVUS International Consultants where he heads the Higher Education practice. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Oklahoma, with specializations in Finance, Labor Economics and Econometrics. As the former CFO of the United Arab Emirates University, he has provided economic and financial advisory services to various higher education institutions and Ministries of Finance across the Middle East. Dr. Alyan has been a core leader in the implementation of the Education Reform in the Middle East and in GCC countries.
Kevin Wallis
Kevin Wallis is an internationally recognized expert in education who worked as a government advisor, project director, senior consultant and school inspector in the UK, US, Middle East and Asia. His work focuses on turning the rhetoric of ‘change management’, ‘educational reform’ and ‘educational transformation’ into tangible and practical outcomes for all stakeholders. Kevin’s work includes the development and implementation of policy and training for stakeholders at government, board, investor and school level on behalf of UK and Middle Eastern governments in education systems. Kevin also led the development of strategic partnerships between local governments and schools to deliver self-sustaining school improvement services and provide educational leadership for a major UK Government’s project.
Steven Cox
Stephen has worked at a senior/board level for 3 of the largest K-12 organizations in the Middle East region. He led and designed distinguished Education’s Professional Development programs that included International leadership, coaching, teacher training, Masters and Digital Technology programs drawing upon best practice internationally.
His areas of expertise include corporate and school leadership, education consultancy, school improvement and management, school start-up, IT digital strategy and innovation.
He also introduced and delivered self-evaluation and performance management frameworks into schools for effective school improvement and accreditation. Stephen has significant experience in business development, HR, marketing and the financial side of education and is commercially savvy.
Kevin is an Apple Distinguished Educator having led on many innovating technology initiatives which have led to sustainable change across the region and internationally.
Dr. Bahram Bekhradnia
Dr. Bahram Bekhradnia has worked in education policy for over 40 years as a senior civil servant, a director of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), and as the founding Director and now President of a higher education think tank. He established a body whose mission is to ensure that policy making for higher education is better informed by evidence. In this role he influenced the development and passage of the present and the previous UK Government’s reform proposals for Higher Education in England. He was in part responsible for creating the national body that funds higher education in England, with an eventual budget of £10 billion, and was subsequently at the heart of almost every major national policy development in higher education. Dr. Bekhradnia developed and implemented methods for funding, assessing the quality of and ranking teaching and research, and chaired the Performance Indicators Steering Group, which introduced comparative indicators of performance in UK higher education.
Reem Melnik, M.S.
Mrs. Melnik is the Managing Director of NOVUS International Consultants, and has years of experience working within various school systems in Middle East as a Special Needs educator, programmer and consultant. Mrs. Melnik received her Master’s degree in Human Relations from University of Oklahoma, with specializations in Human Interactions and Psychology. She is an expert on the development of Individualized Education Plans for children diagnosed with learning disabilities and behavior modification needs, and has pioneered several strategic academic plans for the Learning Support Department, which serves a number of schools in Lebanon.
