Newsmaker: Mahmoud JIbril Speaks in Alumni Hall

At right, Pitt alumnus Mahmoud Jibril (A&S ’80G, ’85G)—president of Libya’s National Forces Alliance and a former Libyan prime minister who played a key role in the country’s 2011 revolution—addressed a luncheon audience of about 200 invited guests in the Connolly Ballroom of Pitt’s Alumni Hall on Oct. 31. In his lecture, Jibril called the Arab Spring unprecedented in the Middle East and “misunderstood by both dictators and foreign friends.” Jibril said Libya’s new young leaders can transform the nation, rich in natural resources, into a hub for renewable energy technologies, education, and health care. “The name of the game is inclusion,” he said. “Libya must be an equal partner in the international dialogue.” Following the lecture and a question-and-answer session with Pitt students, Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg presented Jibril with a wooden plaque bearing a handcrafted metallic scroll with an image of the Cathedral of Learning as well as a medallion that was struck to commemorate the University’s 225th anniversary, inscribed with Jibril’s name. 

(Photo by Mike Drazdzinski/CIDDE)