Reem Khamis Hamdan is an Assistant Professor of management and finance at University College of Bahrain. Dr. Reem was awarded her PhD from Brunel University London in 2020 in “board gender diversity and firm performance” and MBA degree from Ahlia University, Bahrain. She received Sharjah award for best PhD thesis in the Arab world and Al Owais award for the best research about United Arab Emirates. Dr. Reem research interest areas are “business gender studies”, “Strategy and entrepreneurship” and firm performance. She serves as guest editor in the Strategic marketing journal and has edited numerous books in springer. Allam Hamdan Allam Hamdan is a Full Professor, he is listed within the World’s top 2% scientists list by Stanford University, he is the Dean of College of Business and Finance at Ahlia University, Bahrain. Author of many publications (more than 300 papers, 250 listed in Scopus) in regional and international journals that discussed several accountings,financial and economic issues concerning the Arab world. In addition, he has interests in educational related issues in the Arab world universities like educational governance, investment in education and economic growth. Awarded the First Prize of Al-Owais Creative Award, UAE, 2019 and 2017; the Second Prize of Rashid bin Humaid Award for Culture and Science, UAE, 2016; the Third Prize of Arab Prize for the Social Sciences and Humanities, 2015, and the First Prize of "Durrat Watan", UAE, 2013. Achieved the highest (1st) scientific research citation among the Arab countries according to Arcif 2018-2022. Appointed an external panel member as part of Bahrain Quality Assurance Authority and National Qualifications Framework NQF as a validator, and appeal committee, General Directorate of NQF, Kingdom of Bahrain. Member of Steering Committee in International Arab Conference of Quality Assurance of Higher Education. Currently leading a mission driven process for International Accreditation for College of Business and Finance by Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). Bahaaeddin Alareeni is an Professor of Accounting and Auditing. He did his PhD’s thesis in Accounting and Auditing on the relative performance of auditors’ going concern opinions and statistical failure prediction models for listed companies in Jordan. His main research interests are in the areas of Auditing, Accounting, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Internal Audit, Financial Accounting, and financial analysis. He has practical experience in the Accounting profession for more than ten years in different organizations, e.g., banking, NGOs, government sector, and private institutions. He is currently working for the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey – Northern Cyprus Campus, which is one of the top 550 universities in the world based on the QS ranking 2018. Rim El- Khoury is an Associate Professor of Finance at the Adnan Kassar School of Business at Lebanese American University, Lebanon, with a Ph.D. in International Finance from Sogang University, South Korea. Prior to joining Lebanese American University, she taught at Hanyang University in South Korea and American University of Technology and served as the Finance Discipline Coordinator and the chair of the assessment of the learning at Notre Dame University in Lebanon. She is the recipient of several awards such as the Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award (2009), Grand winner for Korea Times Magazine Economic Contest (2007), and The Academic Excellence Award from the Korean Government (2006). She is also a reviewer for several prestigious academic journals, including the International Journal of Emerging Markets, Journal of Applied Accounting Research, and Journal of Financial Innovation, among others. She has guest edited special issues for journals such as Strategic Marketing, Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, and Development and Learning in Organizations. She edited books, and she published several peer-reviewed articles in top-ranked academic journals such as Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Borsa Istanbul Review, Small Business Economics.
