Governance
Good governance is essential for any school, anywhere in the world. Our Principal is responsible for all academic decisions within the school for the benefit of the children, including the important drive toward school improvement. Our Principal, supported by the Senior Leadership Team, is accountable for the school’s overall performance and quality. They lead school evaluation, planning, monitoring and improvement through managing communication between all stakeholders including parents, students, staff and the wider community.
The School Governing Board is appointed with the prime responsibility for quality assurance, working closely with the Principal and the staff to ensure continuous improvement of the school both accurately and energetically.
The VIS Governing Board
Dr Abdulla Alawadhi
Dr Abdulla Alawadhi is an Assistant Professor in Public Finance at MBRSG. He holds a DBA degree in Business Administration from the UAE University, Two Master’s in Business Administration & Applied Finance from Newcastle University in Australia. He is a Financial Consultant with 25+ Years of practical experience in fields of: Finance, Accounts, Strategic Management and Business Development, in Government, Semi-Government and Private Sectors. Dr Abdulla holds many specialized recognized certificates as; a Certified Public Auditor, Tax Agent, Judicial Expert and Arbitrator. Dr Abdulla is the founder & CEO of U Figures Group (Consultancy, Chartered Accountants & Commercial Broker). Dr Abdulla is Professional Trainer & Financial Consultant specialized in Corporate Finance, Accounting, Taxation & Entrepreneurship. Dr Abdulla is a Board Member of Emirates Association for Management Consultants & Trainers, holding a position of Treasurer. Finally, Dr Abdulla is an active person in the official media and social media, his interest is to publish the Financial knowledge for public.
Dr Mahmoud AlBurai
Mahmoud AlBurai is currently serving as senior advisor in Dubai mandated to work on a plan to make Dubai more competitive. Mahmoud leads Middle East Cities Centre at the American University in Dubai working on research and development related to field of sustainability and competitiveness.He is also Chairman of UNDRR ARISE network in the UAE and Director of Middle East Cities Center at the American University in Dubai. Before this role Mahmoud has served as the CEO of Dubai Real estate Institute for 10 years in which the institute graduated 80,000 real estate professionals from the region. He was chosen in 2021 as one of 10 City Changers by the World Urban Campaign of the UN recognizing his role in lobbying stakeholders to advance SDGs and deal with climate change.
He is also the Vice President of International real estate federation, FIABCI Arabic Countries since 2016 , Chairman of FIABCI Emirates and sits on the board of International Real estate Federation, the world largest global real estate network of more than 1.5 million associate members. Before that he served on the board of International Real estate Society (IRES) for 5 years and the board of National Association of Realtors(NAR), 1.3 million member real estate network based in Chicago for the years 2019-2020.
He served as the Chairman of UN Global Compact UAE from 2015-2020 and represented MENA region in UN Global Compact advisory board for 2016-2018. In his role as UN Global Compact MENA representative led many SDG’s driven initiatives. He started youth ambassadors programs in seven UAE universities recruiting over 150 youth, train them to help businesses become more sustainable. He also led establishing Women empowerment principles platform in the UAE with 60 companies signing on WEPs commitment. To promote SDGs among business, Mahmoud launched SDGs pioneers UAE celebrating SDGs success stories of private and government organizations. Mahmoud has been selected to be FIABCI representative at the United Nations Economic Commission for West Asia (UNESCWA) and UNECE (Geneva).
Recently Mahmoud established his Think Tank in Geneva under the name of Middle East Sustainable Development Institute to lobby governments, businesses and communities to action on SDGs in the Middle East. His mail role is to lobby private sector in the region to be actively involved in SDGs, during his presidency, UAE local network became the fastest growing network internationally. Moreover, Mahmoud leads the affordable Housing working-group at World Economic Forum. Mahmoud also serves as an advisor-MENA region at Happy City Lab, headquartered in Canada which works on integrating happiness into urban design.
Prior to his position in Dubai Real estate Institute, Mahmoud worked as Senior Director of Real estate Sector development at Real estate Regulatory Authority of Dubai and few years as a Development Associate Manager at Dubai holding.
Mahmoud completed his bachelor’s degree in engineering at the American University before continuing on to earn his Master’s in Real Estate from National University of Singapore .Mahmoud completed his MBA in Finance from his alma mater, American University of Dubai in 2010 and Master of Cities at London School of Economics and Political Science(LSE) in 2019 and DBA at Grenoble ecole de management in France in 2020 .
Nick Lojevec
Nick has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Nick has worked in a variety of professional roles here in the UAE, most notably as part of the Smart City in Abu Dhabi, and also as a Business Development Director for an Irish company here in the UAE. Previously, Nick was a Professor in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. Nick is also a parent at VIS and his daughter is in G1.
Rabie Atie
Rabie Atieh and his wife are proudly the first founding parents in VIS to their 2 boys in grade 1 and pre-k. Rabie is an Emirati versatile and highly accomplished leader and a senior management professional with over 25 years of experience.
Currently serving as the Senior Vice President of Transguard Emirates and representative of the Emirates Group in its subsidiary company Transguard Group, Rabie played a major role in the strategic and innovative transformation of the Cash Management industry in the UAE for the banks and financial institutions under the umbrella of the UAE Central Bank.
In addition to his experience in regional and global secured logistics industry, Rabie is a well-seasoned professional within the Facilities Management, Manpower Supply, Fraud Prevention and Commercial Security Services industries across the UAE.
Rabie has a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and has previously worked for the National Bank of Dubai currently known as ENBD from 1996 to 2001 before joining the Emirates Group in 2001 till date.”
Stanley Sunny
Stanley Sunny is an entrepreneur, offices based in Dubai & India. Prior to this he worked with Organizations such has Axiom Telecom & Landmark Group in the areas of Customer service, Operations, Quality management system, Strategy & Leadership.
Stanley has done his bachelor’s degree In Electronics & Communication Engineering, University of Kerala, India and Senior Executive Leadership Program from Cornell Tech University USA. He also holds an MBA from University of Missouri, USA and MDP from Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India.
Balkis Abdelrida
I am Balkiss Badulrida, I am working as an Economic and Political Analyst. I have been working for more than 10 years in the field of Media.
Currently, I am preparing for my PHD in international law. I have a Master degree in law and international affairs, and two bachelors in political science and Economics.
Furthermore, I have a degree in life coaching. I am a parent at VIS school.
Thank you so much
Reem Shararah
I graduated from the American University of Sharjah in 2001 holding a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, concentrating in Management Information Systems and Marketing.
I have worked in various capacities in multiple international and local companies such as Commercial Bank of Dubai, Emaar, IQ selection, and HSBC where I received my International Diploma in Teaching and Training.
I then chose to focus on school settings and worked at my own school Dubai International school as an Academic Couselor first and proceeded to work as a Career Counselor for both branches.
I also started my Masters of Education with a focus on special education at The British University in Dubai. I stopped the program and working in 2012 to start my own family and now my 8 year old boy is a happy student at VIS.