Elias Bou Saab was previously mayor of Dhour Shweir municipality in the Metn region of Mount Lebanon. He resigned in 2013 to present his candidacy for parliamentary elections. But the vote never took place. Citing political instability, the current Parliament is serving a second term after extending its own mandate till 2017. Bou Saab is close to the Free Patriotic Movement of General Michel Aoun, and has long family and political ties to the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Bou Saab holds a Master’s degree in international relations from Boston University. He also holds a degree in Marketing from the American College in London. Bou Saab was previously the Executive Vice President of the American University in Dubai, an acclaimed academic institution which he helped establish in the 1990s when he worked as a businessman in the United Arab Emirates.
