Youssef Ghafari

Born in Alma El-Chaab, Lebanon in 1952, Yousif B. Ghafari immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1970s and earned degrees in mathematics and computers and chemical engineering from Wayne State University. Later he went on to earn an additional degree in business administration from Michigan State University. After serving as Public Delegate Designate at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations for the 59th United Nations General Assembly, he was appointed by President Bush in 2005 to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. In 2008 he was appointed by President Bush as the U.S. Ambassador to Slovenia, a position that he held until 2009. He is the owner of Ghafari Associates, an architectural firm with offices in North and South America, the Middle East, and India, and is also one of the leading philanthropists in the Detroit area. Updated 2012