Ahmed Banya

Ahmed Banya is an accomplished operations manager skilled in the fiscal administration of universities, science, and research. Ahmed started his professional career with the public accounting firm McGladrey & Pullen/RSM US LLP in Charlotte, North Carolina and progressed through a number of auditing and accounting roles at the University of Georgia and AT&T in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Ahmed currently serves as a senior operations manager at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia, which has the second largest university endowment in the world. Ahmed is responsible for operational and workforce planning, budgeting and finance, and business intelligence and reporting. He provides oversight for a portfolio of operating and research budgets (combined $170M+), and provides regular executive reporting of sponsored research progress and performance across 60 research groups and 100+ unique projects in chemical science, energy geoscience, earth science, and more.

Ahmed previously served as the inaugural audit manager in the KAUST Internal Audit Department and oversaw the recruitment and training of audit professionals and the development of the department’s internal audit methodology.

Ahmed earned a Bachelor’s degree in accounting from Augustana College in Illinois, an MBA in managerial leadership from Piedmont College, and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licensed in the state of Georgia. He is a member of the 6th executive Ed.D. cohort in higher education management.