THE BRIDGE BUILDER AIDA ARAISSI CONNECTS US AND ARAB BUSINESS
By Jason Korfhage | Photography by Jenn Duncan
Founder and CEO of the Bilateral US-Arab Chamber of Commerce ( BUSACC ), AIDA
ARAISSI is a gravitational force of energy . The Chamber ’ s office shares that pulse : the rooms bathed in warm light from the floor to ceiling windows overlooking Buffalo Bayou Park , and a veritable cornucopia of awards lining the hallways , not in a boastful sense but of one bursting with pride . It takes only a few minutes of conversation with Araissi to get a sense of the breadth of her passion and see why she was voted by Amazons Magazine as one of the Leading Women to Watch in 2016 , and the first Arab-American woman to be recognized at the Women ’ s Chamber of Commerce as a Trail Blazer at their annual conference in April 2016 .
The daughter of Tunisian immigrants , Araissi founded the BUSACC in 1997 to promote trade , investment , training and educational exchanges . Under her impassioned leadership , BUSACC is now widely recognized as a cross-industry expert resource for advancing collaborative economic and educational solutions founded on the principles of mutual respect and understanding . Stakeholders include a who ’ s who of Fortune 100 companies , academic and policy influencers , economic development agencies and small business leaders . For the last two decades , Araissi has provided strategic planning , program management and full life-cycle advice on hundreds of multi-sector missions on behalf of public and private organizations . Her work with municipal economic development boards include strategically implementing business development missions on behalf of the City of Houston , City of Los Angeles , the State of Illinois and the State of Texas .
Immediately following the tragedy of 9 / 11 , BUSAAC ’ s work came to a disheartening standstill as they became the target of misguided threats . It was then that Araissi began to initiate conversations with then-MAYOR LEE BROWN of Houston about scheduling a visit to the Middle East , eventually spearheading the historic trade mission to Saudi Arabia , the United Arab Emirates and Qatar , with the Mayor and a multitude of constituents . It was from this visit that a variety of relationships were forged and ideas planted . Maybe most notably was the advent of critical airport agreements that created the first non-stop flight from the U . S . ( Houston ) to Dubai in 2006 , as Araissi believes that “ Ultimately it is commerce and commercial diplomacy that are going to bring people together ; force them to interact and then it will lend itself to bettering relations between nations .”
She serves on multiple civic and strategic boards including the U . S . Committee for the World Petroleum Congress , the Nature Conservancy and the Yellowstone Park Foundation . In 2008 she launched a nonprofit education foundation called Teachers Educating Across Cultures in Harmony ( TEACH ) which has taken hundreds of teachers from across 18 states throughout the U . S . to Arab regions to learn about the Arab world and bring their knowledge to the classroom to inspire global awareness and understanding in the next generation .
Through the forest of accomplishments , she still sees the opportunity to grow , to do more . Her journey isn ’ t over and that ’ s great news for Houston , and the world . Her inspiration and optimistic outlook is guided , in part , by the late Martin Luther King , Jr ., as he exclaimed , “ The arc of the moral universe is long , but it bends towards justice .”
Indeed . www . bilateralchamber . org
40 LOCAL | february 17