As its global community of alumni continues to expand year after year, Qatar Foundation (QF) brings them together across different continents to learn, support, collaborate, and keep them connected to Qatar and the region.
When 65 of these alumni from Britain and across Europe gathered in London for the QF’s UK Alumni Forum 2026, it was an opportunity for them to share their stories and experiences, build and strengthen connections with each other, and their enduring ties to the QF and to Qatar.
Dr Ahmed ElGhamrawy’s story began 16 years ago, when he was among the Class of 2010 in the Electrical Engineering programme at Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) , a QF partner university.
“When I graduated, most of engineering graduates had the same goal: to work for an oil and gas operator,” he said. “And this was my case when I began my career at GE Oil & Gas at QF’s Qatar Science & Technology Park.”
However, for Dr ElGhamrawy, academic degrees should not be fixed tracks or predetermined paths; they are a set of skills, and a way of thinking that can take people anywhere
“I later moved into healthtech, first as a founder and then helping scale digital health companies across the UK,” he said. “Today I work in healthtech in London, as a commercial director at Abtrace, a path I could never have predicted back then.”
“When I moved to London to pursue my PhD at Imperial College London, the academic transition was manageable,” Dr ElGhamrawy said.
“However, the bigger challenge came later, when I left research to build a startup,” he continued. “Suddenly, I was navigating everything academia had never prepared me for: turning an idea into a product people would pay for, hiring and leading a team, managing cash flow, and raising funding from investors.”
The success stories of the QF’s ambitious alumni are constantly being written.
Hanna Moazam is only in her 20s, yet she’s already leading global initiatives and working for one of the world’s leading data and artificial intelligence (AI) companies, where she says: “I’m a strong believer in open source, because innovation should be accessible for everyone to build on.”
In 2020, Moazam walked through the “Door to the Future” at the QF’s annual convocation ceremony, having earned her Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), a QF partner university.
“My parents and the professors at CMU-Q encouraged me to choose Computer Science, knowing the opportunities it would open up for me,” she said.
Six years have passed, and Moazam’s path is now clear.
In London, she’s building cutting-edge AI solutions that help transform industries.
“My current focus is AI governance, helping organisations adopt Large Language Models safely and responsibly so the benefits of AI reach people without putting their data or trust at risk,” she said.
“Our alumni continue to make an impact through their skills and values, their capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship, and their sense of service and contribution,” said Dr Lolwa al-Naemi, director of Strategy and Partnership within the QF’s Higher Education division. “This impact is evident in Qatar and across the world, and our UK-based alumni personify this.”
“Seeing our alumni come together through this UK Alumni Forum is a reminder that the value of the Qatar Foundation experience extends far beyond graduating from the classrooms,” Asmaa Alkuwari, alumni engagement manager within the QF’s Higher Education division, said. “Since launching the UK Alumni Chapter in 2025, we have witnessed the power of alumni connections in creating opportunities.”
