Manal Abdel Samad
Manal Abdel Samad Najd (; 28 March 1975) is a Lebanese politician who held the position of the Minister of Information in the Cabinet of the Prime Minister Hassan Diab in the year 2020. Education From the year 2004 until the year 2009, Manal Abdel Samad Najd studied fiscal laws at the American University of Beirut (AUB), from where she also received her MBA. Then, she pursued her studies to obtain her Ph.D from the Sorbonne University in France, Paris in 2014. Professional career In the year 1997, Manal Abdel Samad Najd began her service in the Lebanese Ministry of Finance, in which she was involved in the implementation of a Value-added Tax (VAT) in Lebanon. A few years later, she was promoted to the Head of the Department of Tax Legislation and Policy at the Directorate of VAT. Additionally, she was a lecturer at both the Saint Joseph University (USJ) and the American University of Beirut (AUB). Political career In January 2020, she became the Minister of Information, after being proposed by the Prime Minister Dr. Hassan Diab as an independent candidate. She was one of the six female ministers out of a total of 20 ministers in the