Directorate Staff
Prof. Kathryn Bindon
Programme Director
A Canadian who has worked in higher education in five provinces prior to moving to the GCC in 2005, Prof. Katy did her post-graduate studies as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. After joining the History Department of Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec she became Principal of the School of Community and Public Affairs, one of the university’s multi-disciplinary small Colleges. Kathryn attended Canada’s National Defence College as a civilian educator; in 1987 she was appointed Vice-President (Academic) at Mount St. Vincent University in Nova Scotia. She served as Principal of Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in Newfoundland between 1991 and 1996, after which she was appointed President of Okanagan University College, where she oversaw the completion of degree and post-graduate programming and the development of a research profile. Her career in Bahrain included appointments as Founding President of the Royal University for Women, Founding Director of the Bahrain Teachers College and Advisor to the President of the University of Bahrain.
Dr. Ammar Al-Ojaili
Associate Director
In 1996, Ammar graduated from Iowa State University in Construction Engineering. He obtained an MSc in Management and Implementation of Development Projects from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in 1999 and a PhD in Civil Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in 2007.
He joined the Higher College of Technology (HCT), where he worked until 2010 as an Assistant Lecturer in Engineering. From 2000 to 2004, he was instrumental in developing curricula for the Colleges of Technology in Oman. He was appointed as Head of Engineering at HCT in 2007, where he focused on improving departmental processes and quality assurance efforts. In 2010, he was promoted to Assistant Dean – Academic Affairs at Salalah College of Technology (SCT), where he served as Dean for the 2011/12 academic session. In September 2012, he joined the Takatuf Scholars Programme as Associate Director.
Hilal Al Mamari
Academic Head
Hilal Al Mamari oversees the Takatuf Scholars Programme’s approach to the selection and continued academic assessment of hundreds of young Omani scholarship candidates each year.
In addition to his role in placing select scholarship candidates in international academic programmes, Hilal assists in the development of Takatuf’s Summer Residential Programme curriculum and learning activities as well as the curriculum of the Independent Learning Phase..
Hilal’s experience in international education comes through previous roles as an Arabic and English instructor at various higher education institutions, Senior Supervisor for International Relations at University of Nizwa and Academic Director at SIT’s Study Abroad Programme in Oman.
Maryam Al Maskari
Administrative Officer
Maryam graduated from Sultan Qaboos University, Collage of Education with Bachelor degree in English Language Teaching in 2013. Her first introduction to the programme was in its second year, 2013, as a Resident Teaching Assistant. In March 2014 she joined the programme as a trainee and nine months later she was instilled on a full time basis as Administrative Officer in January 2015. She works as liaison between the programme and the scholars, guardians and the community. She provides a logistical support for all aspect of the programme.