With a $1 billion budget, the private project is among the largest in Palestinian history. The city will cater to young professionals and families and will meet a crucial need for affordable housing. "We're a nation of younger people," said Masri, noting that 50 percent of the country's population is below 21. From a police department and fire station to a pedestrian-only town center that will bustle with retail and commercial enterprises to a performing arts center and cafés, Rawabi—a name that means "hills" in Arabic—represents the potential of prosperity for the nation.

When Masri first conceptualized the idea in 2007, he faced skepticism from his senior staff and partners. "I threw the idea on the table, and they said, ‘You must be out of your mind.'" When staff members reminded Masri of the countless obstacles the project would face, he was undeterred. "I said, ‘Let's go around the table and count them.'" The team counted a total of 102 challenges. Now two years into work on Rawabi, Masri and his team have overcome most of those obstacles.

"It's very hard for the private sector to establish a city anywhere in the world, let alone in a place like Palestine, where most of the West Bank is occupied by Israel," said Masri. "There are a lot of difficult issues, but there are so many people from across the world who came out to help." To date, the project has been featured by news organizations such as Time Magazine, New York Jewish Weekly, CNN, and Fox News.

	Courtesy of Bayti Real Estate
	Digital renderings of Rawabi, which will include a pedestrian-only town center, affordable housing for residents, and numerous spaces for retail and commercial enterprises. In eight years, the town is expected to be home to 40,000 residents.

	Courtesy of Bayti Real Estate

That a grand-scale project like Rawabi has come so far is no surprise. Masri has a long tradition of championing economic development in Palestine. A native Palestinian, Masri grew up in turbulent times; in 1978, he arrived in the U.S. After three semesters at Richard Bland College in Petersburg, Va., Masri set his sights on Virginia Tech because of the school's strong program in his intended field. Like many potential students, he was even more impressed with the university once he visited Blacksburg. "It's easy to fall in love with Virginia Tech once you visit the campus."

To those who knew him at Tech, Masri's potential was already evident. "Although Bashar is strong technically, his true strength—and I believe his true love—lies in his people skills," said Joel Walukas (chemical engineering '83), a classmate and longtime friend of Masri's. "Bashar was active in clubs and political organizations on campus and often played the role of organizer. He was always ‘in the know' as to what was going on."

After graduating, Masri landed a job with a Saudi Arabian company; management training in London preceded his work on new industrial projects in Saudi Arabia. In 1986, after a short stint overseeing production at a Saudi factory, Masri joined LMRC, a management consulting and lobbying firm in Washington, D.C. Though Masri started in a position focused on water and wastewater associations, he left in late 1993 as the company's vice president. The Oslo agreement had been signed, and Masri had decided to return to his roots. "I felt it was time to come back and start building the Palestinian foundation," he said. Today, Masri not only serves as general director and chairman of the board for Massar International, a company with 15 subsidiaries, including Bayti Real Estate, but he also runs a charitable organization that provides financial aid and Massar internships to promising young Palestinians.

Masri also sponsors a number of business-development efforts. He founded an organization that offers seed funds of up to $30,000 to budding entrepreneurs and offers training in how to run a small business. Additionally, he helped establish Palestine's first private equity fund. Founded this year, Siraj—which means "oil lamp," symbolic of its focus on technology—has already raised $63 million, and Masri expects the fund to top $80 million in October, including plenty of capital from foreign investors. "To someone in the U.S., these figures may look small," said Masri, "but for Palestine, these are huge figures." Led by a management team that includes a number of Palestinian-Americans, the fund is already making its first investments.

He said his Hokie roots have had a lasting impact on his approach to business. "After I graduated, I realized how much my education meant. As an engineer, you don't have to reinvent the wheel. You could use best practices and implement them. I've learned a way of thinking, a process of thinking that was very important." The Virginia Tech experience, particularly as a member of Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, also taught him leadership and service, he said.

Now Masri is mixing together his passions, his skills, and his resources, providing opportunities for others and thinking on a grander scale.

"Anyone who knew Bashar [as a student] would remember him as a passionate and tireless advocate for the rights of the Palestinian people," Walukas said. "So it does not surprise me at all that Bashar would be pouring those same energies into creating the Rawabi community."

	Fall 2011
	ALUMNUS PROFILE
	UPDATE Palestine's Billion-Dollar City Can Finally Open Newsweek, 2/27/2015

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