Mr. Ahmed Yanouri, Ph.D., is a businessman in the hospitality sector. Married for 17 years to Lourdes, with whom he had 3 children, Lamia, Omar and Yahya, he is also a community volunteer and has a passion for humanity.

Mr. Ahmed Yanouri was born in Berkane, Morocco , where he grew up and received his early education.  He then moved to Rabat where he got his bachelor’s degree from Mohamed V University, in 1983. Soon after that, he moved to the USA to pursue his graduate studies.  In 1990, he graduated with a PhD in Molecular Biology from UNT & TWU in Denton, Texas. Immediately after graduation, he worked as a Post Doctoral fellow at SMU in Dallas, Texas. His research concentrated on the study of Penicillin Binding proteins in the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. The results of the research were published in the journal of Bacteriology and were presented in multiple conferences in both the US and internationally.

In 1993, Mr. Yanouri moved to the private sector and took the position of Associate Director of Molecular Biology Research at Biosynthesis Inc., a leading Biotechnology company specializing in genetic engineering.  Two years later, he went to become an entrepreneur, as he ventured into the business world and started his first company: YAGA Medical CO., specializing in consulting, marketing, and sales of medical and scientific research equipment. In 1998, this company branched into other business sectors that are not related at all to the medical field, including owning hotels, supermarkets and restaurants. 

Mr. Yanouri owns a 136 room Hampton Inn in Grand Prairie, TX and 103 rooms Hampton Inn & Suites near the Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington, TX. He also takes pride in owning the Kasbah Grill, a restaurant that brought to North Texas authentic Moroccan cuisine and was recognised by the Dallas Observer as the best Middle Eastern restaurant in the Dallas area two years in a row (2006 & 2007). 

Despite his busy schedule, throughout his professional career  and during his school years, Mr. Yanouri always gave a lot of his time to volunteer work. He was an activist in high school and college and was involved with many civic associations that helped the community as a whole. Mr. Yanouri continued this trend while in the graduate school in the US. He was very active in the international student community and was elected president of the International Student Association in 1986 & 1987. He was a board member of Global Interact which is an organization that matches foreign students with American host families to help them understand each other’s cultures, and allow foreign students to have a second family away from their family back home. 

One of Mr. Yanouri’s great achievements was in 2005, when he mobilized the Moroccan community in North Texas to kick off the start of the first Moroccan association in the area, and co-founded AMANT (American Moroccan Association of North Texas). He is a former president of AMANT, and takes pride in the achievements of the association in helping the community at the local level to get organized and help each other in many different ways... He is one of the co-founders and a board member of MAC (American Moroccan Coalition) and was the Co-Chairman of the 2009 MAC convention in Washington DC.

Mr. Yanouri was among the few Muslim leaders to be invited by President George Bush to the Iftar dinner at the White House in September 2008. He was also a guest of the State Department to President Obama’s inauguration ceremony in January 2009 and a guest of President and Mrs. Obama to a reception at the White House in July of 2009.

In May 2009, Mr. Yanouri won the DFW International Community Alliance award of  “African Businessman of the year” for North Texas. 

Mr. Yanouri was one of the representatives of  the Moroccan American community who participated in the celebrations of the 10^th anniversary of King Mohamed VI access to the throne of  the Kingdom of Morocco (July 2009) .

In 2009 Mr. Yanouri became a board member of DFW World Affairs Council and was the 2010 WorldFest board coordinator. He played a major role in bringing the “Moroccan Village” to Addison and making WorldFest, the reputable international festival a great success in the 2010 and 2011 editions.

In May of 2012, in collaboration with World Affairs Council, Mr. Yanouri organized a one day workshop “Portrait of Morocco” for 50 North Texas educators to learn about different aspects of life in Morocco. A group of these North Texas teachers have been selected to participate in a two weeks study tour of Morocco this summer. They will explore the cultural dimensions of Morocco through educational workshops, travel and community events. This program will support curriculum development that emphasizes 21st century skills and promote collaboration between American and Moroccan educators.         

Throughout his 29 years in North Texas, Mr. Yanouri has been involved with many other organizations. To list just a few of them:

American Society for Microbiology

American Association for the Advancement of Science

National Federation of Independent Business

The Leadership Trust

DFW International Community Alliance

Islamic Society of North America

Muslim Public Affairs Council

World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth

SMU Tower Center for Political Studies

FBI Citizen Academy

The Freedom and Justice Foundation