Ghassan M. Saab currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Sorensen Gross Company, the leading full line construction services organization in Flint, Michigan, specializing in industrial, commercial and institutional projects.  Mr. Saab joined Sorensen Gross in 1966 as a field engineer advancing successively to General Manager, becoming Owner and President in 1971.  Under his leadership, Sorensen Gross and his other companies have managed over two billion dollars of construction work in Michigan, throughout the United States and overseas.

In 2003, Mr. Saab, with some friends and business associates, formed the Uptown Development Group to rejuvenate and rebuild the neglected downtown area of Flint, Michigan. While much remains to be done, the progress and redevelopment in the Flint center city have been nothing short of remarkable.

Ghassan’s contributions locally, nationally, and internationally include Past Chair and Emeritus Board Member of the Flint Institute of Music; Junior Achievement (President and Chairman); The Michigan Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America, (President and Board member); and the Rotary Club of Flint. He is past Chairman and Board member of the American Druze Foundation.  Past Trustee and Past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Lebanese American University. A Board Member of the American Arab Heritage Council, Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Hundred Club of Flint, McLaren Regional Medical Center, served on the Citizens Advisory Committee of the University of Michigan-Flint and the Board of Governors of the Arab American Institute in Washington, DC.  He is a founding member of the Board of Teach for Lebanon – USA.

Ghassan has received many awards, too numerous to list here; as an example we mention the Michigan Arab American and Chaldean Council “2012 Entrepreneur of the Year Award” and the 2011 Ray R. Irani “Pride of Heritage Award” presented by the House of Lebanon of the Lebanese American Foundation.  In 2015 he received the Lebanese American Heritage Club Award for Excellence and Great Achievements.  Ghassan was also the 2004 recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the American University of Beirut Faculty of Engineering and Architecture.

Manal Saab is Chief Executive Officer of SGCS in Flint, Michigan. Mrs. Saab joined SGCS after spending 17 years in healthcare at the MetroHealth System in Cleveland, Ohio, as the Director of Government Affairs and Community Relations overseeing local, state, and national healthcare legislation for one of the nation’s largest and most successful publicly owned hospitals at the time.

Active in industry leadership as well as philanthropy on the local, national, and international levels: Appointed by Michigan’s Governor as Chair of the Commission on Middle Eastern American Affairs for the State of Michigan. She is serving as Vice Chair of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint Board of Trustees; past Chair of the National Advisory Board for the Arab American National Museum; past Chair of the American Druze Foundation Board of Trustees.  She is an Emeritus member of the Board of Governors of ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital recognized as the top medical charity in the U.S.A. and a Trustee and co-founder of TAKREEM USA, and cofounder of Lebanon Relief Project responsible for shipping $50 Million worth of medicines and medical supplies to Lebanon in the aftermath of the August ’22 Beirut Port Explosion.

Ghassan and Manal Saab are founding members of the national professional advisory board of the Center for Arab American Philanthropy (CAAP).  Both are members of Board of the American Task Force on Lebanon (ATFL).  They are the first Flint-area residents to receive the 2010 Russell G. Mawby Award for Philanthropy, the highest award recognizing philanthropy in the State of Michigan.  Both recipients of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Rotary International Crystal Award in 2015 the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award by ACCESS, and the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award by TAKREEM America, the American Task Force on Lebanon is grateful to have the opportunity to bestow the 2023 Issam M. Fares Award to Manal and Ghassan and considers them to be invaluable members of the Arab American and Lebanese American communities, as they have each contributed a lifetime of exceptional achievement and leadership.