The LAHC is proud to announce that the 2015 Excellence and Great Achievements Award will be bestowed upon Mr. Ghassan Saab, Chief Executive Officer of Sorensen Gross Construction Services.This honor will take place during The LAHC 27th Annual Awards Gala scheduled for Friday May 8th, 2015 at the Adoba Hotel-Dearborn.

Ghassan M. Saab currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Sorensen Gross Construction Services, the largest 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 one billion dollars of construction work in Michigan, throughout the United States and overseas. He is also President of SGT, Ltd. I, a real estate development firm in Flint, Michigan and Serves as Treasurer of WGS Global Services in Flint, a manufacturing services company that he co-founded in 2008.

In 2003, Mr. Saab formed the Uptown Development Group with some of his friends and business associates to rejuvenate and rebuild the neglected and deteriorated downtown area of Flint, Michigan. While much remains to be done, the Kiplinger Letter considered this effort and its accomplishments, a major factor in naming Flint one of the top ten comeback cities in the U.S. for the year 2011.

In 2014, Ghassan was the recipient of the Arthur Hurand community service award in Genesee County; in 2012, he received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, an award presented by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations to Americans who exemplify outstanding qualities in both their personal and professional lives, while continuing to preserve the richness of their heritage.  Ghassan was only the fifth person named to the honorary title of Emeritus Trustee of the Flint Institute of Music since its inception in 1922. He is the recipient of the 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. He and his wife Manal were the recipients of the prestigious Russel G. Mawby Award for Philanthropy for the State of Michigan in 2010. He was the recipient of the “Man of the Year” award by the American Druze Society in 2002 and was also awarded The Americanism Medal by the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1991. In 1978, he was the recipient of the Civic Leader of the Year award from the American Syrian Lebanese Clubs of America.

Ghassan’s involvements locally, nationally and internationally include: Past Chair and Board Member of the Flint Institute of Music, Junior Achievement (President and Chairman), The Associated General Contractors of America, Michigan Chapter (President and Board member), and the Rotary Club of Flint. He is past Chairman and Board member of the American Druze Foundation, an organization started in 1989 focused on preserving the Druze heritage in the United States, particularly amongst the younger American born Druze.  He is also past Trustee and Past Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Lebanese American University. He is a Board Member of the American Arab Heritage Council in Flint, Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Hundred Club of Flint and McLaren Regional Medical Center.  He is the founding member of the Board of Teach For Lebanon – USA, and a Board member of the American Task Force for Lebanon. Along with his wife Manal, they are founding members of the national professional advisory board of the Center for Arab American Philanthropy (CAAP) – the only national Arab American philanthropy program in the country, strengthening Arab American giving by establishing charitable legacies through education, grant making and endowment building.

Ghassan was born in Choueifat, Lebanon on November 22, 1944, the eldest of four children to Mahmoud and Najla Saab.  In 1966, he graduated from the American University of Beirut with a degree in Civil Engineering.  He is also a graduate of the National College of Choueifat in Lebanon where he obtained the Lebanese Baccalaureates I and II.

Wassim Mahfouz-LAHC