Sahel Al Hiyari is the principal architect at Sahel Al Hiyari and Partners and Griffin Design. He holds Bachelor degrees in Architecture and Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He carried out Post-graduate work at the School of Architecture (IUAV) at the University of Venice, where he also taught from 1993 – 1995. He is a painter and has exhibited in Jordan Lebanon and Italy. In 2002 He was chosen as the first architect to receive the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts initiative, according to which he has been a protégé of Alvaro Siza of Portugal. He has served as a member of the master jury for the Aga Khan award for architecture in 2007. He has lectured at the Jordan University of Science and Technology in Jordan, Columbia University and Harvard University in the United States of America. His work has been published nationally and internationally in various publications.