Ramallah: Labor Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, LFPME, invited Eng. Khaled Sabawi, who is the General Manager of UCI and MENA Geothermal Company to give an address at the annual Labor Party Conference on the 23^rd of September at the Hilton Hotel in Brighton, England.

Eng. Khaled, who was named "One of the World’s Top Energy Entrepreneurs" by Global Post for 2010, was invited to speak at their panel discussion titled “Is the two state solution dead?” in the presence and participation of a wide selection of delegates and members of the British Parliament in addition to well-known political, intellectual, academic and economic figures around the world.

This conference aims to achieve the goals of LFPME, which is a voluntary group within the Labor movement that campaigns for peace and justice in Palestine and the Middle East through the implementation of international law and UN resolutions as well as respect for human rights. LFPME supports and complements the humanitarian efforts for Palestine by raising the key issues or the issues that are detrimental to realization of peace in the Middle East at the highest political levels in the UK and Europe. This to help raise awareness of the situation in Palestine by encouraging MPs to visit Palestine to witness the reality of the situation.

The annual Party Conference is considered to be a fantastic opportunity to reach out to thousands of Labour Party members and supporters of the Palestinian case. Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, who is a Palestinian activist and PLO Executive Committee Member,  participated in this conference last year. For this year, LFPME  is hosting the 29 years old Palestinian businessman Eng. Khaled Sabawi in order to introduce a new voice of the Palestinian youth  and an example to his fellow Palestinians. He will speak to the parliamentarians and guests about his experience as a social entrepreneur in Palestine, mentioning the  challenges and obstacles that faced and how the reality on the ground has rendered the two state solution a mere illusion.

In addition, on the 21^st of September, Eng. Khaled has been invited to give a speech about his own experiences as a social entrepreneur at the Professional Development Conference for Canadian Arab Youth that was organized by the Canadian Arab Institute at the University of Toronto in Canada. Khaled was invited as a source of inspiration and motivation for more than 300 young Arab Canadian participants in the presence of more than 30 Canadian Arab figures of the intellectual and professional Arab leaders.

Eng. Khaled was born in Kuwait in 1983. He is Palestinian holding the Canadian passport. He received his Bachelors of Applied Science, Honors in Computer Engineer degree from the University of Waterloo in Canada in 2006 and his certification in the design and installation of geothermal heating and cooling systems in early 2007. Eng. Khaled is certified as a Commercial Geothermal Designer in Canada and an Accredited Geothermal Installer in the US. He returned back to Palestine in order to serve his country. He is the founder and president of  MENA Geothermal Company. MENA Geothermal became a two-time winner of the Energy Globe Award (2009 and 2011), the world’s most prominent and prestigious environmental prize. He was also ranked as the most Influential Arab by Arabian Business Magazines in their Top 500 Most Influential Arabs ranking for 2012. Eng. Khaled innovated the installation of geothermal systems and patented the use of limestone powder, a natural by-product of Palestine’s limestone cutting industry, as a grout for filling geothermal boreholes. Such an innovation led to the increased efficiency of geothermal heating and cooling systems and significantly lowered their installation costs.

In 2010, Eng. Khaled became the General Manager of UCI, which is one of the largest construction and real-estate development companies in Palestine. He is also a co-founder of UCI’s TABO initiative, which is the first Palestinian project that is dedicated to issue title deeds “Tabo”, promotes broader ownership in Palestine and protects Palestinian land against Israeli annexation. It offers affordable and registered plots of residential land in the West Bank to Palestinians all over the world.

Khaled’s vision to bring sustainable development to Palestine and the MENA region is best explained in his highly watched TEDxRamallah talk. In addition to speaking at TEDxRamallah, Khaled is constantly invited to share his vision on university campuses around the world. He has spoken at McGill University in Canada, at Harvard University and MIT in the United States, and other universities and major conferences around the world.