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Reda Athanasios is an online education specialist with an interest in political activism.
Contents
Biography
Reda Athanasios' parents were born in Cairo, Egypt. His father Boctor Athanasios, (1916-2000) was a high ranking civil service accountant who worked his way up the administrative ranks to Undersecretary of the Treasury, and was a Lay Reader in Egypt’s first Episcopal Church, which was built in Cairo after his Grandfather, Athanasius el-Assiuty (1825–1916), secured the purchase of the land along the Nile. El-Assiuty had earlier co-founded the Presbyterian Church in Upper Egypt along with John Hogg. Reda's mother Magdoline Athanasios, was born 1918 and, although she received some amount of higher education, was a house-wife and mother, who for decades provided essential volunteer services to local churches and welfare centers.
Boctor and Magdoline met and married in 1944 and worshiped together at All Saints Cathedral Episcopalian Church
Athanasuis El Asuity had helped with raising funds and the purchase of the land where the Episcopal cathedral was eventually built, and where the marriage ceremony of Boctor and Magdoline was later conducted.
Early life
From an early age, Reda was an active and involved youth – both athletically, and in his church. He was a captain of his High school Tawfikia volleyball team, a member of the Gezira Sporting Club’s under-21 age group team, and was selected a team member of the All Star Squad, prepared to represent Egypt in the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada
Among his numerous church-related activities, Reda served as leader of the Boulac Youth Welfare Center Youth Program.
He was appointed to the Administrative Council of All Saints Episcopal Church at age 18, and served as Chair Person of the Youth Council of the Episcopalian Church Middle East and Northern Africa Diocese. As his leadership and organizational skills proved very helpful to the church’s various programs and activities, he was eventually assigned the huge responsibility of [managing? Overseeing?] the physical relocation of Cairo’s historic All Saints Cathedral from its former site, where it impeded the construction of Egypt’s similarly historic October 6 Bridge, to its current location in Zamalek. Upon finishing his studies in Business Administration at the University of Helwan, Mr. Athanasios was the co-founder and Administrator of the British International School in Zamalek, Cairo. A private academy, the B.I.S.C. is today recognized as the premier K-12 in the Middle East.
Reda left Cairo in 1979, and settled permanently in California in 1981.
Career
Mr. Athanasios is a California-based executive who is passionate about influencing the world positively by applying technology to improve the quality of education for all. As an entrepreneur of 32 years’ experience in Information Technology Services, turn-around company management, and building Cloud-based educational technologies, Reda has been immersed in the rapid growth field of Cloud Solution Provider for educational technologies.
As a recognized Online Education pioneer, Reda has provided consulting and advice to some of the world's largest technology companies, including Control Data, Microsoft and EDS. He has also robustly managed five turn-around companies, and seen each of them to profitability. Reda is also the former Co-Founder, COO and President of Convene International, a company that he brought first to market among all web-based LMS/CMS services providers, such as BB and eCollege. He is credited as the technologist who designed the University Of Phoenix online model which remains the backbone of UOP’s world-renowned online education program online education known to be the largest such program operating today.
Reda is also the former Senior Vice President of Client Services for Dallas-based, Affiliated Computer Services, a $16 billion Fortune 500 company that provides business process and technology solutions, systems integration, professional services, and e-commerce services.
Mr. Athanasios has served on numerous panels, presented at eLearning conferences for EDUCAUSE, Syllabus, Converge and numerous investment banking firms. In addition to contributing to numerous industry articles, he has also been quoted and interviewed in major media outlets including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Business Week, and Educom Review.
Other interests and activities
Family
Reda married Dr. Soha Sadek in 1995 and has two daughters. They live in Alamo, CA. Both Reda and Soha are very active in the community - especially with anything that is Egyptian. He is an avid reader of history and a good squash player.