User:Jilliangorman/sandbox

Background

Saba Shami was born  1955 in the town of Maghar  in the Galilee and brought up in the City of Haifa.

Shami came to the US a student in 1979 attended and graduated from Goshen College( Mennonite

College), in Goshen Indiana. During his 11 years of Virginia Government work Shami attended  the

Virginia Executive Institute( a course for senior state employees) and graduated with a diploma from

Virginia Commonwealth University.

Shami moved to Virginia upon completion of his studies at Goshen College in 1982 worked in

marketing for several years and served as Vice President of Business development for the Bank

of Northern Virginia (merged with BB&T in the late nineties.

'''Career '''

Before joining the Warner Administration Mr. Shami was and still serves as principal/owner of

Washington Works LLC, A public affairs firm, and media relations / advertising agency, working

with different interest groups and promoting their points of view on Capitol Hill in and the different

departments and agencies in Washington and with Virginia State Government, agencies and the

legislator. Shami’s most important accomplishment on the Hill was the Creation of Morocco’s’

Friends in Congress (a caucus), it was joined by 110 Members of Congress including the

Speaker and 18 Senators. During this assignment Mr. Shami organized Congressional trips to

Morocco, in which close to 100 Members and staffers participated.

During 11 years of work with 3 Governors of Virginia, Shami served the Commonwealth  in

several key positions under Governors Mark R. Warner and Timothy M. Kaine, as assistant

commissioner at DMV, as Special Assistant to the Secretary of Commerce and Trade, as Chief

Deputy Commissioner of Agriculture & Consumer Services and as Chief Deputy Director of the

Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation. Most recently Mr. Shami served as

Director of Special Projects at the Virginia Port Authority between January 2009 and August

2011.

'''Democratic Party-New Dominion Political Action Committee '''

In 1986 Shami co-founder “Arab American Democrats of Virginia” and in 2002 Co-founded the

New Dominion Political Action Committee-NDPAC. In 2001 Mr. Shami worked as Director of

Ethnic Outreach with (candidate) Mark R. Warner, the former Governor. In 2005 Mr. Shami

served as Chairman of Ethnic/New American outreach for (candidate) Governor Tim Kaine. in

2009, Mr. Shami served as Senior Advisor to Virginia Gubernatorial Democratic contender Brian

Moran.

Shami held several party positions both locally and state wide and In 1992 Shami was a

candidate for one of the Male slots to represent Virginia at the Democratic National Committee-

DNC.