BUFFALO, New York---October13, 2015-----Miles away from Amman, Jordan, is the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Center for Business Research at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York.  This Center was established in 1987 by HE Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh as part of his efforts to support international accounting education.  Canisius College was chosen because of the very high quality of its accounting programs and the consistent top ranking of its graduates who take the CPA Exam each year.

The Center was established to primarily provide accounting and economic studies specifically requested by the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization, to provide assistance to Arab students studying at Canisius College, and to enhance the image of the Arab world in the Canisius community.

The Center’s director is Dr. Edward J. Gress, a professor of accounting at Canisius College who has known HE Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh since the late 1950s when both were students at the American University of Beirut.   In return for Dr. Abu-Ghazaleh’s annual contribution to Canisius College, Canisius is to provide the necessary resources to support the activities of the Center. 

The Center has prepared a number of studies related to accounting and business subjects and studies related to the education of accountants in the Arab world.

Among the major accomplishments was the preparation of income tax guides for 15 Arab countries and studies related to trade mark laws for 5 Arab countries.  The Center has also assisted in the preparation of the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh dictionaries on accounting, intellectual property, and information technology.  

The Center has also assisted in the preparation of 2 guides for the recording of accounting transactions as part of the TAG Accounting Examples Series: “Revenue from Sales and Services,” and “Fixed Assets and Intangibles under International Accounting Standards.”

The Center has also prepared a comprehensive study on the accounting curricula of many Arab universities with the objective of preparing recommendations for the improvement of accounting education in the Arab world. The Center has prepared numerous booklets and training material that were used in offering training seminars sponsored by TAG offices in almost all the Arab countries on credit analysis, accounting for non-accountants, cost and management accounting, and budgeting.

The Center has sponsored a number of Arab students, and Canisius College based on the recommendation of the Center provided tuition assistance and graduate assistantships to a number of graduate Arab students.  The Center has also sponsored selected international activities such as the annual international dinner and sponsored Arab students to attend the annual accounting banquet.

Canisius College has also been generous in providing faculty to cover the classes of Dr. Gress when he had to be away to attend to matters related to the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization and especially the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Graduate School of Business in its early years of formation.