1. Date: October 20, 2013
To whom it may concern,
I am writing this letter in support of the candidacy of Mr. Nicolas El-Haber who is my student in the
Master’s program of Engineering Management at the Lebanese American University (LAU).
Nicolas is currently taking two of my courses (Introduction to System Dynamics, and Lean
Manufacturing) and so far he is performing very well in both, firmly above the performance of his peers.
He is a very attentive student and an active participant in class; he is also conscientious about learning
the material and consistently displays interest in the lectures and class discussions. His assignments
have been very well organized, complete and timely and his presentations are well researched and very
well delivered, demonstrating excellent oral communication and English language skills.
Nicolas is also conducting with me research on Lean-Green manufacturing and he has shown exceptional
dedication and commitment to his tasks. He has completed a thorough review of the literature and is
currently planning his data collection phase, while learning the analysis tools in anticipation of the latter
stages of the research. He has shown self-motivation throughout the research and has required minimal
supervision, while being attentive to detail and to the instructions given to him.
Nicolas is also managing to integrate some of his practical experience working with Green technologies
into the research he is doing, by combining the learning he has gained in the field with the insights he is
extracting from the literature. Along those lines I see in Nicolas two distinct strengths: the curiosity to
do research in-depth, and the desire to think holistically about complex problems. He has clear
potential to be a top graduate student at your institution, and I am confident that the advanced

2. knowledge he stands to acquire in your program will help him to develop into an effective researcher
and a highly sought after professional.
On the personal level, one of the notable traits I’ve seen in Nicolas is his self-confidence which doesn’t
seem to come at the expense of being humble and respectful. In fact, he is easy to get along with both
on and off campus, and he maintains a high level of integrity at both the personal and professional
levels.
In the time I have known Mr. Nicolas El-Haber, I found him to be a serious student and a friendly
individual, which is why I feel very confident that he will be very successful in all his future endeavors,
and I highly recommend him for pursuing graduate studies in your program.
Sincerely,
Marc Haddad, PhD
Assistant Professor, LAU School of Engineering
Department of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering
Email: mhaddad@lau.edu.lb
PS: My bio can be viewed at http://soe.lau.edu.lb/ime/faculty-staff/marc_haddad.php , and
www.linkedin.com/in/marchaddad