Rodrigue El Balaa holds a PhD. in Agricultural Engineering from the Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine – Nancy – France. He is the Chairperson of the Department of Agricultural Engineering Technology at the Issam Fares Faculty of Technology of the University of Balamand. He is an expert in Agricultural Value Chains and has been involved in and managed numerous studies and development projects funded by international donors.
Rodrigue is a die-hard supporter of the quintuple innovation helix framework which involves an environment of collaboration between universities, industry, government, and civil society within a knowledge economy. In this framework, he has been one of the early supporters of Berytech’s Agrytech program and the QOOT cluster for the development of such an environment.