September 2006

Million-Dollar Contributions Fuel Engineering Facility Initiative

Asghar Mostafa, B.S. ’81, M.S. ’82, credits his education at GW with helping him succeed in the world of telecommunications start-ups. University trustee Mark Hughes, B.A. ’69, M.S. ’77, believes a new engineering facility will help cement GW’s position as a leader in research.

Mark Hughes, B.A. ’69, M.S.E. ’77, and Asghar Mostafa, B.S. ’81, M.S. ’82, have much in common—both men attended GW, both met their wives at the University, and both are committed to using their talents to help GW advance as a leader in science and engineering. In addition to giving their time—Mostafa to the School of Engineering and Applied Science National Advisory Council and Hughes
as a University trustee—each has made a substantial contribution to the science and
engineering building initiative.

“Mark and Asghar have shown tremendous leadership in making these important commitments at this early stage of the project, and I am grateful for their support,” says School of Engineering and Applied Science Dean Timothy Tong. “Together with significant gifts from fellow alumni Simon Lee, Pat Martin, and Scott Amey, we are now in a strong position to make our dream of a new and improved engineering facility a reality.”

Mostafa agrees. “For more than a year, we have been discussing how we can start a building project,” he says. “If I help start things off with my effort, hopefully more people will join in and we can go from talking to action.” With his wife Holly Hartman—the two met while both were studying at GW—Mostafa made a $1-million gift to support a new facility.

An entrepreneur whose career in telecommunications has followed an upward trajectory, Mostafa moved from his first job, with IBM, to the world of start-ups. In the past 15 years he has created several new companies; most recently, he funded a fiber optics firm called Vinci, which he sold in 2004. Mostafa attributes much of his success to the University. “I got a great foundation at GW,” he says.

Hughes shares the vision of a first-tier engineering school at the University. “GW is on its way to becoming one of the world’s great universities,” he says. “And to be a great university today, you have to excel in science and engineering.” Hughes notes that GW is uniquely positioned to educate scientists and engineers who are versed in public policy.


Like Mostafa, Hughes and his wife Susan made their gift—$1.2 million—
to kick-start a new science and engineering building. Recently retired from his
position as president of the system and network solutions group at Science Applications International Corporation, Hughes has been actively involved with GW since the early 1990s. In 2003, he joined the University’s Board of Trustees. GW, he says, has achieved world recognition in nuclear physics and several other
technical fields, a solid basis for moving forward with the building initiative. “We have professors and alumni who have invented processes or devices from civil engineering to computer science that are helping the world. The work we are
doing here in science and engineering is one of the crown jewels of GW.”

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