Reading Time: < 1 minute We are looking for a new managing editor to help steer our coverage in the coming years and at this critical moment for Lebanon. Role/Responsibilities: Oversee production of the monthly magazine from conception to print Coordinate with editorial staff on editorial agenda for each issue, agreeing on the focus and setting submission deadlines for articles Commission and…
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Pivotal events of 2020
Reading Time: 5 minutes DECEMBER 19Parliamentary consultations take place. Mr. Hassan Diab is nominated to form a government, backed by the Amal movement, Hezbollah, the Free Patriotic Movement, the Marada and others. DECEMBER 20-31Heavy protests take place, protesting the nomination of Hassan Diab as Prime Minister. JANUARY 14Lebanese Protests resume after weeks of calm. Banks are heavily targeted as…
Executive Magazine’s December issue
Reading Time: < 1 minute Dear Executive readers, It is our honor to present to you our end-of-year issue. The year behind us has been tumultuous worldwide, and especially for Lebanon – a small country that has many times carried its weight throughout international and regional crises. The tri-tragedy of the pandemic, the port explosion, and the collapse of the…
Lebanese start-up funding threatened
Reading Time: 5 minutes Eager to capitalize on the tech-savvy population,high education rate and entrepreneurial spirit, Banque du Liban’s (BDL) Circular 331, released in 2013, paved the way for the creation of dozens of startups in Lebanon, in addition to accelerators and incubators. Despite this support, events of the past few years have put a stop to the generous…
Fate, not misfortune
Reading Time: 6 minutes Over two decades of experience The Investment Development Authority of Lebanon (IDAL) was established in 1994 with an economic vision to attract mega investments to the country. It targets foreign and local investors and provides them with services on three main levels: investment promotion, export promotion and startup support. IDAL grants incentives and provides facilitations…
Banking on crisis
Reading Time: 6 minutes As Winston Churchill worked to form the United Nations after WWII, he said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste”. This has been Antoine Assi’s motto and business model, Managing Partner of ESTIA Real Estate Group. Assi predicted the crisis in Lebanon three years before it happened. At the time, a similar hurricane of…
Health care services intact but compromised
Reading Time: 5 minutes In Lebanon, as in virtually all other countries around the globe, health has in 2020 been catapulted to the top spot of social concern after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. To assess the correlation between the pandemic, national governance, the economic and liquidity crises, and the overall state of public health in Lebanon, Executive…
Organic care and true beauty niches
Reading Time: 9 minutes The global cosmetic and personal care market is growing, the upward swing especially boosting companies that produce organic and sustainable products. The specificity of new manufacturing trends and the evolution in marketing funnels, such as the rise of micro social media influencers, is shifting the research-intensive health-related sector towards viability of small enterprises, niche producers,…
Health care infrastructure under pressure
Reading Time: 6 minutes Long seen as the health care centre of the Middle East due to its developed hospital infrastructure and presence of heavily qualified medical personnel, Lebanon may well lose this title soon, due to a series of unfavorable factors, including the economic crisis, the August 4 Beirut port explosion, and the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the efforts…
Alternative medicine spikes
Reading Time: 6 minutes Alternative medicine has been sitting in the shadow of traditional, Western medicine for some time in Lebanon: alternative medicine. Though it is not controversial, alternative medicine is still seen as a complement to traditional medicine. Long a fixture of the Lebanese traditional scene, with stories, and for some, memories of elder Lebanese concocting herbal remedies…
Gaming in Lebanon seriously hit
Reading Time: 4 minutes Despite the Central Bank’s (BDL) circular 331, which allows venture capital firms and banks to finance startups with less risks by guaranteeing investments up to 75 percent, Lebanese tech firms are casualties of the country’s economic woes. Between capital controls that restrict payment capacities abroad; the exile of talent fleeing Lebanon; and the sorry state…
Startups actually
Reading Time: 9 minutes Success is a perfect measure of life. Yet this perfect measure is never in itself perfect. Money, knowledge, passion, experience of gain, learning from failure… All can be successes and each can be a tremendous hurt that changes life’s trajectory. It depends on our objectives and circumstances. Success of entrepreneurial startups and young tech enterprises…
Finding scarcity
Reading Time: 9 minutes Executive visited with Naji Boutros, a Lebanese economic mind whose expertise and passion spans from investment banking and identification of opportunities in venture capital (VC) and private equity, to nurturing entrepreneurship in Lebanese agro-industry, viticulture, and hospitality. You have been involved in a wide spectrum of local entrepreneurship in non tech-dependent ventures, which as you…
Banking sector 2020 overview
Reading Time: 12 minutes Where does one even begin? From the inability to withdraw deposits, to the depreciation of the Lebanese currency, and the default on the Lebanese Sovereign Debt (held in big part by the banking sector), Lebanese banks’ balance sheets have suffered a blow, in addition to self-imposed capital controls on withdrawals. The future of the Lebanese…
How long will the lights stay on?
Reading Time: 11 minutes The current state of the energy sector in Lebanon is worrying. Daily power cuts coupled with Electricite du Liban (EDL)’s chronic budget deficit, which has contributed to more than half of Lebanon’s public debt, makes it clear why reforming the sector is a top priority for the international community, and why it cannot be separated…