Randa Bdeir has spearheaded innovation at three key banks in Lebanon since the early 1990s. The mother of four began working as a researcher on credit card payments at Banque du Liban (BDL), Lebanon’s central bank, and quickly became one of the few women in a managerial position in the banking sector at that time.…
Bringing order to the Order
After living in France for 30 years, Jad Tabet, an architect and urban planner, returned to Lebanon early last year to run for the presidency of the Order of Engineers and Architects of Beirut (OEA), an independent trade syndicate covering all Lebanese regions bar the North. Tabet campaigned as an independent against Paul Najem, a…
CA Indosuez Wealth Management
Executive sat down with Jean François Deroche chief executive officer of Indosuez, the wealth management arm at Crédit Agricole’s S.A. (CASA), and François Farjallah global head of the Middle East and Africa for Indosuez. In a November 2017 interview, the pair discussed Indosuez and CASA’s governance, international investments, and presence in the Middle East. E…
The long journey of a large retailer
Local markets have proven remarkably resilient when it comes to resisting the dominance of large retailers that offer fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) in hypermarkets and supermarkets—those behemoths of daily shopping that you enter with an empty shopping cart the size of a compact car and leave with said cart overflowing. One operator of mega-sized retail…
Growth amid the thorns
Retailers in Lebanon have been faced with challenging circumstances for the past four years. Regional turmoil that began with the war in Syria has been pushing tourist numbers down, and the remaining clientele – those residing in Lebanon – have decreased purchasing power compared to the visitors who were so common a few years ago.…