When Lebanon signed the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) in 2008, our political elite unwittingly embarked on a path toward better governance and more transparency. For many reading this article, this statement will come as a surprise—particularly given the high levels of corruption in Lebanon today and the general perception that no one is…
Targeting the right people for our advocacy
Profiling new Lebanese wines
The Lebanese wine industry continues on its growth trajectory, and it seems that every year we hear of new wine labels entering the market. Executive profiles a selection of the newest wine labels to make their mark on Lebanese palettes, outlining their story and their business strategy. Rather than being the products of proprietary wineries,…
Lebanese wineries in 2018
The Lebanese wine industry seems to be flourishing, despite the floundering economy, and has enjoyed a year full of celebrations and achievements—with more yet to come. In the last week of October, as Executive went to print, representatives of Lebanon’s wineries were returning from a series of celebratory events in London that were hosted by…
The case to end sexual orientation change efforts in Lebanon
Homosexuality is part of the natural spectrum of human identity and is not a disease, a disorder, or an illness to be treated or “fixed.” However, there is a plethora of evidence documenting the challenges that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people experience daily as a result of discrimination, rejection, and stigma. Sexual orientation…
Financial barriers stand in the way of breast cancer screening
“If I am diagnosed with breast cancer, my husband would need to sell our house to pay the medical expenses,” says Hanaa, a 52-year-old woman from Abba, south Lebanon. Hanaa worries about not being able to afford the cost of breast cancer-related tests and treatment. Likewise, Zeina, a 45-year-old from Mina, north Lebanon, says, “We…
Blood donation in Lebanon
Anyone active in the Lebanese social media bubble will have seen the all too frequent posts, shared on behalf of family or friends, urgently calling for volunteers to donate a specific blood type at a specific hospital. What people may not realize is that the blood they are being desperately asked to donate might not…
Lebanon, lend us your ears
The exciting world of audio storytelling remains relatively unexplored in the Middle East today, despite the region’s reputation for masterful storytellers. While podcasting as a medium is rapidly growing in the US and Europe, many radio stations in Lebanon and across the Arab world have yet to join this trend and produce innovative content. Two…
The impetus for change
Shareholder activism has experienced a revival and is now growing in influence globally as an effective tool to transform companies by unlocking share price value and improving their strategic vision and governance tactics. The phenomenon of shareholder activism is not new. When it started back in the 1980s, it sparked numerous controversies due to the…
Lebanon’s housing authority to restart subsidization scheme
How far will LL100 billion go? That was the main question Executive posed to Rony Lahoud, head of Lebanon’s public housing authority, the Public Corporation for Housing (PCH). While there are still variables to be calculated, at the time of this interview in late October, Lahoud suggested that almost two thirds of the demand for…
A long time in the making
The PPP law, formally known as Law 48 Regulating Public Private Partnerships, was first proposed as a draft by Cabinet in 2007. It was not until September 2017 that it was passed by Parliament and published in the Official Gazette. In other words, it took lawmakers ten years to pass the PPP law. Back in…
The curious case of Assad Barakat
There is a thin line between fact and fiction in discussions of the Triple Frontier, a border area between Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil that is rumored to be a Hezbollah hotspot. More than one year has passed since US President Donald Trump stood on the White House lawn and promised an answer to the “menace”…
Social entrepreneurship in Lebanon
Anyone with any knowledge of Lebanon knows that the country is perpetually described as teetering on a cliff’s edge, frequently stuck in political stalemate, and with infrastructure that leaves much to be desired. And yet, amid all this insecurity is the trope of the entrepreneurial Lebanese. Because, despite the difficult living standards, rampant corruption, and…
Entrepreneurship and youth in lebanon
Lebanon may be officially classed as an upper-middle-income country by the international community, but it lags far behind other countries of a similar status. Serious deficiencies in the dynamics of the labor market—where youth unemployment is almost 40 percent, and women account for less than 25 percent of the workforce—are largely to blame. It is…
12 new Lebanese startups
In previous years, attending a startup demo day in Beirut—where hopeful graduates of accelerator programs present their projects and pitch for recognition and financial investments—tended to require a will to smile politely and some tolerance for boredom. But in September and October of this year, demo days and startup competitions with Lebanese entrants—some held in…
An interview with Bookwitty chief executive Cyril Hadji-Thomas
To understand as much as possible about the inside perspective and mindset related to the first high-profile failure of a Lebanese startup, Executive sat down with Cyril Hadji-Thomas, the stakeholder at the heart of Bookwitty. E We heard many things when investigating this case. Among them, allegations that a large number of subsidiaries had been…