Lifetime Acheivement Award: Raymond Audi

Bahrain I Egypt I Iran I Israel I Jordan I Kuwait I Lebanon I Morocco I Oman I Qatar I Saudi Arabia I United Arab Emirates I Lifetime Achievement

Raymond Audi comes from a line of bankers that stretches back 175 years to 1830, when Hanna Audi inherited his father’s exchange business in Sidon, in southern Lebanon. His own career began when Hajj Hamad Al Homaizi, founder of Commercial Bank of Kuwait, asked him to help create the present-day Bank Audi in 1962.

Bank Audi has become one of the region’s most successful and enduring institutions with, at the end of 2005, total assets of $11.5 billion, shareholders’ equity of $949 million and net profits of $106 million. The bank has just announced a $600 million capital increase, boosting its capital to $1.5 billion as part of an ambitious five-year regional expansion plan.

But these bald statistics mask the nature of Raymond Audi’s achievements. Between 1975 and 1990 Lebanon was convulsed by a civil war that left 70,000 dead and the country’s infrastructure in ruins. Beirut, the capital, became a synonym for destruction and chaos.