Turning the Lebanese Diaspora into an asset
Self-made businessman Nassib Fawaz heads the most important organization outside Bechir Saade

Business in person
The 15 million Lebanese expatriates scattered around the globe always represented a hope to relieve their tiny motherland from its unchanging and disastrous economic status quo.
Nassib Fawaz, a self-made businessman from the South Lebanon is one of a few conscientious members of this diaspora who is doing everything he can to set things straight.
Fawaz who moved to the U.S. in 1955 to seek education and work, is one of those who had a taste of Lebanon's sour economic and social environments.
Today he is president and chairman of numerous organizations and companies which operate in the U.S. as well as the Middle East. But more importantly, Fawaz is the president and the founder of the Lebanese International Business Council, an international organization which groups together major business individuals and groups, Lebanese expatriates and others, to cooperate in serving Lebanon economically.
According to its Web site, the LIBC "aims on paving the way for all Lebanese, wherever they are, to position themselves as a powerful economic and financial community in the international business world."
Since founding of the Arab Chamber of Commerce in 1992, Fawaz progressively recognized the utility of a lobbying organization and pushed for the creation of LIBC in 1999 after receiving formal authorization from the government of then-Premier Salim al-Hoss to operate.
Since then, each year LIBC organizes conferences called "Planet Lebanon." These seminars pull together a plethora of Lebanese businessmen from across the world, as well as Lebanese officials. The next locale for a conference on November 21 is Curacao, a Caribbean island where "these people will enjoy the calm, and the beauty of the weather, as they will find out ways to cooperate more closely" says Fawaz, who also heads Energy International Corporation, an engineering firm generating over $40 million annually, managing over 200 employees and 100 engineers all over the Middle East and the U.S. In addition, Fawaz heads Power One Corporation which distributes electricity in Michigan.
Back in 1960, Fawaz served in the U.S. Army for two years, during which he was transferred to Europe. He retained from this "unique experience," his main ethical guidelines.
"I have learned leadership, how to be on time and do things right, how to follow rules and give directions," he says.
From there Fawaz draws his perception of the prefect politician: "It is someone who needs to set an example to his people, because if the leader is corrupt, the people become corrupt, which is exactly what we are witnessing in Lebanon."
For the president of LIBC, the most perverse aspect of the Lebanese economy is its level of corruption. "The government should make sure cartels, and other influential capital holders cannot force politicians to give away contracts at high price." But this can only happen if Lebanese politicians start thinking in a fully exhaustive "Lebanese" way.
Because, as Fawaz puts it, "the real problem in this small country is that people think of it by regions when it comes to investing in any sector." Confessionalism plagues not only political spheres but also business thinking, as different groups are just satisfied by using the institutions of the state to take their own share of the political pie says the president of LIBC.
Nevertheless, Fawaz voiced much faith in the newly elected Lebanese government. He thinks that the people in power are potentially up to the task in terms of implementing the much-needed reforms. He also applauded MP Michel Aoun's initiative to stand as a watchdog to the new government. "At last, this is real democracy: someone is accountable to someone else" says Fawaz.
And by tapping into the economic power that Lebanese expatriates can represent, Fawaz believes the Lebanese government could greatly benefit not just for financial reasons, but also because "the Lebanese Diaspora does not behave in a confessional way, and when organized around one organization such as LIBC, will quickly determine its common best interests" says Fawaz, adding that successive Lebanese governments were never able to conceptualize this goal.
Fawaz could draw lessons from his own experience on how to succeed by taking baby steps: while still studying mechanical engineering when he first arrived in the U.S., Fawaz got a job at York International Air Conditioning, becoming its regional director in 1974 out of Dubai.
The president of LIBC is now working on important programs to give a new role for Lebanese expatriates through the creation of a representative committee for Lebanese expatriates made up of 150 members. "They can be the seed of the international Lebanese lobby around the world" says Fawaz.
LIBC is also pushing for a law that tackles the efficient "use of the investment, energy and potential of the Lebanese Diaspora" says Fawaz.