Antoun Sehnaoui is a Lebanese banker and businessman. He is the current Chairman of Société Générale de Banque au Liban SGBL and the finance house FIDUS Wealth Management. He is also the Vice-Chairman of Société Générale de Banque – Jordan and a member of the Board of Directors of the Banks’ Association in Lebanon.
Antoun Sehnaoui also has extensive business outside the boardroom with investments in tourism real estate development, the print media and the hospitality industry. These sectors, along with banking and finance make up the core of the modern Lebanese economy. Add to this a strong philanthropic spirit – he supports the Beirut International Film Festival, the Beirut Art Center… – Sehnaoui has established himself as the embodiment of the modern Lebanese businessman, an entrepreneur with a strong belief in the future of his country and one who is not shy in taking risks in realizing its vast potential. Sehnaoui took over FIDUS in 1999, turning it into Lebanon’s leading financial investment firm. Since being appointed Chairman of SGBL in October 2007, the bank has enjoyed unprecedented success and has led the way in maintaining Lebanon’s proud banking tradition.
As part of his contribution to Lebanon’s burgeoning media industry, in 1998, Antoun Sehnaoui founded News Media, the publishing house that created Executive, which today is the Middle East’s leading English-language business magazine, a must-read for analysts and investors alike.
In the tourism and hospitality sector, Antoun Sehnaoui was in the first wave of investors to identify the commercial potential of the Beirut areas of Saifi and Gemmayzeh, where he opened Centrale and La Tabkha, two restaurants in a district that is now the beating heart of Lebanon’s tourist life.
Sehnaoui also spotted potential in the sleepy coastal town of Damour, South of Beirut, where he opened the Oceana beach resort. Today, the “Oceana Effect” can be seen all along Lebanon’s coastline where countless resorts and hotels now spread.