Bishara Haddad, a prominent personality of Arab reinsurance
Bishara was born in Jaffa, Palestine, of Lebanese parents who, as many Lebanese at that time, were working in the teaching profession, and left the country to return to their native Lebanon following the events of 1947.
For Bishara's generation, entering the insurance business has often been accidental. When Bishara concluded his studies, he had no well-defined professional project in mind. He started out as a trainee at Arabia which gathered the first elites of Middle East insurance and started shaping their competencies. In this fishpond where man management is carried out within a family spirit, Bishara was strongly marked by his meeting with Basim Faris, a true patriarch of the company. He shall never quit the business, his career started off.
In January 1974, he entered the Skandia office in Beirut. The bustle begins with the requirements of travelling, visiting companies and taking notes. Lunches and dinners often follow in close succession. The job of a reinsurance underwriter is never easy.
Bishara was learning fast. He roams the region, establishes contacts and facilitates the introduction of Skandia in the MENA region.
Unfortunately, regional events intervene once again. In 1975, civil war broke out in Lebanon and Bishara immigrated to London in 1976 where Skandia expatriated its MENA Middle East & North Africa portfolio.
He was renowned as a gentleman of exceptional kindness as well as for his courtesy and elegance. He is a man who listens and strives to make his counterparts comfortable. He is a man to trust, who becomes a friend and a confidant. His personal qualities have made him a leader who reconciled in the most harmonious way tradition with modernity.
When peace was restored in Lebanon, Bishara settles back in his country where he restarted his activities for the Compagnie Centrale de Réassurance (Paris) which entrusted him with its regional portfolio. Neither his resolve nor his energy was strained by hardships. The responsibilities, the trips and the challenges of the profoundly-changing business are the best drive for this outstanding character who has devoted his entire life to his business.
