Management Team
Nadim KASSAR
Chairman and General Manager

Mr. Nadim Kassar is the Chairman and General Manager of BLC Bank SAL. He is also Chairman General Manager of Fransabank SAL.
He was elected in 2019 as Vice-Chairman for the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL), where he was Board Member since 2001. In addition, he has been nominated Co-Chairman of Mastercard EEMEA Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa Advisory Board, while he occupied since 2005 the position of Board Member for Mastercard Incorporated Asia, Pacific, Middle East & Africa, APMEA Regional Board of Directors. In addition, he holds currently the following positions: Founder and Chairman of Fransabank Al Djazaïr SPA, Board Member of Lebanese International Finance Executives (LIFE), Co-Manager of A.A. Kassar (France) SARL and General Manager of A.A. Kassar SAL. Mr. Kassar also is a Board Member of the following institutions: NetCommerce, Interbank Payment Network, IPN SAL, Credit Card Management, Founder and Board Member of the American Lebanese Chamber of Commerce (ALCC). He holds as well the position of Deputy Chairman of Société Financière du Liban. His social activities includes the Makassed Philantropic Islamic Association in Beirut as a Member of the Board of Trustees, a Member of the Lebanese-Chinese inter-parliamentary friendship committee, a Member of the Lebanese-Tunisian friendship committee and Treasurer of the Comité des Propriétaires- Ouyoun As Simane. Mr. Kassar is born in 1964 and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the American University of Beirut.


Bassam HASSAN
Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Bassam Hassan has twenty five years of banking experience and is currently the Chief Executive Officer of BLC Bank SAL after having spent six years as the Advisor to the Vice Chairman and General Manager on all Banking issues related to BLC Bank Group.
In 2008, Mr. Hassan served as the Head of Support for four years leading the Operations, Administration, Organization and Project Management Office (PMO) where he had established two of those departments, introduced a set of policies and procedures and lead major strategic endeavors related to technology.
He joined BLC Bank in 2001 as the Chief Information Officer where he managed an overhaul of the Bank’s technology infrastructure including telecommunication, the core banking system, the branch automation system, electronic delivery channels, SAN-to-SAN replication topology.
He started his career, in 1990, as a Project Manager at Logos SARL (ORACLE partners and Value Added Resellers) before joining the National Bank of Kuwait, in 1994, when he started his banking career as the MIS Manager establishing and heading the MIS department at the bank.
Mr. Hassan graduated from the American University of Beirut in 1990 with a BS in computer Science and later completed his Master of Money & Banking in February 1994 also at the American University of Beirut.


Joseph BADDOUR
AGM - Advisor to the Chairman for Strategic Business Development

Mr. Joseph Baddour holds a dual degree of Economics and Business Administration from the American University of Beirut. He has over 20 years of extensive banking
experience with Société Générale Group where he held several managerial positions in Lebanon, Cyprus, France, Jordan, Greece and Egypt. Mr. Baddour joined BLC Bank
in 2011.


Elie AZAR
Head of Retail Banking & Marketing Group

Mr. Elie Azar has been working in the Banking sector since 1988 where he held several managerial key positions in local and regional Banks. He joined BLC Bank in 2011 as Advisor to the General Manager. In 2015 he was appointed Head of Customer Care & Quality Assurance Group in charge of the Customer Experience and Customer Protection units. He was assigned as BLC Bank representative in USB Bank-Cyprus from 2016 till 2018.
He was appointed in July 2019 Head of Marketing Group and recently on November 2020 he was appointed as Head of Retail Banking & Marketing Group. In addition to his function, he is currently a member in several committees, such as Management, Marketing, CSR & Products, also a member of the CEO Task Force for Banking Organization-CTF. He is a Certified International Project Manager (CIPM), Chartered Financial Marketer(CFM) ,holds a degree in Business Administration from St. Joseph University & other Qualifications in the Banking field. Mr. Azar is a fellow member in the Association of International Product Marketing and Management (AIPMM-USA) & fellow member in the Arab Academy for Banking and Financial Services (AABFS-Jordan) and an active member in other several local and international Banking and Financial Associations & participated as a speaker in several local and international conferences & trainings sharing his expertise in Management & Marketing. He was granted several Awards and appreciations throughout his professional career.


Hani DENAWI
Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Hani Dannawi studied Physics in the American University of Beirut (AUB) from 1993 to 1996 and holds a degree in Banking and Finance from the Lebanese American University (LAU) in 1998 . He has also successfully completed an executive course in Strategic Management in Banking at INSEAD –France.
He is certified in Management Accounting and Financial Management (CMA), Certified in International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) from the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA-UK), an International Certified Specialist in Valuations (ICVS) and an active member of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA-USA) and the International Association of Consultants, Valuators and Analysts (IACVA).

Mr. Dannawi holds other qualifications in the Banking field and has been working in BLC Bank since 1999 where he is currently a member of many committees, such as Management Committee, Products Committee, ALCO, Financial Risk, Affiliates and Purchasing Committees.


Jean CHAMOUN
Chief Audit Officer

Mr. Chamoun holds a Master degree in Business Administration from the “Université du Québec à Montréal” – Canada and Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Algonquin College – Canada. He joined the Bank in 2016 as Chief Audit Officer.

Mr. Chamoun has over 25 years of Audit, Financial, and Management Consulting experience.

He last held the position of Head of AML/CFT Compliance at Bank Audi SAL. He was also in charge of overseeing the Compliance of the Bank’s subsidiaries in Lebanon with Local laws and regulations set by the Central Bank, International Standards and other regulatory authorities while ensuring adequacy and completion of the compliance process. Prior to that, he was the Head of Internal Audit department at Audi Private Bank sal and in the meantime occupies the position of Audit Manager at Bank Audi sal - Group Internal Audit.

Prior to joining Bank Audi Group, he spent several years in Canada where he served in a number of finance and accounting Senior Positions. In 1999, Mr. Chamoun relocated to Lebanon with Canada Post International Ltd as Manager at the Finance/Audit department for the implementation of the postal system in Lebanon.

He participated in the foundation of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA – Lebanon Institute). He is currently Governor/Secretary of the Board and Chair of the Membership Committee.


Rabih ABI AMMAR
Head of Commercial & Retail Lending Group

Mr. Rabih Abi Ammar holds a BS degree in Accounting & an MBA with Finance specialization from the Lebanese American University (LAU).
He started his professional banking career with BLC Bank as an Internal Auditor and was later transferred to the Risk Management Department as a Credit Review Officer before heading the Credit Review team. Mr. Abi Ammar enhanced the scope of Credit Review to include portfolio management & other credit risk subjects, mainly those related to Basel Accords which he was responsible for implementing. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Abi Ammar was assigned as the Head of Financial Risk Management. His successful results led the Bank to entrust him with the challenging mission of heading the Credit Management Group including Retail, SMEs & Corporate Credit Analysis & other credit-related departments.
Besides his banking career, Mr. Abi Ammar has been serving as a faculty member for accounting courses at the Adnan Kassar School of Business – LAU for the past 10 years. He also provides financial training programs for the bank's employees covering different subjects, represents the bank in the media & acts as a jury member for several competitions that are done with institutions collaborating with BLC Bank under the Corporate Social Responsibility program.


Naji ECHO
Head of Treasury & Financial Markets Group

Mr Naji Echo holds an Executive MBA from Lebanese American University, a Masters in Finance from Ecole Superieure des Affaires, and a degree in Business Administration from Lebanese American University with majors in economics and management.
He has over 17 years of banking experience with the first 11 years at an alpha bank where he handled managerial positions such as Head of FX & Capital Markets and Head of Asset Management. Throughout his career he acquired several certifications in his field and received extensive training from international financial institutions.
After being an active member in the executive committee of The Financial Markets Association, ACI Lebanon for several years, he was elected President in 2013.


Souheil YOUNES
Chief Human Resources Officer

Mr. Souheil Younes holds a Masters degree in Management and Consulting from ISG (Paris, France) and has completed an Executive Development Program in INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France). He has extensive experience in the banking sector, working in it since 1997. He previously held several managerial positions within Internal Audit and Human Resources.


Carlos LEBBOS
Chief Risk officer

Mr. Carlos Lebbos holds a degree in Economics from Université Saint Joseph Beirut. He joined BLC Bank in 1997 where he is heading the risk management function since 2009.


Joe SAAB
Head of Compliance Group

Mr. Joseph SAAB joined BLC Bank in January 2017 as Head of Compliance Group. He holds a law degree from La Sagesse University , a certification in advanced banking studies from Université St Joseph and he is qualified with a Certification of AML Specialist “CAMS”. He was a founding member of the Compliance Committee at the Association of Banks in Lebanon and participated as a speaker on Compliance initiatives in many local and regional conferences organized by the World Union of Arab bankers and the Union of Arab Banks between 2012 and 2016. Mr. Saab assumed multiple banking activities at Fransabank for over 20 years when he was appointed in 2004 to devise and oversee the compliance program at the group level. In January 2015, he joined Boubyan Bank (National Bank of Kuwait Group) in Kuwait to run the AML/CFT activities and to assist in designing, implementing the regulatory compliance systems and procedures


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