Sheikh Boutros el-Khoury (, 1907 – 18 November 1984) was a Lebanese businessman, banker and industrialist. Khoury managed to build a large commercial and industrial empire, and was one of Lebanon's most well-established businessmen from the 1950s to the 1970s. Khoury was an important figure of the Lebanese ruling elite in the second half of the 20th century. He played a decisive role in the development of economic legislation, and used his expertise in the resolution of several major national crises.
Biography
Early life
Khoury was born in 1907 in the village of Karm Sadde, in the Zghorta District (North Lebanon), the son of Salim and Myriam el-Khoury. His family hailed from the Lebanese diaspora in the French colonies of West Africa, with some members, including his father, residing in Senegal. Khoury lost his parents at an early age: his father died abroad on the day he was born, while his mother died when he was three years old. Khoury was subsequently raised first by his grandparents and then by his paternal aunt, Sayde Khoury, while his father's uncle, Abbas Abboud, who resided in Senegal, supported him financially. It was Abboud who initiated Khoury to the world of business and commerce early on in his life.
Education Khoury studied at the Mar Yaacoub school in his home village and graduated from the al-Alam school in the village of Daraya, Zghorta.
Business career
Khoury pursued a career in business, and by the 1960s had become one of the wealthiest men in Lebanon thanks to his investments in various sectors of the economy.
Khoury's career began at the age of 20. He started out in the oil business, dividing his time between his home village and Tripoli until, the beginnings of the 1930s, he moved permanently to North Lebanon’s capital, where it was easier for him to run his business and broaden his contacts. He then shifted easily from trade to industry and conducted many successful partnerships with well-established businessmen in various fields, founding companies such as the Stephan and Khoury company (created with Joseph and Sayed Stephan of Kfarsghab), the Kfoury–Khoury company (founded with Al Kfoury from Khenchara, Metn District), the "Al Ghazzal Transports" with Ghattas el-Murr, and Fadel Al-Ghandour from Tripoli, among others.
La Kadisha Over the course of the 1920s, Khoury gained a thorough understanding of financial investment. In accordance with the traditional role played at that time by the Lebanese diaspora in the country's economy, the young sheikh reinvested the money he received from his family abroad, including his great-uncle Abboud from Senegal, in various local businesses.
In this respect, his experience in the hydroelectric company "La Kadisha" highlighted early on his innate talents as a businessman. The company had been founded in 1924 by prominent figures in Bsharri, such as the Keirouz and Geagea families, with the Maronite Archbishop of Tripoli, Anthony Peter Arida, also playing an important role. Under the French Mandate, the company had obtained the concession to provide electricity from the Kadisha Valley to the rest of North Lebanon. First introduced into the company through his uncle Abbas, Khoury quickly rose through its ranks, and in 1929, at the age of 22, was elected to the administrative council. In 1929, La Kadisha merged with the Abu Ali hydroelectric plant, the power concession for which had been granted to the Stephan brothers. On 10 August 1930, Khoury was re-elected to the new council. He gradually acquired a majority stake in the company, until on 14 May 1953, he bought the majority of shares owned by the French shareholders of the companies La Pyrénéenne and La Toulousaine. He then became president of the company.
Khoury's years working in the administration of La Kadisha had a significant impact on his economic and political outlook. The economic thought of Albert Naccache, author of La Kadisha hydroelectric project, was especially influential. Naccache advocated greater industrial development in Lebanon, contrary to the widespread ideology at the time that was influenced by the ideas of Michel Chiha, according to which Lebanon was a "merchant republic" devoid of any raw materials. Naccache called for the establishment of a large network of hydroelectric power plants across the country that would be financed and managed entirely by Lebanese capital and executives. This experience gave Khoury a taste for industrial adventure and contributed to his grander vision for the national economy.
Agriculture
Khoury's interest in agriculture also began at an early age, due to his rural upbringing. He started trading in agricultural products, beginning with olive oil, which he sold through North Lebanon before committing to the purchase and resale of flour and wheat to the whole of Lebanon. From the late 1940s onward, he negotiated the cost price per kilogram of both flour and wheat with the Ministry of National Economy. His concern for the agricultural industry and the rural world was evident from the start of his parliamentary career: He was elected as head of the Commission of Agriculture and Food Supply for two consecutive terms in 1946 and 1947, as well as head of the Commission of Public Works in 1947.
In the 1950s, Khoury became involved in the fight against the monopolization of staple foods and rising prices and became one of the leading figures in the world of trade. He was often consulted by authorities in times of national emergency. During the 1958 Lebanon crisis, he belonged to the group of traders that sounded the alarm about the paralysis of commercial activity in the country, and publicly encouraged the unloading of boats in the Port of Beirut to avoid food shortages.
In addition to his involvement in the wheat trade, Khoury also revolutionized sugar production in Lebanon. In 1963, in his capacity as representative of sugar refiners, he advised Prime Minister of Lebanon Rashid Karami on the measures to be taken to meet the country's sugar requirements for the following year. His suggestion was to encourage the production of sugar beet, almost nonexistent in Lebanon at the time, in order to boost domestic output and allow the country to move towards self-sufficiency in sugar production. He was also one of the largest shareholders in the Anjar sugar factory, playing a key role in the resolution of the sugar beet crisis that lasted from December 1964 to June 1965 and which saw the Bekaa peasants clashing with the management of the factory itself.
Khoury's stature and position as a prominent industrialist made him inclined to a traditional and benevolent social paternalism towards the peasants. To help Lebanese farmers and combat rural exodus, he was actively involved with the Banque de Crédit Agricole, Industriel et Foncier (BCAIF), founded in 1954, becoming chairman in 1958. During the banana crisis caused by the violent storm of 20 November 1964, which destroyed production for an entire season, Khoury offered long-term loans to banana growers in order to alleviate their difficulties.
Industry and commerce
Khoury was one of the pillars of Lebanese industry during the second half of the 20th century, and he was a keen supporter of investment of Lebanese capital in the industrial sector, which he advocated as a means of increasing the national income and curbing unemployment. He was also president of the Association of Industrialists from 1965 to 1975, and called for the establishment of a Ministry of Industry.
Khoury's first industrial ventures were in the electricity sector. He invested at an early stage in the La Kadisha company, and in 1948 founded another hydroelectric company, Al-Bared, with two other partners. Through these two companies, Khoury helped to solve the electricity crisis that plagued Lebanon between 1952 and 1954. He proposed linking Beirut to the networks of Qadisha, Nahr el-Bared and Nahr al-Jaouz to overcome the power cuts in the capital, with Al-Bared handling the operation. In an effort to strengthen the energy sector, he demanded in 1956 a government loan of £L5 million to La Kadisha in order to avoid an increase in electricity tariffs.
Khoury was also involved in the cement industry. In 1963, he became a shareholder in the Lebanese Cement Company, founded in 1929 by the Maronite Patriarchate in Chekka, having supplied its factories with electricity through the Al-Bared company since 1956.
In 1952, through several companies founded in conjunction with various business partners from Tripoli Khoury helped establish a free zone in the Port of Tripoli, building port facilities and warehouses and supplying the necessary machinery for the transfer of goods. This expanded the port significantly, as well as strengthening North Lebanese industry in general. He then founded several import–export companies with his partners to encourage trade and transit operations, which inevitably led him to become more closely involved in the maritime transport sector. He became a ship owner and founded the Maritime Boutros S. El-Khoury Agency in the 1960s.
Khoury also invested in numerous other areas, founding or co-founding over 50 companies both in Lebanon and abroad. Sectors to which he contributed included aluminum and pressed wood production, the petroleum industry, the drinks industry (notably juices and sparkling water), the hospitality industry (hotels), the insurance sector, and the land and real estate industry.
Banking
Khoury's involvement in the Lebanese banking sector contributed to the emergence of the "Golden Age" in the domestic banking industry in the 1950s. He became one of the main figures of the Lebanese banking sector, alongside people like Pierre Edde, Hussein Al Oweini and Philippe Takla. In addition to his role in the BCAIF, which played a leading role in the economic affairs of the country, he also participated in the establishment of many banking institutions, including the project "Bank Al-Ahli Al-Mahjar", which never took shape but whose purpose was to link the capitals of the diaspora to those of the motherland. Following the same principle, the BLOM Bank (Banque du Liban et d’Outre-Mer) was created a year later in 1951. The Sheikh was one of its founders, also serving as its vice-president. BLOM Bank remains one of the leading banks in Lebanon. He was also one of the founders of Al-Madina Bank, established in 1982. He was a shareholder in the Bank of Industry and Labor and invested momentarily funds in Al-Mahjar Bank and Bank of the Mediterranean (Banque de la Méditerranée) in the 1980s.
The success of BLOM attracted Arab and foreign capital to the institution. In May 1960, Khoury secured a US$5 million loan for the BCAIF, largely through his personal negotiations with Hart Perry, director of the American Bank Institution known as the Credit Fund. Also through the BCAIF, he led similar negotiations on behalf of the Lebanese government to obtain a US wheat loan in 1964, efforts which resulted in the agreement of a $17 million deal in July 1966. The Sheikh also maintained relations with leading personalities in the international banking community, including David Rockefeller, adviser to the World Bank.
In his capacity as chairman of the BCAIF's board of directors, Khoury also worked closely with the Lebanese government in efforts to alleviate problems in the banking sector. In 1964, he chaired the banking consortium that regulated the resolution of the "Land Bank" crisis. He was also involved in the 1966 project to establish a Development Bank, for the financing of industrial and tourism projects. Additionally, he was a key figure in the resolution of the "Intra-banking crisis" of 1968, during which Lebanon's central bank, the Banque du Liban (BDL), asked the BCAIF to handle the management and liquidation of 10 banks in distress.
Contribution to social dialogue