Joe Faddoul leads the development of BML Istisharat – Executive Biography

For the past 44 years Joe Faddoul founder, Chief Executive and Chairman of BML Istisharat has been a leading player at the vanguard of Lebanon’s technology sector.

A man who had a ringside seat during Lebanon’s halcyon days of the early 1970’s witnessing the emergence of the country’s financial services sector as the entrepôt to the Middle East, and after Lebanon’s civil war between 1975 and 1990 as the financial sector once again became the catalyst for the country’s development.

Beirut has always been well known for its banks, financial expertise and throughout history as Phoenician Maritime traders, whilst alongside this ancient expertise has flourished Lebanon’s booming IT industry.

As Joe Fadoul explains, “Lebanon has no raw materials or natural resources, so IT is an industry that can be developed in Lebanon, using the country as a platform” thus transforming this apparent weakness into a strength.

IT knowledge from the cedar state now stands at a high level and has gained an enviable reputation Worldwide. Foremost amongst the industry being Joe Fadoul’s company BML Istisharat.

IT knowledge from the cedar state now stands at a high level and has gained an enviable reputation Worldwide. Foremost amongst the industry being Joe Fadoul’s company BML Istisharat.

Who since 1972 has been a leading player in Lebanon’s tech sector, especially within their core banking and insurance software market. The firms software now runs on the computers of more than 300 clients worldwide, including fortune 500 companies such as Citibank, Société Générale, Banque Populaire, Swiss Life and Gazprombank and with more than 70% of revenues derived from exports to the U.S., Western Europe and the Middle East, South East Asia and now increasingly further afield in frontier markets like Iraq, Somalia and Guinea.

Indeed international acceptance now characterizes BML Istisharat products with an aggressive global expansion plan in Faddoul’s sights.

When asked about BML Istisharat‘s achievements beyond quarterly results however, Faddoul’s pride is obvious. “We have been ranked eighth worldwide by the IBS in the UK and have been selected by Gartner Group to the Magic Quadrant.”(A leading IT industry survey)

Joe Faddoul’s Early Background and Experience:

Cosmopolitan and highly educated in France with an MSc in Business Administration from the prestigious HEC business school, an MA in Economics from the Institut d’Etudes du Développement Economique et Social (IEDES), Mr. Faddoul went on to take a further MA in in Public Administration at the Institut International d’Administration Publique (IIAP).

His early career included internships at Citibank in New York then with Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur in Casablanca. He then had a one year training in diplomacy with internships at the United Nations European Office in Geneva, the French embassy in Madrid, The European Union in Luxembourg and finally the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Before going back into banking as executive to Banque Sabbag (Indosuez) Beirut prior to founding BML Istisharat.

BML’s early days, however, were not that promising “We started as a consultancy in 1972. Three years later in 1975, the civil war broke out,” Faddoul recalls. “As a direct impact, consultancy went down, but our clients still needed payrolls, inventories and accounting, so the only activity which remained was the IT sector.”

The threat of armed hostilities is the Sword of Damocles that hangs over the Lebanese economy. But the resilient Lebanese people have always found ways to keep the money flowing. So did Faddoul and his staff.

The threat of armed hostilities is the Sword of Damocles that hangs over the Lebanese economy. But the resilient Lebanese people have always found ways to keep the money flowing. So did Faddoul and his staff.

He’s certainly a survivor and with long-experience of business derring-do as he took pleasure in reminiscing, “In the war years, we produced our own electricity like everybody else in Lebanon. When there was no more fuel for our generators, we dug a dump in a nearby tract of land and had our fuel in that dump. Then when the neighbours became annoyed by our generators, we installed solar cells on our roof. When there were no more telephone lines to Europe, we installed a satellite dish, and I’m talking 25 years ago so now, everything seems very easy!”

Today BML Istisharat’s core products include: the Integrated Computerized Banking System, a management software for banks and financial institutions, Life Insurance and Reinsurance Integrated System, an operations management system for life insurance providers, Computerized Insurance and Reinsurance Integrated System, a web enabled client management tool for insurance providers, , as well as Industrial Manufacturing and Distribution, a software package for manufacturing and distributing companies.

Whilst his core management philosophy seems to cherish values like an open-mind, flexibility as well as citing a global approach to business as the pillars of the firm’s success. “We scored, two years ago, our first deal with a local bank in Malaysia, which means our software is now up and running in more than 35 countries: in the US, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. During the next five years our efforts will be focused on Russia, South East Asia, and Africa.”

Faddoul explained their adaptability, “We are at ease in different markets and our banking product, for example, can run in London and in Mauritania, or in Kuala Lumpur as well as in Paris. Our products run in Arabic, Kurdish, English, Greek, Russian, Dutch, French and so on. The name of the game is parameterisation, flexibility, and adaptation.”

BML Istisharat’s presence in Lebanon and worldwide continues to expand with the company being able to to thrive in economies that are constantly challenging such as Iraq, Somalia, and Guinea.

As Fadoul stressed, “We are always happy to engage in partnerships throughout the world in the emerging countries in Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia and elsewhere,”

Whilst BML Istisharat owe much of their success overall to their innovation and their eagerness to reinvent themselves and their products as times change as Fadoul emphasised, “we are constantly updating our systems, strengthening our offerings for our partners in the US, Western Europe, the Middle East, and beyond.”

“We are more flexible because we are small. Our reactivity and agility is recognised as being better than the big companies. When a client wants something new or an amendment, we don’t take 8 months to answer them, we answer them after 8 hours.”

Finally on their competitive advantage he is pithy, “It is like the difference between a boutique hotel and a big chain hotel; you can go to a Holiday Inn with 2,000 rooms or you can go to a boutique hotel with 60 rooms; you will be better pampered in a boutique hotel.”

BML Istisharat’s forward thinking and ability to adapt to the ever-changing needs of their customers has enabled them to become the go-to company for core banking and insurance software needs and represents a national success story for Lebanon.

With their client-centric approach always having been paramount as Faddoul declared, “Our success is their success, and vice versa. This is why we continue to be a partner of choice.”