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Last Online: 5 Hours Ago Join Date: Wed Feb 2006 |  Rafik Baha Al-Din Hariri -
22nd November 2006
Rafik Baha al-din Hariri
Born in Saida (Lebanon) 1944-2005
Married to Nazek Audi
Educational Background Received Primary and Secondary schooling in Saida. Graduated from Beirut Arab University in higher commercial studies.
Professional Career Businessman, owner of several international companies including Saudi OGER (Saudi Arabia).
Other Activities Founded philanthropic, humanitarian and educational foundations in Lebanon, Jordan and Saudi Arabia to provide educational and medical assistance to the needy. Rafik Hariri, the eldest of three children, was born to Lebanese parents. He was raised in the modest home of a farming family in the southern coastal city of Saida (Sidon) and finished his secondary education in 1964. Upon completion of his studies in accountancy at the Beirut Arab University, and after responding to a job offer in the Lebanese daily newspaper An-Nahar, he emigrated to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in1965. For the next five years he worked there as an accountant and private tutor. In 1971 he founded his own construction firm "SICONEST", specialising in the accessory market for buildings.
Distinctions Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (1981)
Chevalier of the Italian Republic (1982)
Cedars National Medal (1983)
Saint Peter and Saint Paul Medal (1983)
Save the Children 50th. Anniversary Award (1983)
Medal of King Faysal (1983)
Medal de la Ville de Paris (1983)
Golden Key of Beirut (1983)
Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (1985)
Officer de la legion d'Honneur (1986)
Doctor Honoris Causa of Boston University (1986)
Doctor Honoris Causa de l'Université de Nice (1988)
Doctor Honoris Causa of the Arab University of Beirut (1993)
Medal of the Liberator of Argentina General Jose St. Martin (1995)
Prix Louise Michel - France (1995)
Doctor Honoris Causa of Georgetown
University Washington (1996)
Grand Croix de la légion d'Honneur (1996)
The Grand Cordon (1996)
Doctor Honoris Causa of Ottawa University (1997)
Doctor Honoris Causa of Montreal University (1997)
Accomplishments Courageous and capable of accomplishing the most difficult tasks, Rafik Hariri is a man of action. His first achievement came in 1977, when he built the Taif Inter - Continental Hotel to a deadline other contractors said was impossible to meet. The project was completed in a record time of 243 days, and was to have an impact on Mr. Hariri's subsequent fame and success. In 1978, he founded SAUDI OGER, in addition to a network of real estate and banking investments that extends world-wide.
Political, Social and Construction Activities. These investment activities were to benefit Lebanon during its crisis. Mr. Hariri adopted an enormous plan seeking to funnel social, educational and developmental assistance to those in need. To this end, he established and built the Kfarfalous Community Centre. The Educational and Social Spheres : Hariri Foundation
In 1979, Mr. Hariri established an educational institution for teaching children of poor and middle-class families otherwise obliged - because of war conditions and low earnings - to abandon the education of their children.
The Hariri Foundation sponsors scholarships to more than 36,000 students from the various communities and regions of Lebanon. By the end of 1996, some 16,257 of these students had graduated with university degrees of all levels in all disciplines.
In addition, Mr. Hariri provided modern equipment and financial assistance to many universities and hospitals during the war. The Hariri Foundation has built and equipped three large schools and supplied health services to the poor throught Lebanon. Mr. Hariri has also advanced educational efforts in the United States. The Rafik B. Hariri building at the Boston University School of Management is the world's most technologically sophisticated management facility and the first ever designed in its entirety to teach management as an integrated system. Construction Projects Mr. Hariri has contributed immensely to rebuilding what was demolished in the city of his birth, Saida, by the Israeli invasion. He has made great efforts to remove the remnants of war by repairing public utilities, building infrastructure and highways, expanding roads and port facilities, and taking special care with renovation of archaeological remains and religious centres.
- 1980 witnessed the start of the largest construction plan ever known by South Lebanon, the Kfarfalous University Complex which cost $ 300 million. The project includes a hospital, university and technical colleges. This complex, situated in one ofthe most deprived areas of Lebanon, was a flicker of hope for the region's inhabitants. But the Israeli invasion of South Lebanon in 1982 shattered this hope as the better part of this project was demolished and its equipment stolen. Mr. Hariri's residence in Majdalune was also ransacked.
- From September 6, 1982 to October 1983, Mr. Hariri set his institution the job of again reparring the damage inflicted by Israel's bombing and the siege of Beirut. A semblance of normality was restored as earth barriers were removed, roads re-opened, re-paved and re-lit. Rubble and shattered building were removed, historic buildings were renovated in Beirut's commercial district and the service sector of the city's southern suburb was also repaires.
- In late February 1983, Lebanon was struck by a snowstorm that caused many human casualties and much material damage. Mr. Hariri instructed his institutions to provide assistance to those in danger and victims recovered. Food and medical relief were sent to isolated towns and villages as efforts were made to re-open roads.
- In 1985, Mr. Hariri's construction enterprise renovated Tripoli's archaeological sites, water and sewage networks, in addition to lighting roads and city squares.
1992 - 1996 No single event since the war ended has had a greater positive impact on the Lebanese economy than the appointment, on 28 October 1992, of Rafik Hariri to the position of President of the council of ministers of Lebanon. In a relatively short period, the value of the Lebanese pound vis-a-vis the dollar appreciated. His appointment restored confidence in and stability to the Lebanese economy and increased efficiency through implementation of infrastructural developmental and service projects. His objective was to eradicate the effects of war and revive the economy on the one hand, and take up future challenges by maintaing up global progress on the other.
At this level, Mr. Hariri enjoyed considerable success as Lebanon witnessed the return of foreign embassies as well as Arab and international tourist investment companies. Under his leadership, Lebanon re-emerged on the world's financial markets through the issue of Eurobonds.
One of Mr. Hariri's top priorities was to improve the standard of education, health, and living for Lebanese people by encouraging investment, and private and public sector production in order to create new opportunities that would bolster competition. He also addressed the refugee problem by establishing the Ministry for Displaced People in April of 1993. It continues to help resettle thousands of Lebanese refugees in to their villages and neighbourhoods.
- Following the Israeli expulsion of some 400 Palestinians to Lebanon on December 17, 1992, Mr. Hariri, despite international pressure, refused their entry into Lebanese territory. This firm decision was based on the belief that lenience by the Lebanese government would only encourage Israel's expulsion policies and thus push Lebanon back to a situation which all Lebanese would rather view as something in their past. Mr. Hariri's refusal to accept the Palestinian deportees demonstrated that Lebanon is a sovereign state unwilling to serve as Israeląs dumping ground.
- On September 25, 1994 work began on one of the biggest construction sites the Middle East has witnessed to date : the reconstruction of Beirut Central District. President of the council of ministers Hariri declared that rebuilding the heart of the capital symbolised rebuilding spititual home of all the Lebanese towards a common future.
- In May 1995, President of the council of ministers Hariri was re-appointed to form his second cabinet.
- After the so-called "Grapes of Wrath" Israeli aggression, which began on April 11, 1996 and was to culminate in the Qana massacre, President of the council of ministers Hariri undertook diplomatic efforts in Europe and the Arab world to help achieve a ceasefire and thus put an end to the aggression as well as secure pledges to compensate for damages inflicted by Israel.
- These efforts came to fruition on 16 December 1996 at the "Friends of Lebanon" Conference held in Washington where Foreign Ministers and delegates from thirty-one countries took part. The Lebanese government proposed thirty-one projects amounting to $ 5 billion to the participants, among them representatives of prominent international financial institutions. The conference was a remarkable success for Lebanon which won an overwhelming vote of confidence for its reconstruction and development programs.
- On September 7, 1996, President of the council of ministers Hariri was elected as a Deputy for Beirut and thirteen of his seventeen-member electoral list were also elected. Mr. Hariri garnered 69% of the electoral vote.
- On November 25, 1996, President of the council of ministers Hariri was asked to form his third successive Cabinet.
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