Passion and profit in Lebanon
A brief Q&A with Carlos Ghosn
A brief Q&A with Carlos Ghosn, a Lebanese investor and mega-manager in the field of automotive manufacturing
Carlos Ghosn, who is BrazilianLebanese, is the chairman and chief executive of the French automotive group Renault, chairman and chief executive officer of the Nissan-Renault Alliance, and chairman of the board at Nissan Motor Corporation. During a recent visit to Lebanon, he participated in the launch of a realestate project that will be based in the cedars region and found a few minutes to answer questions from Executive by phone. Thank you for taking time to talk with
EXECUTIVE. In your capacity as chairman of a globally leading car manufacturing group, you’ve been interviewed about the future of cars, the art of leadership, and about transforming and running a global corpo- ration. How do you make time in all your busy schedules to talk about Lebanon?
I obviously have very few occasions to talk about Lebanon, usually at a moment when I am taking a few days of vacation and am visiting the country. It would be fair to say that there is a lot of interest in Lebanon, its investments, economic activity, and development, and I think it’s a responsibility for anybody who is attached to this country to contribute a little bit of time to try to enlighten the public about what can be done and what cannot be done.
It’s known in Lebanon that you have had connections to this country for many years, including consulting and advisory roles, but I understand that specifically this month there was the launch of a real estate project called Cedrar, of which you are a board member and investor.
Yes.
Is your investment in Lebanon more of a passion investment, or does it come with a profit motive?
It’s both. The most important contribution that people of Lebanese origin who are living and working abroad can give to the country is to invest in the country. This is because investment is about job creation, about development of the country, [and] about valorizing the assets in the country, whatever these assets are: land, or quality, or anything else.
[This investment] is not about optimizing profit, because we know that