Saadeh Al-Shami has been appointed as Deputy Prime Minister in Lebanon’s newly-formed government that was announced on Friday. Here’s everything you need to know about him.
Al-Shami is an expert in economics and financial policies, and a former professor who headed the Graduate School of Business at the American University of Beirut between 1987 and 1993.
He spent 20 years of his career working at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where he focused on the fields of economic policies and financial and economic reform strategies.
In his latest position at the IMF, he served as an assistant to the director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department.
Nominated by the Syrian Social Nationalist Party for the deputy PM position, Al-Shami served as the head of Lebanon’s Capital Markets Authority from 2013 to 2017.
From there, he moved on to become Group Chief Economist at the National Bank of Kuwait in 2018.
He also worked briefly at the Lebanese premiership and the Finance Ministry between 2005 and 2006, where he headed a specialized team to create a comprehensive economic reform program for Lebanon.
