Robert Fadel

Dear Friends,

2011 marks the 5th anniversary of Bader Young Entrepreneurs Program. Since 2006, Bader has grown to include many activities and reach the whole of Lebanon. In a way, it is the reflection of how the Lebanese entrepreneurial ecosystem has developed.

In keeping with its original mission, Bader is promoting entrepreneurship in Lebanon and giving the tools for entrepreneurs to become more successful. To do so, we are present at all the development stages of the entrepreneur’s lifecycle from idea generation to funding to expansion. Furthermore, what makes Bader different from other organizations is that we are focused on “high impact” projects, i.e. projects that have potential for international growth. We all know that the Lebanese market is a small one, thus for companies to develop, create revenue (and taxes), hire more people (and give them opportunities in Lebanon thus stopping the brain drain), and diversify from our country risk, entrepreneurs need to look beyond our borders for expansion. Besides, by being present at regional or international level, Lebanese entrepreneurs will be able to disseminate the “Lebanese savoir faire”, i.e. our skills and talents of which Lebanon has plenty of.

Bader’s mission is a hard one because, contrary to the perception, high impact entrepreneurs are rare in Lebanon. Thus, finding them, nurturing them and having those success stories that will inspire others take time. Nonetheless, our efforts are seeing already results that will be consolidated in the coming months and years.

Notably in the past 5 years, we have launched under our Education initiatives a Workshop program that reached out to the underprivileged areas of Lebanon, an Entrepreneurs’ Clinic where we provide free expert advice to entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship clubs in universities where we disseminate entrepreneurial knowledge to students, the Deutsche Bank Creative Award aimed at giving 2 prizes of €10,000 to creative projects and finally our scholarship program which awarded almost $250,000 in 3 years.

Our Finance initiative saw the launch of the first Business Angel network in Lebanon, the Lebanese Business Angel (LBA) which closed its first investment of $100,000 in an agro-food company.

Our Networking initiatives saw the successful launch of Networking 961, a unique event which gathered almost 300 persons from all across Lebanon for the sole purpose of networking, finding investors, partners or clients.

On another level, Bader’s partnership with the World Economic Forum (WEF) allowed Lebanon to be ranked for the first time in the WEF Global Competitiveness Ranking at 92 out of 139 countries.

Our belief in our young talents and the strength of Lebanese entrepreneurs has been reinforced day after day as we see them grow and flourish. In times like these where there is some much uncertainty, our commitment to support the young entrepreneurial generation is stronger than ever.

On behalf of the Bader team, we thank you for your support.

Robert Fadel

President