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SubscribeTalking To: Nada Abdelsater-Abusamra
In June 2009 Nada Abdelsater-Abusamra became the first Lebanese recipient of the prestigious Rising Star of Corporate Governance Award, from the Millstein Center for Corporate Governance and Performance at the Yale School of Management. Joining ten global corporate governance professionals in the award’s second annual ceremony, Abdelsater-Abusamra was recognized as one of the “outstanding analysts, experts, activists, and managers,” whose work was “more meaningful given the financial crisis, corporate governance failures and need to reform.”
Abdelsater-Abusamra is an international corporate and finance legal advisor, admitted to the courts of both Beirut and New York, a pioneer in corporate governance in the Middle East, an advisor to central banks, private and public financial institutions and NGOs and a Lecturer at the American University of Beirut.
The war had a large impact on her life during her childhood. Her father served as an officer in internal security, and her mother was a school director and teacher.
“That is where I got my discipline,” she said, “I had a strict upbringing.”
Most of Abdelsater-Abusamra’s childhood was spent in shelters. Her father, who was mostly away from home, still insisted that she go to school.
“All of my Dad’s family, except his brother, were killed in the Chouf massacre in 1977. Both my grandparents, both my aunts, her husband and kids, and my dad’s grandmother, they were eleven members of his close family and 67 of his relatives. It was right after the assassination of Kamal Jumblatt. They wouldn’t tell us. When we’d ask about my grandparents, they’d tell us that they travelled to the US.”
Abdelsater-Abusamra said that she was not brought up with a mentality of revenge, but that doesn’t mean that the past is forgotten.
“It is an important milestone of my life and personality, as it is for every family who has lived through such an experience,” she said.
Abdelsater-Abusamra is currently a board member of the Lebanese Transparency Association (LTA) where her social concerns are stemmed from her past experiences, one of which is reconciliation. According to her, there is a grassroots social reconciliation that has not taken place in Lebanon yet, whether between the Druze and the Christian, the Christians and the Christians, or the Sunni and the Shia.
“I am working toward this in several ways,” she explained. “A few months ago we launched a program called the Lebanese youth coalition to fight corruption, and it was under the patronage of President Michel Sleiman. This network includes around 500 young people from all regions of Lebanon. It’s a joint effort between IREX (an international NGO) and the LTA. It aims to raise youth awareness about corruption and empower them. The groups are supposed to submit what they see as a worthwhile project, one of which is a project taking place in Brih, a village in the Chouf, where reconciliation has not yet happened.”
The project, Abdelsater-Abusamra explained, was titled “Sports Against Corruption,” and aimed to encourage healing and closure. The corruption at this level, she says, is “religious animosity corruption.” The project brings together young Christians and Druze from Brih, whose parents have not completed their reconciliation yet, and who have heard “atrocious stories” from both sides.
“These people need to form a sports team, and prepare to play a game against another team from another place. So overall they have to coordinate and trust each other, and they have to win. They have to understand that if one wins then the other wins too. This project is very dear to my heart, because I’m overseeing it. I’m the chairperson of the board of trustees and my role is to guide and monitor.”
Abdelsater-Abusamra said that during kindergarten, she wouldn’t participate in class. After her teacher complained to her mother, she was sent to a special school for kids who have “different potential.” They were convinced that she was “just bored” and tried enrolling her in a higher class to test her intelligence. They discovered that she picked up really well, and from that point on she was always two years younger than all her classmates.
“I wanted to be a lawyer for a long time, and everybody thought I would be one, that I would be defending people. In school, even though I was two years younger, I was always a student representative, I was a militant by nature.”
Abdelsater-Abusamra first attended the American University of Beirut to pursue a degree in Biology, but she soon realized that Medicine was not the path for her, so she switched to the Law program at Universite Saint Joseph (USJ). She also worked for a Master’s degree in international affairs at the Lebanese American University (LAU) and also a Masters degree in corporate and finance law at Harvard Law School. Even at Harvard, Abdelsater-Abusamra was able to leave a mark. She was the first Lebanese woman to be elected as chairperson of student representatives of a class of 120, all doing postgraduate degrees.
“The 120 students elect five student representatives, who then elect the chairperson. I was first women and Lebanese be elected for this. I started an academic reform at Harvard. International students were not allowed to take the same number of credits as the local, they didn’t want to overload us, so there was a cap. We asked for reform and lifted this cap, and students who came after us were able to benefit from our achievements. We were the only Lebanese that year, so in terms of voting force, we were not many. I ended up getting the highest number of votes, even though I was the youngest of the five.”
Explaining corporate governance, Abdelsater-Abusamra said that the term refers to good governance for both the public and private sector. On that account, whatever good governance can be applied in the corporate world can also be applied to governments, parliaments and the rest of public institutions. In simple terms, the main aim of corporate governance is to insure that the job is done right. In corporate terms, “it is how to make sure that good management is taking place, thus ensuring that I have a system that is running well.”
“My approach is to draw parallels between the companies and the state. In a democratic model of a company, we have the shareholders, who elect the board of directors, and the board, who will appoint and oversee management. In a country we have parliament electing the president, and the president who will form the cabinet with the Prime Minister-designate, whose administration oversees management. So it’s really very similar.”
Abdelsater-Abusamra said that she found it very interesting teaching the course at a time when Lebanon had so many intensely contested issues. At the time, the parliament was not convening, because the speaker did not want to call for a meeting. She used this as an example to compare to corporate structure, where only the chairman makes the decision, as opposed to corporate governance, where decision-making is shared.
“Then came the right of minorities to be represented on board, it is a corporate governance principle that minority shareholders are represented on board, and so the statement provoked March 14 supporters. It’s a company’s law course and it ends up in endless discussions. These are examples of governance issues that at the end of the day are the same, in terms of guiding principles that would lead to a solution either in public or private sector governance.”
At home, Abdelsater-Abusamra said, her 9 year-old daughter Yasmina is the “chairperson of the house.” Smiling, she said, “If you look at my desk, I have the diary of the high school musical right next to the Lebanese constitution.”
“I try my best to teach my children these values, which I learned way before corporate governance, through my parents.
These are the basis of any good governance, of your own being, of your family, your company, your country. The good values. These are the most important things in life, ethics and values.”
Originally published July 13, 2009 by NOW Lebanon. http://nowlebanon.com/