Arab Americans

Ziad Abdelnour

Ziad K. Abdelnour is a Lebanese-born American investment banker, financier and activist on Lebanon-related issues. He is President & CEO of Blackhawk Partners, Inc., Founder & President of the Financial Policy Council and President & Founder of the U.S Committee for a Free Lebanon.

Abdelnour is the son of Lebanese industrialist and former MP Khalil Abdelnour (1992-2000) and the nephew of former Lebanese mogul financier and MP Salem Abdelnour (1960-1964 and 1972-1992).

Abdelnour was born in Beirut, Lebanon. He received a BS degree in Economics in 1982 from the American University of Beirut, and an MBA degree in finance from the Wharton School of Finance, University of Pennsylvania.

Abdelnour was Chairman and a founding member of the United States Committee for A Free Lebanon; an activist organization lobbying the United States government to oppose Syria’s influence in Lebanon, supporting the Syria Accountability Act. He supported the neoconservative Middle East Forum, co-authoring a Forum study whose signatories included later George W. Bush administration officials Paula Dobriansky and Douglas Feith.

Following graduation in 1984 from the Wharton School, Abdelnour worked as an investment banker at Drexel Burnham Lambert where he was a successful junk bond trader under Michael Milken. In 2006, after a 22 year career on Wall Street advising and investing in privately held companies, he founded his own investment company/private family office, Blackhawk Partners, Inc. engaged in the physical commodities trading and private equity businesses.

In 2011 Abdelnour wrote Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politics, arguing that governments should focus on wealth creation, not job creation. In early May 2013, the SEC and Abdelnour settled a securities case which included a five-year sanction from the securities industry and a fine. As of early 2016, Richtopia ranked Abdelnour as one of The 500 Most Influential CEOs in the world.

Abdelnour is a regular speaker on TV and prolific writer on wealth creation, physical commodities trading and Middle East geo-political analysis at industry conferences nationwide.

Books

Abdelnour, Ziad (2011). Economic Warfare: Secrets of Wealth Creation in the Age of Welfare Politic. Wiley.

Source: Wikipedia