This issue is sponsored by Hilton Hotels

Inside This Issue

Fall 2016 Newsletter

10

Members News

AmCham Welcomes U.S. Ambassador Elizabeth Richard

Interact Offers

U.S. Trade Fairs12

Startup Lebanon – Silicon Valley Roadshow 2016

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Continued on page 3

Building on the tremendous success of Start Up Lebanon - NYC 2015 which brought together over 300 attendees, including entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals representing the best of Lebanon’s startup ecosystem alongside industry leaders and executives from NYC and Washington DC – the American Lebanese Chamber of Commerce and Startup Megaphone organized Lebanon’s first Startup Roadshow in North America, joining forces to ensure a large, representative delegation of ecosystem stakeholders from Lebanon to meet, network, and connect with industry leaders in California. The objectives of the Silicon Valley Roadshow were to:

•Expose key stakeholders from Lebanon’s Startup Ecosystem to best practices in investing, acceleration, mentorship, community building, and more.

•Connect industry leaders in Lebanon with Startup veterans in Silicon Valley to facilitate bridge building, knowledge sharing, and business development.

•Foster innovation in Lebanon through immersive onsite experiential journeys at leading international tech companies.

•Facilitate fundraising for Lebanese Startups, accelerators, and VCs by connecting them with top US VCs, accelerators, and angel investors.

•Highlight the Lebanese market opportunity to U.S. startups, investors, and accelerators, and Lebanon’s role as its gateway.

•Bring together decision makers from the U.S. and Lebanon at an interactive gala dinner in a leading venue in San Francisco.

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Member News

American Lebanese Chamber of CommerceDirector Paola ChakhtouraAddress 1153 Foch Street Beirut Central DistrictP.O. Box 175093 Beirut, LebanonPhone/ Fax +961 1 985330-1Web www.amcham.org.lbE-mail info@amcham.org.lb

Board of Directors and Officers

Salim J. Zeenni ChairmanMaher Y. Beydoun VP for Public RelationsArslan M. Sinno VP for MembershipRichard A. Haykel VP for International AffairsWalid T. Assaf TreasurerNadim Kassar Secretary GeneralRabah Jaber Board MemberFadi Saab Board MemberNadim Romanos Board MemberHani Raad Board MemberBarbara Batlouni Board MemberGaby Tamer Board MemberBana Akkad Azhari Board MemberMichel Sawaya Board MemberJean Riachi Board MemberDoumit Raidy Board MemberSami Fahed Board Member

Philip Morris News:

It is no secret that smoking was, and still is, a worldwide debate that has stirred a wave of controversy throughout the years ever since its conception. While the World Health Organization (WHO) utilized all possible tools and efforts into pushing smokers to adopt a ‘quit or die’ approach, advanced studies were carried out with the aim of reducing smoking’s harmful risks. As a result, vaping comes in as a groundbreaking technology that offers smokers far less harmful nicotine-containing products.

While several studies show that a great number of people in several countries have already switched completely to vape products as a permanent alternative to smoking combustible cigarettes, the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)’s strategy of opposing vaping alternatives ignores the tremendous public health opportunities that technological innovation can bring to the nearly 1 billion smokers around the world.

Consequently, Julian Morris, VP of Research at the Reason Foundation, believes in a recently published report by the Foundation that “the FCTC has not been a stellar success on its own terms,” adding that it is crucial that the WHO embrace and accept vaping technologies as reduced-risk products, moving away from the failed ‘quit or die’ approach, which has led to adverse effects on the well-being of smokers.

New Studies Show Promising Effects of Vaping Technology on Smokers

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Continued from page 1

Lebanon’s first representative delegation of VCs, policymakers, executives, startups, lawyers, and media was part of Start Up Lebanon - Silicon Valley Roadshow 2016, an immersive week of bridge building at 24 change-making institutions including Google, Facebook, Instagram, SAP, Stanford, 500 Startups, Singularity University, the European Innovation Day, TechCrunch, Leade.rs, HeroCity, Yamaha Motor Ventures, Peerspace, SamaSource, SmartRecruiters, Open Garden (FireChat), GSMA, AnchorFree, StartX, Sprayable, WeWork, HoboLabs, and Compass.

The Delegation included the Embassy of the United States in Lebanon, the American Lebanese Chamber of Commerce, Lebanon’s Capital Markets Authority, Startup Megaphone, Berytech ($72 m early stage VC fund), Leap Ventures ($75 million growth stage VC fund), MEVP ($70 million early stage VC fund), Phoenician Fund ($50 million seed and early stage VC fund), Kafalat ($25 million equity investment matching fund), UK Lebanon Tech Hub (leading accelerator and ecosystem support institution), the Lebanese Broadcast Corporation International (LBCI), Pepsi Lebanon, Firehorse (emerging markets digital content marketplace), Sensio Air of White Lab, and Salhab Partners Law Firm (leading startup law firm in Lebanon). The group delivered a strong message of unparalleled business opportunities in an exceptional frontier market. Embedded journalists and reporters from An-Nahar, LBCI, and MTV flew to Silicon Valley with the delegation and relayed this message of hope back to Lebanon.

The roadshow showcased Lebanon’s opportunity and potential, with the aim of building bridges

between the two ecosystems, and attracting veteran VCs, corporate VCs, and accelerators to set up Lebanon startup funds, while also inviting tech giants to set up Research &Development centers in Lebanon. The Capital Markets Authority was seeking insights into how best to write up modern equity investment and corporate laws to facilitate startup growth, and the VCs were seeking (1) exit routes for their investments, (2) to act as co-investment gateways to the MENA market, (3) investment advisory members, and (4) insights into investment best practices.

The week closed with an exquisite interactive Gala Dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco, bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, and executives from around the world to celebrate the success of the Roadshow.

Internet Hall of Famer and founder of the Internet Archive, Brewster Kahle, headlined the Gala, followed by inspiring keynote remarks by Ramzi Haidamous (previous CEO Nokia Technologies and VP Dolby Laboratories), Abdo Kadifa (Chairman of LebNet), Mark Haidar (CEO of Vinli), David Hamod (President of National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce). Finally the team at Sensio Air gave a presentation on their innovative product.

Each and every institution and individual the AmCham Roadshow delegation visited was positively marked by the engagements and interactions, with all circling back with uplifting feedback and requests for partnerships and collaboration. Lebanon is rapidly becoming the Mediterranean and MENA’s leading startup hub.

Day 1

Stimulating presentation and Q&A discussion on cutting-edge ultrasonics by Professor Khuri-Yakub at Stanford.

Google power lunch in Mountain View with half a dozen Googlers handling everything from Android Partnerships to YouTube and more.

European Innovation Day at the Computer History Museum with Tim Draper.

Delegation Welcome Dinner.

Day 2

Morning at Keith Teare’s, Co-Founder of TechCrunch, discussing investment strategies, funnels, pipelines, and dealflow.

Peerspace power lunch discussing the share economy.

Hiro Saijo, CEO of Yamaha Motor Ventures, explains how MotoBot is learning how to beat Valentino Rossi.

The Lebanese Delegation gets a warm welcome by LeWeb Co-Founder Loic Le Meur at the sold-out Leade.rs Bots event.

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Silicon Valley Roadshow Agenda

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Day 3

Breakfast in Palo Alto at HanaHaus, SAP’s award winning co-working space, discussing how to build a sustainable co-working space.

Site visit and design thinking case studies at Stanford’s d.School.

HIVE Demo (HANA Immersive Visualization Environment).

Private lunch talk on innovation in large enterprises with Jonathan Becher, Chief Digital Officer of SAP and technological singularity with Emeline Paat Dahlstrom, Chief Impact Officer of Singularity University.

Leila Janah, founder of SamaSource, explaining how mechanical turks are lifting people out of poverty around the world.

SmartRecruiters CEO Jerome Ternynck, sharing insights on how to solve one of the biggest challenges of any enterprise, small or large: recruitment.

Open Garden CEO Paul Hainsworth presents the peer-to-peer mesh networking technology that makes FireChat so resilient.

Heather Blanchard, Director of Ecosystem Partnerships at GSMA, hosts a networking dinner for the Lebanese delegation.

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Day 4

Early morning at AnchorFree, with Eugene Malobrodsky, co-founder & CTO, discussing the cat and mouse game of VPNs, and the importance of Internet freedom.

Private Facebook tour followed by on-campus lunch with partnerships, engineering, and section heads.

Discussion with Facebook IPv6 legend Paul Saab on next gen communications.

Meet and greet of Sprayable’s co-founder Ben Yu, with a sampling of the new innovative Sprayable Sleep (melatonin spray).

Day 5

Powertalk and Q&A discussion with Marvin Liao, Partner at 500 Startups, on accelerators, seed investing, and startup culture.

A frank discussion with Alex Asseily, co-founder of Jawbone, on the unique challenges of hardware startups, with brilliant insights on the revolutionary AirPods by Apple.

An in-depth look at the intricacies of mobile game development with Lyle Fong of Hobo Labs.

Global startup ecosystem insights at Startup Genome, with Co-founder Marc Penzel and President JF Gauthier.

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Gala Dinner

Internet Hall of Famer and Founder of the Internet Archive, Brewster Kahle, headlined Start Up Lebanon - Silicon Valley Roadshow 2016’s Gala Dinner at the Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco, followed by inspiring keynote speeches by Ramzi Haidamous (CEO Nokia Technologies), Abdo Kadifa (Chairman of LebNet), Mark Haidar (CEO of Vinli), and David Hamod (President of National U.S.-Arab Chamber of Commerce).

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AmCham Welcomes U.S. Ambassador Elizabeth Richard

On October 12, the American Lebanese Chamber of Commerce held a welcome lunch in honor of newly appointed U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon H.E. Elizabeth Richard, at the Eau De Vie restaurant. The lunch was attended by several officials, heads of economic associations, U.S. Embassy staff, and AmCham members.

AmCham Chairman Salim Zeenni delivered an opening message in which he welcomed the Ambassador to Lebanon, explaining that, “…so many private initiatives have been created, across all sectors, overriding the bureaucracies and corruption of the government. Business associations like the AmCham are a key element for the American-Lebanese relationship, adding substantial commercial and diplomatic ties, while developing affinity between our two countries. Effective, persistent lobbying can bring results, and that is why it has been a major part of our mission since the beginning.”

He continued by noting, “We know what is possible when American and Lebanese individuals and institutions work together, based on shared values, to the benefit of both our societies. This is why we will continue to seek the cooperation and support of the United States, and we are expecting an ever stronger partnership with you being here, adding strength and guidance to our efforts. There is a lot to look forward to, and the American Lebanese Chamber of Commerce is very excited about engaging Lebanon’s private sector with your Embassy, as partners in economic growth.”

Ambassador Richard then took the floor and spoke eloquently and dynamically to the audience. She started by recognizing AmCham’s “tremendous and sustained efforts to promote Lebanese-American trade,” noting that, “Over the years, AmCham and the U.S. Embassy in Beirut have partnered on a variety of issues and we’ve always worked for our shared vision of greater commercial ties between our two countries. And we’re continuing that work today.” Continuing her remarks, Amb. Richard stated, “Before coming here, many friends and many former Ambassadors, who you all know, could not stop talking about how dynamic and fantastic the Lebanese business community, and Lebanese American Chamber, was here in Lebanon. I listened to them, I heard about the creativity and the energy but I didn’t really understand it until I came here and met all of you. You are the rock on which the Lebanese economy stands. Your work is creating new jobs and opportunities that are essential for this country’s growth.”

She added, “No country can survive on its own in today’s interconnected global economy. And that is really true for the smaller economies like Lebanon’s, but even the United States, we cannot survive alone. The AmCham has been an indispensable force for promoting good business practices that are helping to make Lebanon much more competitive in that very global business environment… You have all, each one of you, acted as Ambassadors for Lebanon in a way that encourages and gives great confidence to U.S.

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private industries and private businesses to trade with and invest in this country. But your government also has its roles and responsibilities. This is especially true when it comes to passing critical legislation to keep Lebanon competitive and connected to both the international financial system and the global marketplace. And it is high time for government to do its part.”On the great potential of the Lebanese youth, Richard said, “I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done together, so far. We’ve expanded our partnership with the private sector here to connect investors with promising new entrepreneurs around our country in the United States. We can do a lot more, and you have my promise, from the very beginning of my time here, that I will do more because at the end of the day this is the part of our shared effort that needs to succeed.”

In closing, she stated, “Lebanon is not going to face these challenges alone. The United States has, it is, and will continue to stand with Lebanon shoulder to shoulder as we all go forward. We are not the sole partner in this. It takes two to have a partnership and I am very, very confident and delighted by the strong partnership we have with all of you. But I have to stop here and say a very special word about Salim (Zeenni) whose leadership, whose energy, whose creativity and whose absolute dedication and devotion to the work that all of you are doing and that we are doing to improve things in this country is just beyond belief, and I can’t salute you enough for the things that you’ve done for us today, yesterday for many, many years, and I know you’ll keep doing for us in the future.”

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Interact 2016

Interact is intended to promote business between AmCham members and to stimulate intra-AmCham business relationships. The program allows you to inform fellow members in Lebanon, as well as members of the AmCham MENA Regional Council (AmCham Abu Dhabi, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia) of any business offers or benefits you are willing to give them exclusively. AmCham members are privileged to benefit from other MENA AmChams’ offers, making this an opportunity for members to present each other with products and services at favorable terms and conditions, hence increasing business between them.

Send your offers for 2017 to info@amcham.org.lb... and begin to interact!

AMIDEASTAMIDEAST, a regional leader in training and assessment, offers all AmCham members a 10% discount on the following services in Lebanon:

English Language Testing and Training

• Test the real English skills of potential new hires and current employees to save time and money on training. The Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC®) is the global standard for measuring workplace proficiency in English language.

• Are the English skills of your employees as good as they need to be in this global market?

We offer Public English Language Courses and Private Business English Courses for Companies.

Training Workshops

AMIDEAST offers many public and sponsored training workshops each year. Upcoming topics include:

• Project Management Professional • Social Media • Communication & Negotiation• HR Series Workshops• Sales Team Development • Presentation Skills• Certified Associate in Project Management• Project Management Series Workshops• Grow Your Own Business• Start Your Own Business

To discuss your company’s training and assessment needs, and how AMIDEAST can help:

Call: Raya at +961-1-989901, ext 132 Email: rkalash@amideast.org

Visit: www.amideast.org/lebanon

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ADIRClick here for the offer

For more info call: Ms. Rita Fahedon 961 1 256290 Ext: 209

Le GrayWe are happy to offer our below promotions to AmCham members and their esteemed companies

WEEKEND ESCAPE (VALID TILL 28 DECEMBER 2016) (Valid on Saturdays and Sundays only)Take a break from your daily routine and offer your couple moments to remember in the beating heart

of the city where you are at a stone’s throw from everything; nightlife, shopping and gastronomy.

Book Weekending at Le Gray and take in all the positive vibes you need to recharge and give yourself a new lease of life.

The package is at US$ 400+10% VAT per night for two and includes:

A double upgrade to our spacious Executive Suite Breakfast at Indigo on the Roof A couple’s massage at PureGray Spa Dinner at Gordon’s Café including a 3-course menu and a glass of Lebanese wine Late checkout till 16:00Hrs

FALL INTO WINTER (VALID TILL 28 DECEMBER 2016)

Seasons change and Beirut’s joie de vivre stays the same!

Fall into Winter in the capital’s beating heart; enjoy the cooling weather, walk and feel the city vibes, delight in the best food, discover top-notch shopping and don’t miss to witness thousands of

years in history and heritage.Take advantage of our generous room offers this autumn and winter with ....

Book our Deluxe Room 40 sqm ,and benefit from an upgrade to our comfortable large Premium Room 50 sqm for USD 305.00 + 10% VAT Room only, per room/per night.

Book our Premium Room 50 sqm, and benefit from an upgrade to our wonderfully large Executive Suites 60 sqm in addition to your daily breakfast with our compliments.

USD 355.00 + 10% VAT Room and Buffet Breakfast for one/two persons, per room/per night

SUITE STAY: (VALID TILL 28 DECEMBER 2016)

Book a Terrace Suite 60sqm and get upgraded to our very spacious Corner Suite 90sqm in addition to your breakfast offered with our compliments.

Package at USD 595.00 +10% VAT Room and Buffet Breakfast for one/two persons, per room/per night

We would like to seize the opportunity and invite you to watch our #52ShadesofLeGray video series for an immersing visual experience into our world. Please enjoy and subscribe. You may

also get our news and updates on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

For more info call Le Gray on 01-971111

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HiltonFeaturing 380 guestrooms, Hilton Beirut Metropolitan Palace and Hilton Beirut Habtoor Grand

are located in the heart of the Lebanese capital, offering a world-class range of business and leisure facilities. Pamper your palates in one of their exquisite restaurants ranging from French fine dining to Italian cuisine. For those who wish to unwind, the 3,500sqm Elixir Spa & Health Club, offers an extensive selection of therapeutic treatments and an innovative gym to de-stress

your mind and restore your sense of well-being.Hilton Beirut is happy to grant AmCham Members with an exclusive discount of 15% at the Elixir

Spa as well as in all its restaurants including Le Ciel, Jazz Bar and Venezia. Amcham members can also benefit from special corporate rates on any room booking.

For more information, contact Georges Karam, Director of Business Development, atgeorges.karam@hilton.com or +9613874849

Terms and conditions apply. This offer is valid until the end of April 2016.

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