Joseph Khawam
CEO, Securite Assurance
We are an old company in the sense that we have been in the market for the past 60 years and are growing fast—in 2016 we grew by nearly 25% on the strength of our service. In the world of insurance in Lebanon, clients are more often than not viewed as claim numbers; that is the jargon used about them. In reality, of course, these are not numbers but individuals with needs and a specific psychology and surroundings. We want to create an uncharacteristically good service so the next time a client or broker thinks about insurance, he or she will have no choice but to think about us. That is our vision. We are meant to change the insurance industry, and we come to work every day to do that. We have created a customer service department to make sure we listen to our clients. We need to have antennas to listen to them and understand how we can improve, and in case they have a problem to know how we can fix that problem.
Walid Hallassou
General Manager, GlobeMed
GlobeMed started its operations in Lebanon in 1991 as a third-party administrator catering to the Lebanese market. Back then, the concept of third-party administration (TPA) was still new in the region, and we were the first TPA in the country. After 26 years, we proudly serve both the private and public sectors through a diversified portfolio of insurance companies and self-funded and social health insurance schemes. Our business has slowly evolved from traditional claims processing to managing healthcare benefits; currently we are shifting more toward a “managed care“ strategy aimed at helping individuals lead a healthy lifestyle and patients with chronic disease better monitor their condition. Along the way, several milestones shaped our journey in Lebanon and beyond. In 1995, GlobeMed helped insurance companies create the Perpetual Plan, one of the most famous insurance programs for individuals and families and one of the first insurance products that people could acquire for a lifetime. It marked a true milestone in the health insurance sector.
René Klat
Chairman & CEO, René Klat
Thanks to the support of Natixis Assurances France, which belongs to Banque Populaire and Caisse d’épargne in France, Adir has been a leading expert in bancassurance since 2001. This partnership and transmitted expertise has helped ADIR become the fourth-largest life insurance firm in the Lebanese market. We have spent the past years working on bancassurance on the retail rather than the corporate side. In order to be able to offer more attractive products and schemes on a corporate level, new laws must be implemented encouraging insurance industries through tax deduction and other means. Now that we have entered a new era, we hope the government will start moving in a direction that favors laws friendly to the development of the country, especially regarding the development of the insurance sector. Altogether, we have more than 50 companies in Lebanon, though in my opinion only those partnering with international companies or banks could survive in the medium term. International penetration is relatively high in Lebanon, but there is certainly room for growth.
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