I am a practicing attorney at law with 20-year expertise in corporate law. She is the legal counsel of a group of companies investing in several sectors, including but not limited to energy, hospitality, and real estate, located mainly in the Gulf, Lebanon, the USA, and Europe. She still advises and provides legal counsel and consultancies for local and international companies. She is also the VP of The Society of Management & Development Consultants (SMDC) association, regrouping experts and consultants to raise the standards of the consulting field. Hadia holds an EMBA from ESA business school and currently finishing her DBA at ESA, focusing on business human rights matters.

I am a law graduate from Saint Joseph University with an EMBA from ESA/EAP/ESCP. Currently, I am also doing the DBA program at ESA/IAE; the subject of my dissertation is geared toward understanding how corporations approach the respect of human rights in extreme contexts, choosing Lebanon as a showcase because of its failed status - part of business ethics and strategy and Business and Human Rights (BHR). One might wonder why a lawyer needs a DBA or MBA. Nevertheless, since my career as a practitioner was geared towards corporate law, I needed to understand the markets, economies, and how businesses and their participants interact to provide adequate legal consultancies and opinions to my clients. This is why I accomplished an EMBA at ESA/EAP/ESCP. The curriculum was decisive for the advancement of my expertise in corporate law. I was thrust into diverse fields, particularly drafting agreements at the international level and consultancies that were not accessible to me with a law degree. I also understood the world of finance, and as basic as it seems, I could read and understand balance sheets, income, and cash flow statements. 

My first encounter with business ethics was in 2009 when the Institute of Finance selected me with another lawyer to attend the workshop in Budapest at CEU, which topic was Managing Integrity: Strategies and Approaches; the spectrum of attendees varied from business people, lawyers, pollical activists, public servants, members of international organizations and NGOs, etc. Naturally, I was fascinated with the courses, policy labs, research, and studies concerning corruption and the methods to deter it. Once back in Lebanon, we drafted a joint report detailing our learnings, findings, and the potential route for anti-corruption measures and regulations.

Furthermore, working as a Senior in-house legal counsel for the past six years for a holding with a mother company based in the US, due diligence, reporting, and compliance matters were at the heart of my daily tasks. My profound involvement in NGOs whose objectives aligned with regulations, codes of conduct, compliance, reforms, norms, think tanks, etc., was a large trigger to push me to dig more into the BHR field and pursue a DBA. 

I am passionate and do things with passion. I don’t shun away from the challenges I face; my EMBA was a challenge that I completed with high grades, and organizing think tanks and drafting policy briefs was another challenge that I carried out for two consecutive years at the rate of one think tank per month with high attendance and success at every session, undergoing a DBA is as well a challenge that I intend to carry out with dedication and appreciation.

Intervention on SMEs and business environment