São Paulo – The Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) appointed a new secretary-general in early August: entrepreneur and business manager Mohamad Orra Mourad. A Brazilian that descends from Palestinians and Lebanese and the vice president for international relations of the ABCC, Mourad was invited by the current leadership of the institution to become its secretary-general.
Already in office, on Friday (16) the new secretary-general was presented to the ABCC’s Board of Directors by it’s president, Osmar Chohfi, at a meeting in the head office in São Paulo.
Holding a degree in Business Administration with concentration in Finance from the Santa Clara University in the United States, Mourad takes on the role after coming from the real estate sector, with operations in industrial and logistic warehouses. Before that, he’d had business in the textile industry, which was how his family first settled in Brazil.
The new secretary-general is the son of a Lebanese immigrant father – Moustafa Mourad, who came from Lebanon to Brazil in 1949 – but his mother’s family has older immigration stories, from Lebanon, Palestine and Italy. “My father came to Brazil like every immigrant, in search of an opportunity, of making it in life,” says Mourad, adding that his mother’s ancestors, despite from another time, came looking for the same thing: a better life.
Unaware of the ties he’d later establish there, Mourad’s father knocked on the door of his would-be father-in-law in São Paulo upon arriving in Brazil through the Port of Santos. Moustafa and his father-in-law were distantly connected. “My grandfather said, ‘you’ll be staying with me,’” says Mourad. So Moustafa started peddling and building the family business – from door-to-door sales to wholesale and then weaving in the bed, table and bath industry.
Between Lebanon and Brazil
Mohamad Orra Mourad is the second of three children and grew up between Brazil and Lebanon. His family even decided to actually return to their country of origin but saw the plan collapse due to the war in 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon. Mourad lived in Lebanese lands for short periods in his childhood, first when he was a baby and then for approximately five years. “There were some attempts at moving back to Lebanon, and they all failed because of the war, but we still never stopped going,” hey says, stressing that this was maintained in the family he himself raised.
Joining the ABCC was a legacy from his father. Moustafa was a board member and called a meeting to which Mourad went without knowing what it’d mean. He was supposed to become a board member himself, which happened in 2013. Mourad was later invited to become its administrative vice president in 2019 and then international relations vice president in 2021.
“Here you’re invited to dedicate yourself and everyone does what they can,” says Mourad. What drives him to work for the ABCC is the mission to bring Arabs and Brazilians closer together in the social, cultural and commercial spheres. “We’re a nation of immigrants, and I identify as a Palestinian Lebanese, but I’m also Brazilian, born and raised in Brazil, so I believe this rapprochement is important for both the Arab countries and Brazil,” he says.
New mission
A believer in the equal value of all regardless of position and social circumstances, very open to dialogue and seeing the ABCC as a construction of every and each one of its stakeholders, Mourad says he’s tackling the new challenge with ease, showing confidence in the staff.
He notes the ABCC has played a very relevant institutional role connecting different sides of the Arab-Brazil relations these past years. His goal is to preserve and increase that. “This institutional support is very important, so we have to keep improving it,” he says.
Background
ABCC incumbent president Osmar Chohfi sees in Mourad a leadership that’ll continue the process of technological modernization the institution has gone through, like the entrance into operation of the Ellos Platform, which is digitizing Arab-Brazil customs clearance procedures. “This is a transition towards a new way of doing business, without neglecting more traditional ways that remain strong and very efficient,” explains Chohfi.
President Chohfi says the institution will rely on Mourad’s experience at this time. “Mohamad Mourad comes from a business background, is a cultured man, a man who’s very knowledgeable of the world’s leading current trends, both in politics and trade, and I’m certain he’ll bring a great contribution to the ABCC activities,” he says.
Board
During the first ABCC board meeting featuring Mourad as secretary-general, the institution’s several departments were presented with their current work fronts and strategies. The meeting was led by Chohfi and board chair Marcello Sallum, a businessman and former ABCC president.
Chohfi and Sallum expounded on the history of the ABCC, its recent progresses, and prospects for modernization projects underway. Mourad stressed in the meeting the ABCC’s mission to connect Arabs and Brazilians wherever they are, and the importance of the work developed by the Brazilian and Arab startups via its innovation laboratory CCAB Lab.
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Translated by Guilherme Miranda
