Dear LebNet friends,
As the year ends and we reflect on the kind of things our LebNet group did this year, we can only rejoice at the achievements we made and feel excited about the plans we have for the coming New Year.
First we want to wish you and your family happy holidays and hope this coming year will bring you health and happiness.
In 2013, we grew our membership to more than 250 members and made a special effort to encourage Lebanese students to participate:
- Held quarterly events: Ramzi Haidamus (Dolby), Dr. Roger Hajjar (Prysm), Endeavor Entrepreneurs at Blackbox, and Ahmad Chatila (SunEdison)
- Promoted a certain number of startups from Lebanon (Anghami, DmD, ElementN, Nymgo, Diwanee, Green Studio...)
- Launched periodic newsletters.
- Established partnerships with LIFE, Wamda and AUB to promote mentorship programs and support entrepreneurship in our home country.
Moving forward, we are excited about our cooperation with LIFE on IT Project Lebanon for Entrepreneurship. The goal of this project is to develop a platform to accelerate the IT startup ecosystem in Lebanon through the diaspora's involvement and become a centralize access point to support and help scale emerging IT companies in Lebanon. One of the program milestones is to help 3-5 tech startups get off the ground with real traction.
LebNet, with its construct, presence in Silicon Valley, and core focus on technology will play a key role in delivering real value to this platform. This is an ambitious program which will leverage the $400M equity support commitment by the Central Bank of Lebanon and will require our team to leverage all the skillsets that are available throughout our membership.
We need your help and will seek your know-how and contributions to deliver. The LebNet board is committing time and resources and is soliciting your personal involvement as well. To this end, we have kicked off our annual fund raising campaign to assemble the necessary funds to better organize and execute our plans. Our group is growing and our contributions to our home country will only grow and be more impactful. Please, help us as much as you can and get involved as much as you want.
Wishing you a wonderful new year!
George F. Akiki
LebNet, President
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