Ricardo Karam - Interviews

Born in the southern village of Jezzine, Lebanon, Albert Abela laid the foundations for a catering and hotel business that has once reached an annual turnover exceeding one billion dollars and employed 35000 people in 40 countries. The first master stroke in business came when Albert Abela closed a deal with the Iraqi Petrolium company, to provide catering to off shore oil establishments in the Gulf and to drilling stations in Saudi Arabia. The idea of outside catering was virtually unknown back then, but the Abela Group was firmly implemented in all hospitality sectors: In-flight catering, cost-effective food management services to universities, schools, hospitals, nursing houses, hotel chains, restaurants, and in the corporate and hospitality sectors in Europe, the United Sates and the Gulf. Till his death on the 18th of December 1998, at the age of 77, in London, Albert Abela was the undisputed head of the Abela Group, still running his multiple projects around the world. He will be remembered as one of the greatest business tycoons. Ricardo Karam narrated in a touching documentary entitled “Ambaratoriat Alef” (The A Empire), filmed between London, Paris, South of France, Monte Carlo and Beirut, the life of the legendary Albert Abela.