Born in 1923 in Safad, Palestine, to a wealthy landowner father who held fishing rights for the Sea of Galilee, Khoury is an entrepreneur and philanthropist like his cousin and brother-in-law Hasib Sabbagh.
Khoury returned to Safad after graduating in 1946 to start his own construction company but was forced to leave in May 1948, when hostilities broke out. As president of Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC), which he helped found in Beirut in the early 1950s with Sabbagh, Khoury is known for developing CCC’s family corporate culture in hugely successful construction projects throughout the region. He is also a significant supporter of philanthropic endeavours in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere.
CCC has built landmark projects in everything from Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison that was built in 1969, before the ascent of Saddam Hussein to the presidency of the country to work on the Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washing DC to projects in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Africa and the Gulf.
The success of the company is rooted in the early 1960s, with Sabbagh and Khoury securing a contract related to oil pipe storage facilities for the Iraq Petroleum Company, which entailed working with the Bechtel Group, the world’s largest construction company. That deal cemented a long and lasting relationship between CCC and Bechtel and it defined CCC’s scale of operations. In addition to securing this relationship, Khoury and Sabbagh forged strategic partnerships with other key players in the markets they entered as the company expanded.
Khoury, who owns 60% of CCC, and Hasib Sabbagh, who owns the rest, took a US$37.5m dividend in 2004, leaving US$462m of shareholder equity in the company. Kamel Abdul Rahman, CCC’s third founder, who died in 1980, sold his stake to his partners before retiring.
Khoury currently holds or has held, among others, the following positions: Governor of Arab Monetary Fund, Chairman of the Palestinian Businessmen Organisation, Chairman of Palestine Electrical Company, Gaza, Member of the Board of Trustees for the Bethlehem Foundation (Washington DC), Member of the Board of Trustees – Institute of Palestinian Studies, Beirut and Member of the Board of Trustees – Parish of Greek Orthodox of Europe. Khoury is also an honorary chair of The Aspen Institute’s Middle East Strategy Group.
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