Born in Aleppo in 1958, Dr. Riad Bechara Obegi is a member of the third-generation of his family to enter the business originally founded by his grandfather in 1905 and which has grown into The Obegi Group, a regional network of companies (banks and financial institutions, agri-business, chemicals and consumer goods) throughout the Middle East and Europe.

Dr. Obegi graduated in 1981 with a BA in Business Law from the University of Paris ASSAS and a Master in Business Administration from Paris IX Dauphine, followed in 1982 by a Degree in Economy and Finance from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. In 1997, he attended the Program for Management Development at Harvard Business School. He completed his Ph.D. in Economics from Lyon Lumière University in 2008. His dissertation was published under the title, Risque et Crédit: Le Certificat Hypothécaire, Une Solution pour Les Pays Emergents and is presently in its third printing.

Dr. Obegi has over 35 years of extensive bank management experience.

CHO stands for Certificat Hypothécaire Obegi in French.
It is an innovative banking instrument based on the topic of the Ph.D. thesis of Dr. Riad Obegi, published in 2008 at Université Lyon Lumière in France under the title “Risque et Crédit: Le Certificat Hypothécaire, Une Solution pour Les Pays Emergents”, currently in its third printing.

To learn more about the thesis that inspired the CHO project please click here