Founder, Co-Owner and Managing Director, Pharmamed
Hanan Saab was born in Choueifat, Lebanon. A third-generation pharmacist, she graduated from the American University of Beirut(AUB) with distinction, where she was awarded the esteemed Penrose Award. After practicing pharmacy at the American University Hospital (AUH) for 5 years, Hanan made the bold decision to launch her own business in 1990, despite the political instability in her country.
Starting from scratch in a competitive and harsh landscape, she managed to lead her company Pharmamed to become one of the most trusted and professional businesses specialized in the import and marketing of medical supplies and novelty pharmaceutical products in Lebanon. Pharmamed is the exclusive representative of several renowned European and American firms, and through an extensive network of sub-distributors, its activities have also expanded to Jordan, Syria and the Gulf. Hanan is a member of the Lebanese Order of Pharmacy and the Lebanese Pharmaceutical Importers Association.
Passionate about women in business and an exemplary entrepreneur herself, Hanan has been invited to speak on women entrepreneurship at prestigious conferences and forums across the world, including The Woodrow Wilson Conference and the Mediterranean Forum for Women Entrepreneurs as well as several high-profile roundtable discussions held by the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, The Economist and most recently the ILO and Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society.
Aside from her full-time career, Hanan dedicates much of her time to women’s empowerment and promoting women entrepreneurship in Lebanon and the region. She is a founding member of Rawafed, an NGO that teaches nursing to high school girls in rural areas; founder and the former president of the Lebanese League for Women in Business (LLWB); and a founder and board member of the MENA Business Women Network (MENA BWN) where she served as VP for numerous years and a board member of the Arab International Women Forum.
Hanan has been featured as a leading Arab businesswoman in the Financial Times and was listed as one of the most powerful 200 women in the Arab World by Forbes in 2014. She has also been recognized in books like ‘Entrepreneurs at the Crossroads’ by the Beyster Institute at the University of California San Diego and ‘Domains of Influence’ by the Arab International Women’s Forum (AIWF), and in 2018 was included among 50 women in the American University of Beirut (AUB) publication ‘Women at AUB’.
Hanan also plays leading roles at several alumni associations. She is a founding member of both Sabis Alumni and MEPI Alumni and previously chaired the Relations and Welfare Committee of the American University of Beirut(AUB)Alumni Association. Most recently, Hanan became a member of the board of trustees of the Academic University for Nonviolence and Human Rights (AUNOHR). She was appointed in 2017 an ambassador for the Cartier Women Initiative Award (CWIA) after serving as its jury president for the MENA region from 2015 in January 2017.
Hanan lives in Beirut with her husband and family.