Othman Benjelloun (

Tamazight The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight,, ber, label=Tuareg Tifinagh, ⵜⵎⵣⵗⵜ, ) are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related languages spoken by Berber communi ...

: ⵄⴻⵜⵎⴰⵏ ⴱⴰⵏⵊⴰⵍⵍⵓⵏ; ar, عثمان بن جلون; born 1931) is a Moroccan banker billionaire businessman. He is known for co-founding of

BMCE Bank Bank of Africa is a large commercial bank in Morocco, known until 2020 as Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur (BMCE, (; "Moroccan Bank of Foreign Commerce"). According to the company's website, it operates over 697 branches A branch, s ...

and

Bank of Africa Bank of Africa (BOA) is a Moroccan banking conglomerate headquartered in Casablanca, Morocco, with banking operations in Morocco and eighteen other African countries. Its main predecessor entities started in 1959 in Morocco and in 1982 in Mali ...

, and serves as its chairman, chief executive officer. In February 2022, his net worth was estimated by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' at US$1.6 billion.

Career

Benjelloun's father was a large shareholder in an

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

company that Benjelloun later took over in 1988. He turned this into RMA Watanya. After purchasing the insurance company, Benjelloun expanded the business venture into the

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Becau ...

industry. His banking enterprise, the

has its presence felt in at least 12 countries in Africa after it purchased the

Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mal ...

-based

. The banking aspect of Benjelloun's business career is worth $4 billion based solely on its market capitalization profits. Benjelloun received an education in engineering at the

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

in Switzerland.''Othman Benjelloun''
biography at Silobreaker During the 1960s and 1970s, he made strategic alliances with global automobile manufacturers

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

and General Motors. He is also the chairman of Meditelecom along with being associated with

Telefónica Telefónica, S.A. () is a Spanish multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Madrid, Spain. It is one of the largest telephone operators and mobile network providers in the world. It provides fixed and mobile telephony, broadba ...

and

Portugal Telecom Altice Portugal (formerly known as Portugal Telecom or PT) is the largest telecommunications service provider in Portugal. Since June 2, 2015, the company has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Altice Europe, a multinational cable and telecommuni ...

. He is a member of the World Union of Arab Bankers.

Personal life

He is a member of the prominent Benjelloun family from

Fez, Morocco Fez or Fes (; ar, فاس, fās; zgh, ⴼⵉⵣⴰⵣ, fizaz; french: Fès) is a city in northern inland Morocco and the capital of the Fès-Meknès, Fès-Meknès administrative region. It is the List of cities in Morocco, second largest city i ...

. He is married to Leila Mezian, daughter of the Moroccan General

Mohamed Meziane Mohammed ben Mizzian (born as Mohammed Ameziane; 1 February 1897 – 1 May 1975) was a Moroccan marshal from Beni Ansar. During the Spanish Civil War he commanded a section of the ''Regulares Indígenas'' troops, who formed the shock tro ...

. He has two children.

References

Bibliography

* "Les 50 personnalités qui font le Maroc : Othman Benjelloun. 79 ans, PDG de BMCE et de FinanceCom", '' Jeune Afrique'', pp. 2545–2546, 18–31 October 2009, p. 40 {{DEFAULTSORT:Benjelloun, Othman 1931 births 20th-century Moroccan businesspeople Living people People from Fez, Morocco Moroccan bankers École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne alumni Moroccan chief executives Moroccan engineers Moroccan billionaires Fellows of King's College London

Career

Personal life

See also

References

Bibliography