You are currently viewing Elie Fakhoury: Benchmark of Exceptional Traits
Elie Fakhoury

Elie Fakhoury: Benchmark of Exceptional Traits

You don’t have to spend long in the working world to recognize that there are multiple types of leaders with diverse approaches. Every kind of leader motivates, challenges and develops employees in different ways. Their corresponding styles can all inspire different outcomes.

In recent years, transformational leadership has risen to the surface. Organizations in all industries are seeing a rapid change in today’s digital era. Transformational leaders know how to encourage, inspire and motivate employees to perform in ways that create meaningful change.

The result is an engaged workforce that’s empowered to innovate and help shape an organization’s future success. As transformational leaders work with their employees to implement effective change, they rely on things like communication, charisma, adaptability, and leadership by example. These attributes shine the spotlight on Elie Fakhoury.

Elie Fakhoury has gained cross-functional and cross-industry experience in the areas of operational and financial restructuring, company turnaround/transformation, performance improvement, M&A, and restructuring with his distinct learning approaches with immense curiosity.

As a Senior Managing Director with Teneo’s Financial Advisory business in the Middle East, he is focused on developing pragmatic and value-enhancing solutions for his clients while adhering to the company’s core principles of transparency, independence, and trust.

Elie has nearly 20 years of experience successfully planning and leading large-scale transformation programs and operational improvement and balance sheet restructuring projects for a broad range of clients. He has held several formal and informal interim management and executive leadership roles on behalf of large clients across the Middle East in a wide range of industries.

Briefly describe your professional journey up until now. What challenges did you face along the way?

I started my professional career in the Middle East in the private equity industry, before switching career paths into investment banking and eventually into the restructuring advisory role that I am currently in. During the course of my career, learning on the job has been challenging, but I wouldn’t change anything about my journey.

What significant impact have you brought to the finance industry?

Our team solves for the most complex business challenges and opportunities facing our clients and the overall finance industry. We offer integrated services that are relevant to all client types, from pre-stress and performing, to stressed and distressed.

We are hands-on, pragmatic, and focused on ensuring that we are fast, responsive, and delivering value from the very first day for our clients. Our approach is execution-focused – we deliver results and impact, not glossy reports.

Tell us about your company and its foundation pillar.

Teneo was established in 2011 and is an integrated professional advisory services firm that is focused on developing pragmatic and value-enhancing solutions for our clients while adhering to our core principles of transparency, independence, and trust.

We work extensively with the senior leaders of some of the world’s largest organizations, including a significant number of Fortune 100 and FTSE 100 companies, and employ over 1,600 professionals in 42 offices around the world.

How does your company promote workforce flexibility, and what is your role in it?

Company culture is a very important and often-neglected component in building a successful business. While learning on the job is a core pillar of what we do, workforce flexibility is also important to achieving a strong, positive culture, as this can help drive employee engagement and productivity, and attract top talent.

On the other hand, a toxic or negative culture can hinder the performance of a business – I strive to create a positive culture and working environment as a top priority for my team.

What is your take on technology’s importance, and how are you leveraging it?

We use advanced data analytics as part of our broad toolkit to identify  key challenges and business opportunities for our clients. We deliver actionable, innovative solutions based on smarter insights by combining our professional expertise with powerful analytics capabilities.

Our analytics generate practical, actionable steps aimed at resolving real-world business problems and enhancing financial and operational performance.

What will be the next significant change in the finance industry, and how are you preparing for it?

Implementation is key – theoretical solutions provided must be relevant and achievable. The finance industry is moving away from traditional reporting and analysis and toward more of a prioritization of value creation enhancement and implementation.

Teneo is a leader in this, and we approach asset reviews with a view towards supporting in value creation identification.

Our comprehensive 360° review approach covers the strategy, operations, commercial, and financial performance of an asset. Clients are demanding a review of assets from an “implementation and value creation” lens, and scenario analyses to assess the potential impact of the value opportunities and key risks identified.

What are your goals in the upcoming future?

During the course of my career to date, I have worked on and led some of the GCC’s most notable financial advisory engagements.

My goals for the future are to continue to work on behalf of large clients across the Middle East region and to apply practical operational and financial experience to solve the most complex issues for those clients.

What advice would you like to give the next generation of aspiring business leaders?

Don’t let your ego get to you – never forget to be humble. The team matters – any value a leader is able to add only builds on the hard work of the great supporting team. Always seek maximum exposure to senior people – working alongside them will give you an incredible breadth and depth of experience and provide an opportunity to learn every day.