Gilbertdoumit

Early Life and Education

Gilbert Doumit was born in Gemmayze, Beirut, in 1976. He spent his childhood in the streets of Beirut, growing up among its residents, and attending the Collège des Frères du Sacré-Coeur school. After earning his first bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Notre Dame University-Louaize, Gilbert obtained a second bachelor’s degree, in the field of social work, from Saint Joseph University. Later on, Gilbert pursued a double masters in Business Administration and Advanced Management from L'Ecole Superieure des Affaires (ESA) and the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris (ESCP).

Career Path

A policy advisor, a leadership consultant, and a social entrepreneur, Gilbert has dedicated his work to meaningful transformation through policy reform, institutional strengthening, and leadership development for more than two decades.

Gilbert is a Founder and Managing Partner of Beyond Reform & Development (BRDI) Group, a social business and a consulting firm working with governments, ministries and policy makers to establish innovative, inclusive, and participatory policies and institutions in twelve countries in Middle East and North Africa region.

Gilbert is a founder and senior partner of Beyond Consulting & Training (BCT), a leading management and training firm specialized in leadership and organizational development serving multinational and large companies across the MENA region. Training over 5,000 global leaders in the last five years, he is sought after for his experiential and dynamic training skills.

Gilbert also facilitates a leadership course at Yale University within the Masters of Advanced Management in New Haven and the pre-MBA program at the Yale Center in Beijing.

He is a lecturer at Universite Saint Joseph in Beirut, Lebanon, teaching courses on Leadership and Social Entrepreneurship. He is a public speaker at conferences by the United Nations, the World Bank Group, ESCWA, Aspen Institute, British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, European University Institute, and universities around the world.

He is a World Fellow (2008) at Yale University, a member of the American Society for Public Administration, and the Yale Arab Alumni Association. He has established the Society for Social Entrepreneurship to promote an enabling ecosystem for social entrepreneurs.

He is an activist and a founding member of Injaz Lebanon - a member of Junior Achievement Worldwide (promoting leadership and entrepreneurship amongst youth in schools), of Nahwa Al-Muwatiniya (Towards Citizenship promoting democracy and accountability in MENA countries), and multiple pro-democracy and citizenship campaigns such as Khalass (Enough), and was appointed the General Coordinator for the National Elections Observation Mission in Lebanon in 2009.

Gilbert has published numerous articles on leadership, political transition, social entrepreneurship, economic development, and youth empowerment. He is a regular contributor to CNN Arabic and Huffington Post, and his work has been featured in Sada-Carnegie Endowment, Stanford Innovation Review, BBC, the Washington Post, Al Arabia, LBC, Annahar, Assafir, and Libya Herald. His writing has been influenced by years of political activism, including his work in civil society campaigns to fight sectarianism, corruption, and undemocratic practices.

Civic and Political Activism

Gilbert maintained his involvement in political and social work, staying active on a number of fronts in keeping with his view of politics and public life. His early work varied between social activism and volunteering in Roumieh prison, as well as working toward reconciliation between Christians and Druze in the Shouf Mountain. Believing in the necessity of transparency, and the importance of combating corruption, Gilbert contributed to the foundation of the Nahw al-Muwatiniyya (“Towards Citizenship”) association, which worked on universalizing citizens’ rights; the Injaz (“Achievement”) association, which spread the culture of entrepreneurship; al-Shabaka al-Wataniyya (“The National Network”) for the right to obtain information; the campaign to amend the “Where Did You Get This From?” law; the civil campaign to reform the electoral law; and the national campaign to reform the public budget.

Recently, Gilbert was among the founders of the Beirut Madinati (“Beirut Is My City”) movement, which ran a list of candidates in the Beirut municipal elections of 2015. The experience fortified his conviction that change is possible when citizens believe in it, and decide to vote on the basis of a political program, and take as their selection criteria the competency and integrity of the candidate.