Rafik Bahaa Edine Hariri, born November 1944, married to Nazek Audi Hariri, was a Lebanese self-made billionaire and business tycoon, and was five times Prime Minister of Lebanon (1992-1998 and 2000-2004), before his last resignation from office on October 20, 2004.
Born to a family of modest means in the Lebanese port city of Sidon, Hariri attended elementary and secondary school in his city and pursued his business administration studies at the Beirut Arab University.

After working as a teacher he left Lebanon in 1965 to work in Saudi Arabia for a construction company. There he married Nazik Audeh in 1965. In 1969, Hariri established his own construction company CICONEST.

In 1978, Hariri became a citizen of Saudi Arabia as a reward from the Saudi royal family for the high quality of his entrepreneurial activies services, and became the kingdom’s envoy to Lebanon. Hariri then went on to become Saudi Arabia’s leading entrepreneur, acquiring Oger in 1979, and founding Oger International, based in Paris.

His interests extended across banking, real estate, oil, industry and telecommunications. Rafik and Nazik Hariri had seven children and seven grandchildren.

During the Lebanese civil war he played an important and effective role. In 1982, he donated $12 million to Lebanese victims of Israel’s invasion.

He also played a major role in organizing and financing the Taif Accord in 1989, that brought and end to a 15 years civil war.

In 1993, he founded a television station, Future TV, in Beirut, in addition to having shares in various Lebanese newspapers, which some considered an attempt to control the media. He also founded his own newspaper al-Mustaqbal (The Future).

The former Prime Minister was also the biggest shareholder in Solidere, the joint-stock company that unaccompanied transformed and renovated central Beirut following the civil war.

Upon his return to lebanon in 1992 as prime minister, Hariri was considered a savior, someone not associated with Lebanese militias that tormented the Lebanese people for around a decade. He put the country back on the financial map through the issuing of Eurobonds and won plaudits from the World Bank for his plan to borrow reconstruction money. He put the country back on the international financial map through the issuing of Eurobonds and won plaudits from the World Bank for his plan to borrow and beg for reconstruction money. But his economic record was mixed: his ambitious borrow-and-build schemes left massive public debt and budget deficit, which pushed up interest rates and slowed growth. Hence arousing severe criticism for neglecting the lower classes of the Lebanese society and concentrating mainly on the affluent middle and upper social classes. After the extension of President Emile Lahoud’s term, Hariri resigned as Prime Minister.

On February 14, 2005 Hariri was assassinated, along with at least 16 others, when explosives equivalent to around 300 kg of C4 were detonated as his motorcade drove near the Saint George Hotel in Beirut. The International Community along with the Lebanese people are exerting much pressure in all directions, pushing the Lebanese Government to undertake a proper investigation of the assassination by qualified neutral International parties. Now, many occidental countries want an international court to be created to judge this assassination.

Hariri had enormous contributions. Among the most noteworthy is the fact that he educated around 40,000 Lebanese students from different religions inside and outside of Lebanon, and spent millions of dollars of his own personal money to redefine the face of social hierarchies in Lebanon. He donated a great deal of money to charities and funds. He worked towards unity of the different religious and ethnic groups and rebuilding.

Hariri was compared to late Lebanese President Camille Chamoun as being an international figure, having world presidents and kings as his close friends. Hariri had a close and family relationship with French President Jacques Chirac which was put in favor of Lebanon, especially in putting an end to Israel’s assault on Lebanon in 1996.
Even after Hariri’s assassination his relationship with Chirac played a vital role in gaining back Lebanese sovereignty and independence.

Did you know ?
By the 1980s, Hariri entered the Forbes top 100. Forbes estimated at $3.8 billion on its 2003 World’s richest people. Rafik Hariri had interests stretching from Riyadh to Paris to Houston. His son Saad runs Saudi Oger, a USD $3.15 billion (sales) construction conglomerate. Oger paid $375 million to increase its ownership in Arab Bank in order to keep out interested Arab-American investors.

In 1990, on the occasion of the graduation of his son, Bahaa, from Boston University, Mr. Hariri made the naming gift for what became The Rafik B. Hariri Building, home of Boston University’s School of Management.