Celine Salloum

We are all familiar with “Green Economy” where jobs are now created towards a greener vision, aiming at reducing carbon emissions and limiting global temperature rise. But what about “Green Financing”? Putting it into words, green financing is a loan or investment that supports environmentally-friendly activities such as improving energy efficiency of your home or switching to electric vehicles or even building a sustainable infrastructure. And as we begin to recover from the pandemic, green finance presents a huge opportunity to build back a greener future while fighting against climate change. Climate change and environmental degradation are sources of risks for the wellbeing of our societies and the prosperity of our economies. Green finance is now in the mainstream and is becoming the new norm, as risks associated with environmentally-damaged products and services increase and people are investing in green alternatives. Such investors are financial actors looking for investment opp...

What artificial intelligence (AI) was from the late 90s until the last decade, "Metaverse" is for now. Ever since Facebook renamed the parent company, Meta, in 2021, metaverse moved from the domain of tech geeks to the mainstream; and since then, there have been numerous opinions on what will its implications be like and how will it shape the way people interact; more precisely, how advances in AI will affect what it means to be human, to be productive and to exercise free will. Every time a new technology appears, it takes time for people to adapt to it because any new concept requires a behavioral change. It transforms how the system in a society functions; and once it is widely adopted by its users, it becomes the new normal. This evolution is radically changing human relationships. Sometimes, the technology does not just augment our skills, but substitutes us, when algorithms can perform specific tasks with remorseless  precision. With the advent of the metaverse, we are ...

When it comes to running a business,  the relationships you build  with other companies can spread your success even further. Talking about strategic partnerships to be precise, a mutually beneficial business relationship that might aid your business' growth at a reduced cost. But understanding these partnerships, can assist you more with locating the right one for spreading out your reach to potential customers. Partnerships never go out of style. Companies have worked with partners across countries, businesses or within their value chain for a variety of reasons, whether from a desire to expand or a need to cut costs. Yet, in recent years, the growth of partnerships has accelerated, driven by the benefits of risk sharing and resource pooling, technology convergence and knowledge diffusion. They come together to take advantage of complementary geographies, marketing and sales strengths, or capabilities in other functional areas of the business. The more complex the business e...

If 2020 were a TV show, the first draft would be terrible. what kind of show would it be? It could be a comedy, tragedy, thriller, political, drama, medical procedural, fiction, horror, or all of those rolled into one.  what happens when political disfunction meets a deadly virus? Like it or not, we’re barreling toward the final episode, and no one knows what’s going to happen. Will there be a satisfying ending? Or one of those unsettling, vague ones? Will it be an ending at all? This is a year we want to forget, but we will not. Just over the first six months of this year, we knew it would be a benchmark year. It has cost us a summer of pleasure, of travel and of living life the way we want with our treasured freedom. We have missed out on concerts, parties, ceremonies and gathering in groups. We have set aside handshakes, kisses on the cheek and big hugs. When the academic year began in Fall 201 9, few would have predicted the changes in classroom routines and the early...

Any Contagion situation is dire, but the ability to make light of awful situations is a remarkable indication that we should embrace to survive any future catastrophe. Today, the world is facing the coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis, a pandemic that has changed the lives of millions of people, and it is in times like these, that we need a powerful force to keep us going; a force like “Hope” can sometimes be the Key as a source of encouragement. Many who are locked at home, others who are working to help and prevent the virus, everyone needs the reassurance and the hope that “we shall overcome this”. “Keep calm and carry on." "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." "Don't worry, be happy." Call them mantras or maxims, but such inspiring statements and words of motivation that get repeated over the years, have given people the power to keep steady through challenging times and eventually overcome difficult circumstances. The coronavirus disease out...

I’ve spent the past week traveling through time, revisiting six years through the portal of memoir. October 20, 2013, the day I walked into my parents’ house to find a small puppy, one week old, crawling around the corners of the house, mom and my brother chasing him; a scene that hits me awkwardly, making me laugh but at the same time glad to see how happy we all were to have a new pet in the house. Since my brother and I were born, dad used to raise dogs, as hunting was his favorite hobby, and he introduced it to my brother, who never looked back to become a member of the Lebanese Shooting and Hunting Federation for several years. He even turned out to be more addicted than dad was. We spent the first month with our dog “Max” just trying to clean after his mess at home, up until he was ready to be left outside in the garden where he has his own house and space for moving around as much as he wants. Dad made it a routine to take care of his needs and feed him once eve...