Top businessman was born in desert
Connexion edition: July 2015
THE FIRST Frenchman to win EY (Ernst & Young)’s World Entrepreneur of the Year has lived an extraordinary rags-to-riches tale.Born in the Syrian desert about 65 years ago (he does not know exactly) to a mother who was raped by a tribal leader and who died in her teens, Mohed Altrad was rejected by his father and not encouraged to go to school.
He went anyway, eventually anding lycée in Raqqa where, in the former French mandate, it was still possible to take the Bac, which he studied for in Arabic.
He obtained the highest mark in the area and won a scholarship to study in France where he gained a computer science PhD, despite arriving knowing no French.
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