Kamel A. Hijazi

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Kamel Ahmad Hijazi (11 February 1934 - 6 February 1996) was a Lebanese Engineer and former Lebanese Air Force Captain. At the time of his death, he was Vice President of Manufacturing of the Lebanese Tobacco Manufacturing Company (Regie Libanaise des Tabacs et Tombacs) and President of the Labor Union.

During his tenure with the company between 1963 and 1996, he rose from his position as a Section Manager to the position of Vice President of Manufacturing, thus becoming the highest ranking Moslem Shia executive at that company.

Early Life and Education

Kamel Hijazi was born in the small village of Debbine Marjeyoun District in Southern Lebanon, the son of Ahmad Hijazi, a merchant, and Fatmeh Ashi, a homemaker. Hijazi is Moslem Shia.

Hijazi completed his secondary studies (high school diploma) in Marjeyoun Secondary Public School at the age of 17, and in 1951 moved to Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, to live with one of his sisters (who had married and moved to the city), in order to continue his education there. He briefly enrolled in the Sanayeh Technical School and soon after at the age of 18, joined the newly formed Lebanese Air Force.

Lebanese Air Force

Hijazi joined the Lebanese Air Force, which had just been formed by then President Fouad Chehab as part of the 1st wave of junior officers in training. He completed his education as an Electro-Mechanical Engineer in the UK and France, under the Air Force's education program, and returned to Lebanon to continue his service. He was mainly stationed at Lebanon's first airbase in Rayak (Bekaa Valley of Lebanon) and was part of the personnel in charge of maintaining the fighter jets. After serving for 12 years, he resigned his commission from the military and started working as an engineer for the Lebanese Tobacco Manufacturing Company, at the company's main headquarters in the city of Hadath, a suburb of Beirut.

Lebanese Tobacco Manufacturing Company

When Hijazi started working at the company in 1963, his wife Nehmat, nee Labban, whom he had met and married 2 years prior, was already an employee at the company, and was in a way, instrumental in getting him hired there.

Nehmat had been the Executive Secretary to the company's CEO (traditionally a French national), who had met Hijazi a few times. Having been very impressed with his qualifications, military work discipline and ethics, the CEO offered him a job, which marked the beginning of a long and illustrious career with the company.

Hijazi quickly rose through the ranks, and within a few years had been promoted to Chief Engineer in charge of manufacturing at the company's headquarters and main manufacturing facility, in the town of Hadath, a suburb of the capital Beirut. Although he was raised in a traditional Moslem Shia household, in a country in which religion permeates political, social and cultural life, Hijazi was free of sectarian prejudice, a trait that had served him well and had made him extremely popular and respected by his peers and subordinates alike. Throughout his career with the Lebanese Tobacco Manufacturing company, he had been approached by many a political party to join their ranks, and had refused, as he championed the case of the worker no matter what their religious and political affiliation.

Personal Life

Hijazi had two children with his wife Nehmat, who he had met at a Christmas party at a friend's house in Beirut in 1961. Theirs was a marriage of fairy tales and perhaps love at 1st sight, in which they had met and married one month later, and immediately moved to the UK in order for Hijazi to complete additional training with the Air Force. Theirs lasted 35 years, until Hijazi's death in 1996. They have two children, a son Samer, born in 1962, and daughter Loubna, born in 1964.

Illness and Death

Although he had been fairly fit and athletic in his younger years, especially during his time with the military, Hijazi suffered a heart attack at the age of 39. His highly demanding and stressful position at the Lebanese Tobacco Manufacturing Company, and a two to three pack cigarette smoking habit per day, were no doubt major factors that contributed to his illness.

Accompanied by his wife, he travelled to London, England in 1975, to undergo bypass surgery at The Harley Street Clinic a private medical facility, and following a short convalescent stay, returned to Lebanon to continue recovery. By that time, his professional status within Lebanese Industry, was such that, among the many prominent political and industrial figures that visited him to wish him well at his house in Beirut, was none other than Kamel Asaad speaker of the Lebanese Parliament at the time.

Shortly after recovering from surgery, and having quit his smoking habit, he resumed his duties at work and for the most part continued to lead a fairly healthy life, until 1995, when it was discovered in August of that year, that he had contracted the Hepatitis B virus. His health began to deteriorate rapidly, and in December of that same year he travelled with his wife to Southern California (USA), where both of his children were living, in order to get treatment. It was the opinion of his doctors at that time, that Hijazi had more than likely contracted the virus 20 years prior, from a blood transfusion during his bypass surgery in the UK, and due to the nature of the virus which can remain dormant for a long time, had not shown symptoms of the illness.

Complications with his illness led to his passing away on February 6, 1996 due to cirrhosis and then, failure of his liver. He was a few days shy of his 62nd birthday. Accompanied by his family, his remains were transported back to Lebanon, and as fate would have it, he was interred on February 11, 1996, the day of his birth, in his small birth town of Debbine, Lebanon. It is estimated that, at the arrival of his coffin from the United States, at the Beirut International Airport, there were upwards of 2,000 mourners waiting for him, the majority of which were employees of the Lebanese Tobacco Manufacturing company. Mourners that night, lined both sides of the streets leading to the airport, and hundreds followed his coffin's procession to Southern Lebanon, the day of his burial.

His, was a life of honor, service, and dedication to his family, friends, and fellow employees, in which he had championed the cause of the common man. He was charismatic, highly respected, and extremely loved by his employees. At the time of his death, he had over 3,000 employees in his charge, and was the President of the Laborers Union.

Legacy

Kamel Hijazi was instrumental into turning the Lebanese Tobacco Manufacturing Company from an importer of tobacco products, largely, into a cigarette manufacturer in the Middle East. While the company had traditionally manufactured a couple of micro Lebanese cigarette brands, it was the introduction of the Cedars and Byblos brands(both the brain children of Hijazi) that transformed the company into a major manufacturer and exporter in the Middle East tobacco industry. At their height, both brands had succeeded into becoming the number one and two sellers respectively, displacing American and European made products by Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, British American Tobacco, etc.

Through his work with the Laborer's Union at the company, Hijazi was successful in considerably improving wages and benefits to all employees. Among his many accomplishments were, salary increases and improvement of working conditions and retirement benefits.

References

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