Bassel Fleihan
Bassel Fleihan (10 September 1963 – 18 April 2005; ) was a Lebanese legislator and minister of economy and trade. He died from injuries sustained when a massive bomb exploded on the Beirut seafront as he passed by in former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri's motorcade on 14 February 2005. Early years and education Fleihan was born in Beirut on 10 September 1963. He attended International College. He received a bachelor of arts degree in economics from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1984. Then he obtained a master of arts degree in international and development economics from Yale University in 1985. He also held a PhD in economics from Columbia University in 1990. His PhD dissertation was entitled “Customs Unions, Growth and Economic Diversification”. Career From 1988 to 1993, Fleihan worked at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC. He worked there as an advisor and then senior advisor to the Saudi executive director. He also worked at the United Nations Development Programme. In 1993, he left his job and returned to Lebanon, where he had been asked to assist in the post-war rehabilitation of the ministry of finance. While working as an adviser at the ministry, from