Marwan Kheireddine Talks What’s Next for Lebanon
Lebanon has defied the odds before. But 29-year-old Marwan Kheireddine doesn’t want to rely on hope this time. The country needs to start preparing for a reality he expects will eventually come: the next war with Israel.
Marwan is the founder and CEO of GenoPal, a company that produces heat detection devices for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA, among other clients. His ambition is to give Lebanon’s army its own set of these devices in time for whatever conflict may come their way.
Marwan was born to a Christian family in the southern city of Tyre. He has lived in the country ever since he was a child, attending school at the American University of Beirut, where he studied engineering and business. But it wasn’t until after graduation that he decided to dedicate his life to giving Lebanon’s army the tools it needs to fight back against Israel.
That is when Marwan founded GenoPal, which quickly became a business success story thanks to its innovative technology. The company’s flagship product is an ultra-thin thermal camera that can detect heat sources up to 3 kilometers away. Soldiers can use the image it creates in real-time to identify and map the details of a fire.
The technology has been adopted by several national militaries and is seen by some experts as an early warning system for anti-aircraft missiles that can locate aircraft first. For Marwan, however, GenoPal’s goal is to equip Lebanon’s army with better weapons.
Marwan told me he wanted to build a business in Lebanon because there was so much talent and potential here, but at the same time he saw there were no local companies with technology that could be brought to bear on political problems or internal security. He wanted to show Lebanon could compete with foreign products and win, in the process attracting more investors to the country.
Marwan says his company has already been presented with opportunities for joint development with the U.S. military, but he has turned them down because he wants to focus on developing products that work specifically for the needs of Lebanon’s army. He thinks there is a lot of money and time wasted by other countries buying over-priced American equipment that would have been made locally if they had only given their local industry a chance.
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