Fuad Char

Fuad Ricardo Char Abdala (born 5 October 1937) is a businessman and retired politician. He is the founder of Grupo Empresarial Olímpica. He served in different terms as a senator, governor of Atlántico, and minister of Economic Development (position now fused into the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism)

Family
Fuad was the son of Ricardo Char, an immigrant from Damascus, Syria, who arrived in Colombia in 1926. He is the eldest out of seven children, his other siblings were Jabib, Farid, Simón, and, Ricardo.

His uncle Nicólas had started a business that quickly grew profitable, and the family moved to Barranquilla in 1952, where they started what would become Grupo Empresarial Olímpica, a conglomerate that would make his family one of the most influential in the Colombian Caribbean Coast. It grew into a conglomerate that included Supermercados Olimpicos, the radio station Olímpica Stéreo, and the ownership of Junior Barranquilla.

Fuad, married his first cousin Adela Chaljub Char, daughter of Antonio Chaljub, an immigrant from Lebanon and Rosa Char Zaslawy, his aunt from Syria. Together they had three children: Antonio, Arturo, and Alejandro. After becoming a widower in 1994, he remarried in 2004 to Maria Mercedes de la Espriella.