Mark Abi Karam

General Info

Real Name:	Mark
Member Role:	Subscriber
Member Since:	November 7, 2009 | 6:00 am

About me

MARK KHALED ABI KARAM

Lebanese markoreleo@hotmail.com
DOB: 11/05/1974
Married (2 Children) (965) 66652925
Kuwait resident EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Over the past 9 years, Mr. Mark has worked in Gulf Bank - Kuwait as a Customer Sales Representative, Sales officer, and Assistant branch manager, Manager, Acting General Sales Manager, Manager Direct Sales Channel and Acting Head of Sales. He has assisted in the development of new and existing branches in the organization and several individuals.
His professional experience includes but is not limited to management, marketing, sales, design, development, restructuring, coaching, teambuilding, and training. During his tenure in sales management, he has consistently maintained a leadership position and always achieved high results.
Review of his credentials will confirm that he served and participated in achieving successful goals, customer loyalty and business development initiatives, and a proven track record in delivering value to the external and internal clients of the organization.
However and since Mark graduated as an Architect on 1998, he added more experiences to his field, by studying painting, restoration of old monuments, and practicing Architecture until present. His experience in Architecture covers designing, monitoring and executing different type of projects.

Merging between both experiences, has added important values to Mark’s profile. Below are highlights of his background that may be of interest to you:

- Strong ability to plan, prioritize and manage complex projects under aggressive timelines.
- Succeeded to merge both architecture and banking experience, which has given him a high level of reasoned thinking, space management and communication skills.
- Creative design, problem solving and customer service oriented skills.
- Keen instinct to quickly effect change and improvement, with key expertise in visualizing, designing and executing business process reengineering and relationship marketing programs.
- Excellent ability and knowledge in analyzing local markets.
- Strong leadership talents, “team player” attitude and spirit, and natural establish consensus among cross-functional lines.
- Capable of managing the entire sales cycle, with success in single-handedly targeting.

With strong communication skills and dynamic presentation/public speaking style, one of his greatest is the ability to build relationships within and outside an organization. This includes executives, management teams and professional staff.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

ARCHITECTURAL & INTERIOR DESIGN PROJECTS .

Showrooms

AlBairaq Perfume Showroom , Jabriah COOP Perfume Showroom, Samsung Mobile Showroom, Perfume Fair Exhibition, Maghateer Perfume Fair, Salhiah Perfume Showroom
Client: (Wahran Trading Co. - Kuwait) - Concept and execution monitoring

Al-Qurain COOP Perfume Showroom.
Client: ( Al-Qurain COOP - Kuwait) - Concept and execution monitoring

Caro Cuero Lingerie store
Client: (Anonymous - Kuwait) - Concept and execution

Offices and Organizations

Offices of the International Organization of Migration I.O.M
Client: (International Organization of Migration I.O.M – Kuwait) - Concept and execution monitoring

Offices of XL-Graphics Co.(Shuweikh and Al-Ray offices)
Client: (Mr. Charbel Chabtini – Kuwait) - Concept and execution monitoring

Batroun Athletic Club
Client: (Batroun Club - Lebanon) - Concept and design drawings.

Residences

Zahle Residence
Client: (Anonymous - Lebanon) – Concept and execution Study.

Personal residence
Lebanon – Concept, execution study and monitoring

BANKING.

04/09-Present Manager Direct Sales Channel

Responsibilities:

Acting Head of Sales during direct manager absence. (Managing In addition to the current responsibilities: Group Schemes, MLM, Operations.....)
Restructuring the Direct Sales Channel and setting its performance management system.
Targeting the direct market, to acquire new acquisitions.
Targeting the branches existing customers, to increase the product penetration and profitability.
Setting budgets and commission schemes.
Managing the teams on daily basis and allocating them to different tasks based on the market situation and business needs.
Setting market intelligence plans for new business opportunities and competitors activities.
Monitoring the sales performance and measuring individual performance.
Ensuring that the department operations are complying with audit and risk procedures.
Staff Training and development.

During 2008 Acting GSM for 2 months
Region 3 -Gulf Bank-Kuwait
Responsibilities:

Managing the operations and the sales performance of the Region (11 Branches).
Coordinating with the retail management and other departments in term of launching new projects, reallocating targets, and other related job responsibilities.

12/05-04/09 Sharq Branch Manager (As of 01/01/09 – Ranked between GBK top ten branches)
K.O.C Branch Manager-Gulf Bank-Kuwait
Responsibilities:

Managing the sales tasks and the branch operations. Sales planning, targets settings and achievements monitoring.
Managing and monitoring the branch customer service performance.
Coordinating with the central sales department and leading a sales team aimed to acquire the new recruited in Kuwait Oil Company.
Succeeded to increase the branch share from KOC employees by 400% during 4 years.
Succeeded to maintain the branch deposit portfolio and its customer base during the bank crisis in Oct/08.

07/04-12/05 Assistant Branch Manager
K.O.C Branch-Gulf Bank-Kuwait
Responsibilities:

Managing the operations of the retail transactions and assisting the branch manager in: sales planning, targets settings and achievements monitoring.

05/03-07/04 Relationship Officer
Gulf bank-Kuwait
Responsibilities:

Reporting directly to the branch manager.
Handling the portfolio of the loans and deposits.
Assisting the branch manager in the branch operations, sales strategies and monitoring the sales growth in the branch.
Achieved high sales scores.

01/02-05/03 Loan Officer
Gulf Bank-Kuwait
Responsibilities:

Responsible of the sales of: loans, accounts and credit cards.
Preparing sales plans and customer acquisition programs.
09/00-01/02 Customer service representative
Gulf Bank-Kuwait
Responsibilities:

Handling all kinds of counter transactions.
Solving the complaints of the customers.
Cross-selling Gulf Bank products.
Managing the transactions of the Branch Vault and the (A.T.M).

02/00-07/00 Architect in collaboration with:
Mr. Architect of interior
(Jean Claude Malhame) - Beirut-Lebanon
Responsibilities:

Designing architectural drawings from houses to finishing details with execution on sites.

01/99-01/00 Officer Engineer in the Lebanese Army.

Responsibilities:

Experienced the implementation of discipline and order within groups.
Handling the redrawing of the new layout for the restructuring of the scouts village, (Batroun, North Lebanon)
Maintaining the facilities of the 2nd Artillery Division.

07/98-12/99 Architect in collaboration with:
(Naser Eng. Office) - Batroun-Lebanon
Responsibilities:

Designing architectural drawings from buildings, houses to finishing details with follow up on sites.

ACADEMIC BACKGROUND:

2003 Attended the following courses as part of MBA program in the American University of
Technology– Jounieh – Lebanon
(International Business Law – Marketing Management – Integrated Marketi
Communication)

2000 Lebanese university – fine arts institution – section (3)
First year of superior specialization in restoration & conservation
Of monuments & historical sites.

1999 Lebanese University – fine arts institution- drawing & painting
Section (Furn al Shebbak)
Attended for one year the full courses for the 2nd year in painting.

1998 University (Saint- Esprit-Kaslik) - jounieh - Lebanon
Degree: Bachelor in Architecture.

1991 (Saints-coeurs) School – Batroun – North Lebanon High School (Math’s-E)

COURSES ATTENDED DURING THE PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE.

Certified Branch Manager from the Arabic Bankers Academy – Affiliated with The American Banking Association.
Attended and achieved the Management Development Program (Competency program) GBK in-house training. (MDP1 & MPD2)
(01/09/06 & 14/11/06) Attended a course in Introduction To Investment. (Institute of Banking Studies – Kuwait)
(19/06/05 & 20/06/05) Attended a course in Strategic Thinking & Planning. (Institute of Banking Studies – Kuwait)
(01/05/05 & 11/05/05) Attended a course in English Report Writing. (Institute of Banking Studies – Kuwait)
(30/01/05 & 01/02/05) Attended an 8.5 hours training course in Legal Aspects of Electronic Transfers. (Institute of Banking Studies – Kuwait)
(21/11/04 & 01/12/04) Attended a 24 hours training course in Plan Based Selling (Institute of Banking Studies – Kuwait)
(09/12/03 & 11/12/03) Attended a course in Marketing & Selling Banks Products & Services (Institute of Banking Studies – Kuwait)
(28/07/02 & 01/08/02) Attended a 24 hours course in Consumer Lending, certified from the
(Arab academy for banking and financial sciences)
(07/01 & 11/01) Attended a GBK in-house training in (advanced selling, service & cross selling).
(09/00 & 11/00) Attended a GBK in-house training in (customer service, product knowledge, sales & marketing)

LANGUAGES:

Mother language (Arabic)
Fluent in English & French

COMPUTER COMPETENCE:

Good knowledge of Ms-office (Word, Windows, Excel….)
Good knowledge in AutoCAD, Corel Draw.

INTERESTS AND HOBBIES:

Intellectual: Painting – Sculpture – Reading – Music – Movies.
Physical: Volleyball - Swimming – Physical Education.

REFERENCES:

Dr. Neal Nadler Mr. Ali Dashti
Training Consultant & Advisor (Mentor) General Sales Manager
USA Gulf Bank - Kuwait
Tel: 001 6154971030 Tel: 965 99833944

Where to contact

E-mail:

markoreleo@hotmail.com