Quick Facts
Biography
A. Robert Abboud (born 29 May 1929) is an American banker and business executive. He is the former CEO of First Chicago Bank and currently the president of A. Robert Abboud and Company.
Life and career
Abboud was born Alfred Robert Abboud on May 29, 1929, in Boston, Massachusetts, to a Lebanese immigrant mother (Victoria Karam Abboud) and a first-generation American father of Lebanese descent (Alfred Abboud).
After graduating from Roxbury Latin School, Boston, Massachusetts, he obtained a B.S. degree from Harvard University and then joined the U.S. Marines during the Korean War. In 1951, he was commissioned as an infantry lieutenant. He was involved in extensive combat operations with the 1st Marine Division in battles at 3 Fingers, Hill 137, Bunker Hill, Nevada City, Reno, Vegas Carson, the Hook, and York. In July 1952, he was wounded. He later received the Bronze Star For Valor and the Purple Heart.
After returning to the United States in May 1953, Abboud attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1956. In 1958, he received an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar. After finishing his higher education, he joined the First Chicago Bank as an assistant cashier (1960-1962). He gradually moved up the ranks—assistant vice president in 1962-1964, vice president in 1969-1972, executive vice president in 1972-1973, vice chairman of the board in 1973-1974—and was appointed the bank's Chief Executive Officer in 1975.
Abboud served as First Chicago Bank's CEO until 1980, when he became president of Occidental Petroleum, Los Angeles, California.
In 1984, he founded A. Robert Abboud & Company, in Fox River Grove, Illinois, where he currently works.