Cover Story
The Bassoul file
Smart Business Chicago | September 2008
Born: Lebanon
Education: B.A. in business, American University of Beirut; MBA, finance and marketing, certificate in accounting, Kellogg School of
Management, Northwestern University
Bassoul on charity: I’m a great believer that there’s more to business than just profit and production. We went out and created a volunteer effort to help single mothers with jobs in manufacturing. We have supported a lot of community colleges and culinary institutes
through scholarship and equipment, we have helped battered women in Turkey and Lebanon by providing them with computer classes.
It’s fantastic to get the morale going. Now, one of the things we do not do, we do not spread our charity on golf events and whatever. Like
Bill Gates, we are very focused to make an impact. Do you know how many times people call us and say, ‘Do you want to go to this event,
this auction?’ We don’t. We have limited resources and want to go to our employees to say, ‘Let me tell you the results we had.’
New numbers: Middleby set records the first quarter of 2008 with $160.9 million in sales and $13.2 million in net earnings.
Ticker: NASDAQ: MIDD
On Aug. 12, Middleby announced a definitive agreement to acquire TurboChef Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ: OVEN), a speed cooking technology company, in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $200 million.
