In light of Arab American Heritage Month and ABANA’s 40th Birthday, ABANA in partnership with the Arab American National Museum (AANM), is looking to tell the story of Arab American professionals in finance and banking in the US. The creation of ABANA in 1983 by its founders– Issa Baconi, Monir Barakat, Fakhruddin Khalil, Hutham S. Olayan, Fadi Saab and Charles Yeterian– was a watershed moment in the growth and maturity of this professional community, and AANM is seeking to learn more about what predated the establishment of ABANA and the history of the involvement and contributions of Arab Americans in the building and shaping the US financial sector.

For such purposes, we hosted an online discussion with the ABANA community to both learn about the work of AANM documenting the stories of Arab Americans in general as well as to hear about preliminary work exploring the origins and early history of our sector.

We are seeking to create an online exhibit, and this was the first discussion to achieve that goal.