About Iskandar Safa

Iskandar Safa was born in 1955 in Beirut, Lebanon. He is the CEO of Privinvest Group.

After obtaining a degree in Civil Engineering at the American University in Beirut in 1978, Iskandar Safa went on to graduate from INSEAD (Fontainebleau, France) in 1982 with a Master’s degree in Business Administration.

Mr. Safa was then involved in a number of ventures, including spending several years in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, managing construction operations.

Privinvest is one of the leading privately-owned shipbuilding groups in Europe

In the early nineties, in what was to become his first steps in the shipbuilding industry, he purchased Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie (CMN), a shipyard based in Cherbourg, France.

The company was then facing a dramatic industrial downturn, but he turned it around within two years. It is now a thriving enterprise with 400 employees, specialising in the design and production of vessels of up to 70 meters.

In 2007, Iskandar Safa, in collaboration with Al Aïn International, formed Abu Dhabi Mar (ADM). In 2011 Privinvest bought out its partners in ADM. Today, Privinvest is one of the leading privately-owned shipbuilding groups in Europe and the Middle East with major naval and civilian clients around the world.