There was the brilliant CV of a young, long-toothed financier, the ideal investment banker of the “start-up nation”. The Sciences-Po and HEC major who became a “managing director” at Morgan Stanley and appeared in 2014 in the newspaper’s 40 rising stars Financial News. And there was the face, the insomniac passionate about writing (he had published two novels, written a play) who had designed in his spare time mySOS, an application allowing you to call for local help in the event of an emergency. ’emergency.
This double face had initially crumpled Libéwhen we met him for a last page portrait, we were obliged to note: “The voice is soft, the delivery calm, the tone soothing. Light years away from the cliché of the wolf with sharp canines who sticks to his activity.” It was in January 2014, we did not know then that Bernard Mourad would quickly cross paths with the newspaper again.
At the editorial conference, coffee in hand
Because a year later, he left Morgan Stanley to join the management of the press division formed by Patrick Drahi (whom he has advised since 2004). A group in which there is then Liberation. Within the team of cost-killers who turn around daily life, he is the good cop. The one who, although he is a man of numbers, hardly hides the fact that he is also a man of letters. Bernard Mourad loved the press and loved having a foot in both worlds. He sometimes attended, incognito, the editorial conference, coffee in hand, for the pleasure of feeling a newspaper being made, even if he did not embrace all the struggles. “He was by far the most compatible Libé, remembers Johan Hufnagel, who co-directed the editorial team at the time. Sometimes a little mocking towards the newspaper, but always with kindness.
A native of Lebanon, explosive in a family where one is a doctor from father to son, Bernard Mourad will not stay around long Libé. In 2016, he joined Emmanuel Macron’s campaign team. Like many, he will come back, but it was not uncommon that during his first months at the Elysée, the new president received cash messages on Telegram from the one who allowed himself to give him money. “my rabbit”. “He was really left-wing,” insists Hufnagel, who will found with him Loopsider, video media launched in January 2018. Mourad was then preparing to take charge of the French subsidiary of Bank of America.
Teddy Riner, Stéphane Fouks, Léa Salamé or… Chantal Goya
At the crossroads of a thousand worlds (banking, the media, publishing, Lebanon, politics), he held an open table every year, at the beginning of October, in the 16th arrondissement for his birthday. Whoever wanted to pass, five hours or five minutes. There were writers, politicians, Teddy Riner, Stéphane Fouks, Léa Salamé and… Chantal Goya for whom he had a deep affection. In recent years, appointments have become a challenge for someone suffering from intestinal cancer. Like the boss of Publicis, Arthur Sadoun, he chose to publicize his illness, fighting to lift the taboo of cancer at work. Facing the camera, for Loopsider, he hid nothing, in February 2023, about what cancer was like on a daily basis. “Half of us will experience cancer in our lifetime, you have nothing to be ashamed of.” Brilliant, big mouth, Bernard Mourad died Thursday January 9. He was 50 years old.
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