Some Corporate Leader readers have written in seeking more gender diversity in our portraits of corporate leaders. A fair point, and taking it in another direction, there is always room for stories of corporate excellence in less-touched industries—and other countries. Such an opportunity presented itself the other night, when I attended an event celebrating the relaunch of the Moroccan National Tourist Office in the U.S. and its return to New York.

Organized by the Spring O’Brien agency—a strong player in travel, tourism, real estate and business-to-business integrated marketing since the 80’s—the midtown soiree put me in engaging conversation with a host of Moroccan business leaders and diplomats.

Of particular interest was Abbas Azzouzi, CEO of the MNTO. Azzouzi has been putting up some admirable numbers, growing revenues an average of 25% each of the last four years and pushing U.S. visitorship to the 100,000 mark for the first time in years.

Underpinning this success is his corporate background. Born in Casablanca, educated in France and with University of Austin MBA, he started out at French toy conglomerate Groupe Ideal Loisirs, where through development and acquisitions he helped drive ten-fold improvements to the bottom line.

Next was key brand-repositioning success at luxury tableware company Christofle, followed by comparable work in the watch and jewelry divison of Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy.

Then it was on to the MNTO, where he is steering Vision 2010, a bold development plan to fully realize 3,000-year old Morocco’s tourism assets. New resorts and infrastructure are drawing new arrivals and investors like Richard Branson alike; just south of Spain and with strong ties to the U.S., Morocco’s buy rating is strong.

Jeff Heilman

5/2/08