Selim A. Bassoul

Selim Bassoul started his career at Ernst & Young with one year in the Middle East and then came to the United States to attend Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. Before entering the foodservice industry, Mr. Bassoul worked in the healthcare industry for eight years for American Hospital Supply and Baxter Healthcare in various positions including mergers and acquisitions, corporate planning, and regional director in the Middle East and Africa. Prior to joining Middleby, Mr. Bassoul worked for eight years in commercial food equipment for Premark, Inc., a unit of Illinois Tool Works, as director of marketing, general manager of the Cook-Chill division and vice president of sales for the Vulcan Cooking Division.

He has been president and chief executive officer of The Middleby Corporation since 2000 and became chairman of the board in 2004. He joined Middleby as president of the Southbend division in 1986 and then was promoted to the post of Middleby's chief operating officer in 1999.

His other achievements include: contributing editor for the Journal of Business Strategy, speaker on global marketing at the Conference Board, developer of the Riskette financial modeling system, and the Exsys software for international distribution. Mr. Bassoul has always had a "people first" philosophy. While in North Carolina, he opened the Southbend plant to the public to serve hot meals following a 1998 hurricane. After Katrina, Middleby's Blodgett division was first on the scene with oven donations to the Red Cross and mobile hot meals for hurricane victims. Currently, Mr. Bassoul is a global ambassador for Chicago 2016, the passionate team committed to bringing the summer 2016 Olympics to Chicago.