“I am keen to intensify Swiss-Moroccan relations in Marrakech”
The symbolism is strong, and much more besides. For Yassin Halhoul, who has always had one foot in Switzerland and the other in Morocco, becoming the CCSM’s regional delegate in Marrakech necessarily holds a special significance. “I am very happy to serve Moroccan-Swiss relations in the ochre city. I am keen to intensify exchanges between decision-makers, institutions, future Swiss investors and those already present in the Marrakech region. My challenge: to create schemes for new investors to discover the promising economic sectors in the region, and then to support them in their future projects ”, he explains enthusiastically. And to serve the Swiss business community in Marrakech, his past and present personal and professional experience will be a valuable resource.
Body and Mind
At the age of 13, Yassin Halhoul had his first turning point in life. At the time, he was a young, active teenager, passionate about boxing and very attached to certain values: “I have never been able to stand injustice. As a child, I was ready to do anything to restore what seemed fair to me, even becoming a bit of a fighter in the playground ”, he confides, with a smile in his voice.
It was on discovering Muhammad Ali that everything changed. “There was not only the admirable boxer and his sporting achievements, there was the man: his love of fair combat, brotherhood, respect. A real source of inspiration”, explains Yassin Halhoul. For several years, the man who “dreamed while watching Rocky Balboa”, trained with dedication and tenacity. Hard work that was rewarded with four consecutive Swiss boxing championship titles between 1997 and 2001.
Change of course
After his sporting career, Yassin Halhoul joined the Swiss infantry grenadiers in Isone, an elite regiment, the Swiss equivalent of the French Foreign Legion. Unfortunately, an injury forced him “to change direction”.
Yassin Halhoul decided to resume his studies and chose the École Supérieure de Commerce André Chavanne for the next stage of his journey. After graduating, he opened his first restaurant in Geneva. Then events followed one after another. “In 2017, I met the founders of the luxury ready-to-wear brand Dsquared2, Dean and Dan Caten. And that is how we opened the brand’s first boutique in Africa, in Marrakech”, he recounts. Numerous international artistic collaborations followed, notably with “Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Naomi Campell, and Beyoncé, for whom we created the costume for the Super Bowl opening ceremony in the United States”.
Entrepreneurship
Now based in the ochre city, Yassin Halhoul is launching new projects there. One of them: the creation of Prestige Bio Organic, a brand of cosmetics based on 100% natural argan oil, distributed in Canada, the United States, Morocco, Switzerland and France. In 2021, the man who admits to “being a real foodie” realised “that Swiss chocolate, although renowned throughout the world, is not widely available in Morocco”. He then had the idea of signing a partnership with Favarger and Ragusa, two famous Swiss chocolate makers, becoming their exclusive distributor throughout the kingdom through his brand Chocolat Suisse.
A taste for others
Yassin Halhoul also devotes his 1,000 ideas a day and his boundless energy to his interests.
Attached since childhood to what is right, he is committed to many humanitarian causes. “It is essential for me, beyond the financial dimension, to give my time,” he explains, before continuing: “the people we help teach us real lessons in life and humility”. Listening to him, it is easy to understand his admiration for the Dalai Lama: “Meeting him would be my wildest dream, as his perception of the world, the values he conveys and his vision of happiness are so far from ours.” Among his role models are also Nelson Mandela and William Tell: “The former, the man of reconciliation who chose wisdom and humility; the latter for his courage and freedom of spirit,” concludes Yassin Halhoul.
If you were…
– A colour, which would you be? Green, the colour of hope
– A country, which would you be? I consider myself a child of the world
– An animal? The elephant, because it is big and strong and yet herbivorous
– A personality? Commander Cousteau
– A connected object? A watch
– A film? “The Hurricane” by Norman Jewison
– A superpower? Time travel
– A quality? Generosity
– A flaw? Gluttony