About Cherine Magrabi Tayeb – Professionally
A natural entrepreneur and businesswoman, Cherine Magrabi Tayeb brings together her creativity, specialized knowledge in design, and her business sense to every project she undertakes. With an academic background in art and design, Cherine has become an avid collector, but is also a proactive contributor and key player on the arts & design scenes internationally and has served on judge panels as well as being on the council of many prestigious international museums and design institutions over the years.
In Lebanon, not only is she a founding patron of the Beirut Art Center, she is also the founder & curator of House of Today, her brainchild, which is a design platform with global reach that has helped ignite the recent design boom in Beirut, and contributed to the promotion & exposure of local Lebanese designers, as well as provide scholarships for students. Perseverant by nature, Cherine not only curates the design work with designers, she also dives into the production processes of the pieces, getting involved with artisans, lending her sharp aesthetic & experience, and pushing for higher-end quality & techniques.
Following the explosion that happened in Beirut on August 4th 2020, Cherine has played a pivotal role in the grant raised by House of Today in response to an urgent need to restore the city's design studios by providing the designers the basic means to produce, an accessible studio and vital tools and materials, in order for them to begin to work again.
Her benevolent and generous personality is also expressed in the causes she chooses to foster, sponsor and promote, working closely with a selection of Lebanese & global charities.
As patron of the arts & design, and a successful businesswoman, Cherine’s diverse career includes playing a crucial role in the success of Magrabi, the leading optical retail chain in the Middle East with over 200 luxury stores in the Middle East, as Creative & Communications Director of the company. Her most recent undertaking 13BC, a brand of exclusive, collectible & limited edition minaudières recently launched in Paris, that bring art, design & fashion together, with each bag featuring curated enamel artwork by Cherine herself.
About Cherine Magrabi Tayeb – Personally
Cherine Magrabi Tayeb was born in Jeddah, where she & her siblings were raised by their mother & father, a pioneering Egyptian-Saudi ophthalmologist. Fond of her memories growing up in Jeddah, she went on to graduate from Chateau Mont Choisi in Switzerland, and then attended Chelsea College of Arts, where she majored in Interior Architecture. After graduating, she backed up her diploma with an intensive design course at Inchbald School of Design. In 2002, Cherine, her husband and 3 sons moved to Beirut, Lebanon, where they made it their home.
