Paulette Chlela joined Berytech in June 2023 as a Business Advisor for ARYAF. She received a diploma in Agricultural Engineering from the Faculty of Agronomy at the Lebanese University in 1990 and has been a Grape Specialist for 30 years of experience in the wine grapes and table grapes sector.
Paulette did a specialization in Viticulture and Enology at ENITA- Bordeaux ended in December 1992; she planned to prepare a DEA at the Enology Institute at Bordeaux, but she decided to return to Lebanon with the aim to improve the Lebanese grapes sector and the wine industry.
She got the opportunity to start her career at Château KSARA in June 1993. There she spent 20 years raising young vines and maintaining a plantation of around 350 ha. Being the vineyard manager of Château KSARA’s famous wines, she practiced the brilliant new start of the winery beginning in 1990 and she built and grove the rebirth of the wine grape sector with regards to the introduction of new varieties, new training systems, wine grape water management, Terroir classification, vineyard ISO and HACCP certification.
Besides her full-time job at Château KSARA, Paulette Chlela showed an interest in research on vines diseases, grapes composition, and grapes microflora… she accomplished in collaboration with LARI- INRA at Bordeaux, USJ- faculty of sciences, INRA at Dijon, many types of research that ended into publications.
Furthermore, Paulette Chlela had the ability to communicate her knowledge and passion to the students in two Lebanese agricultural universities (ESIAM and USEK); thus, by teaching Enology and viticulture courses for more than 25 years to date.
Paulette Chlela, decided to get a master’s in business development at Saint Joseph University (USJ) Faculty of Management in 2011. By the end of 2012, she became a family business member at BELAGRI sarl, a Lebanese Agricultural Company with major activities Potatoes seeds, Pesticides, and Fertilizers business. There she is working beside her husband; challenges and opportunities are numerous.
In September 2013, Paulette Chlela started as an STTA at DAI- LIVCD which is running a USAID-funded project to increase economic growth for Lebanese agricultural value chains. The grape consultant quickly became the head of the grapes value chain at LIVCD until December 2018.
Under the DAI-LIVCD project, she served with international and local grapes specialists on improving grape cultural practices and introducing new technologies about grapes production, harvest, and post-harvest practices. She achieved under the LIVCD project “Dalil Al Karram”, a manual on table grapes production covering all the practices adopted to establish, produce, and market old and new grapes varieties of high quality.
From April 2020 until July 2021, she was hired by the UNDP-SLMQ project as a National Specialist for the Provision of services for establishing rain-fed vineyards on degraded and abandoned terraces. She succeeded in determining the methodology for the assessment of pre-selected areas for rehabilitation. She was glad to have the opportunity to disseminate the best practices and to transfer the new technologies among new grapes farmers in 10 different villages in the districts of Zahle, Rachaya, and West Bekaa.