Bassil Chelala was born in Lebanon in 1966 to François Bassil and Raymonde Al-Lati, one of three children.[9] Her paternal grandfather and his brother founded Société Commerciale et Agricole Byblos Frères & Co., a Lebanese company originally focused on natural silk and leather tanning, and subsequently adding agricultural and consumer credit activities. In 1950 the company changed its name to Byblos Bank S.A.L.,[10] with her father among the new founding members and later (1979-2015) its Chairman and General Manager. In 2015, her brother Semaan Bassil was elected Chairman and General Manager of the Bank.[11] Her maternal lineage also has strong banking roots, with the Lati family having established Bank LATI S.A.L., one of Lebanon’s oldest banks, in 1924.[12] Bassil Chelala holds a BA in International Business Administration from American University of Paris (AUP), a BS in Business Marketing from Beirut University College, and an MA in Marketing from the École supérieure des affaires (Beirut) (ESA, or Higher School of Business), under a joint program with ESCP Europe, in Beirut.[13]