Born in Lebanon from a Swiss mother and a Lebanese father, Sami Kanaan got a master degree in physics at the ETHZ (Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich) in 1989, followed by a master degree in political science at the University of Geneva in 1995. For more than 35 years he has been engaged in Geneva, both professionally and politically.

Professionally, he was involved in the European Association of Universities and then became part of an independent team of consultants specialised in public policy assessment and organisational assessment, before joining the public administration in the field of social affairs. Politically, he served in various councils and entities, such as the Municipal Council of the City of Geneva, the Cantonal Parliament (“Grand Conseil”), the Board of the Geneva Cantonal Bank and the Board of the Geneva Public Transport Institution (TPG). He has been member of the Executive Council of the City of Geneva for three elective periods between June 2011 and May 2025; he was Mayor of Geneva at three times (2014-15, 2018-19, 2020-21). He was mainly in charge of culture, and also of sports until 2020, and then of digitalisation since 2020, implementing a proactive, effective and comprehensive digitalisation policy for the City with an independent certification. He was in charge of international affairs for the City during the last years, in close cooperation with the Canton of Geneva and the Swiss Confederation. As such he initiated the constitution of the “Global Cities Hub” in 2020 as a new platform in Geneva aiming at developing effective and sustainable interaction between local and regional governments and the multilateral institutions and processes. He also chairs since 2016 the Federal Commission for Childhood and Youth, a consultative body of the federal authorities.