Born on April 22, 1938, in Jaffa, Palestine, Abu-Ghazaleh moved to the Lebanese village of Ghazziyeh in 1948, two hours away from the port city of Sidon. After attending both elementary and secondary schools in Sidon, he later went on to pursue his higher education at the American University of Beirut after attaining a full scholarship.

Whilst still an undergraduate, he worked as a teacher and translator. His first job after graduating was in an audit firm.

In 1969, upon hearing a speech on Intellectual Property (IP) at a Time-Warner conference in San Francisco, Abu-Ghazaleh decided to work in the field of Intellectual Property Rights as well as accounting.

In 1972, two firms - Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Company (TAGCO) and Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property (AGIP) - were set up, specializing in the fields of accounting and IP respectively. Since then, Abu-Ghazaleh founded a total of fourteen professional services firms that specialize in various fields such as management, consulting, legal services, IT and many more.

Over the years, Abu-Ghazaleh managed to establish close partnerships with global organizations such as the UN and the WTO.

On April 4, 2007, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon appointed Abu-Ghazaleh, as the deputy chairman of the UN Global Compact during its second meeting held at the UN headquarters in New York.