Issam Fares

Issam Fares was a Member of Parliament from 1996 to 2005 and was Deputy Prime Minister from 2000 to 2005. Besides his involvement in politics, Fares is an entrepreneur who established a civil engineering and construction firm, and completed many notable projects including the world's longest international bridge, which connects Bahrain to Saudi Arabia. He sold this company to British Aerospace, and used the proceeds to buy up Houston-based investment firm, Wedge Group, a company that he heads today.

Wedge Group, is a Houston, Texas-based investment firm, with investments in manufacturing, hotels, trucking, food processing, engineering, construction, oilfield services, and real estate. Wedge International Holdings B.V. in the Netherlands, and Wedge Real Estate S.A.L. in Lebanon are affiliates that own and manage the company’s non-U.S. investments.

Fares is the founder of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut, the founder of the Fares Institute of Technology at Balamand University, and of the Fares Center at Tufts University. Issam’s son, Nijad Fares, is the chairman of Link Group and Wedge equities. He is also a shareholder at LBCI.