Multibillionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist Issam Fares came to prominence when he set up a civil engineering and construction firm that has worked on some of the region’s most significant projects, including the King Fahd Causeway, which runs between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Fares then sold the company to British Aerospace, and used the proceeds to buy up Houston-based investment firm, WEDGE Group, a company that he heads today. He is a former deputy prime minister of Lebanon.