What a Family Passes On

More than five decades after Michel Issa opened his first service station in Amchit, the journey he began returned to a question at the heart of every family enterprise: what, beyond a business, do we pass on?

At the invitation of FBN Levant, Dr. Toni M. Issa, Chairman of ISSA Group, took part in the Network’s 10-Year Anniversary Summit, held on 25 September 2026 at ESA Business School in Beirut. The summit brought together family business owners and future leaders from Lebanon and the region to consider the next chapter of family enterprise. For the Issa family, the moment carried particular resonance.

It followed the premiere of "Beginnings Without End | بدايات لا تنتهي", the documentary dedicated to Michel Issa’s life and legacy. The film captured the determination, discipline and belief in people that transformed a modest beginning into IPT, one of Lebanon’s leading energy companies. At FBN Levant, the conversation moved from the story of a beginning to the responsibility of carrying it forward. Hosted by television anchor and podcast host Rania Ziade Achkar, the session, “The Power of Storytelling in Preserving the Family’s Legacy,” explored how family businesses prepare the next generation to lead with a clear understanding of where they come from and what they are called upon to build.

For Dr. Issa, this is the essence of stewardship. Michel Issa’s first station evolved into IPT. Successive generations expanded its reach, strengthened its capabilities, and carried its standards into new markets and new opportunities. The task of each generation is to bring fresh energy to that inheritance while remaining guided by the values that gave it meaning. That is the deeper role of storytelling. It makes a family’s history useful. It gives future leaders a shared reference point when decisions must be made; change must be embraced, and the business must continue to serve a purpose larger than itself.

This belief is at the heart of the ISSA Global journey: «It reflects our belief that building something lasting, building it right, and building it for others are not separate ideas, but part of the same responsibility.»

The value of this continuity reaches well beyond the family. Through IPT, it becomes visible in the energy and mobility solutions that help people move, enable businesses to operate and support the communities in which the Group is rooted. The FBN Levant invitation was a proud moment for the Issa family. It brought together an origin worth honoring and a future ready to be shaped.

The documentary preserved the beginning.
The FBN dialogue entrusted it to the future.

The full FBN Levant conversation with Dr. Toni M. Issa is available on IPT’s YouTube channel.
[Watch it here]