An industrialist, co-founder of a soap and cosmetics company named Sharafeddine Industrial Laboratories, Issam Sharafeddine Chehayeb was born in Aley in 1954.
Originally a pharmacist who had graduated from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1976, he eventually switched careers to launch his company, producing soaps, cleaning products, and cosmetics.
Some of its brands became internal and the company is reportedly classified as “first-class” in the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture in Beirut and Mount Lebanon since 1991.
Chehayeb is a member of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists since 1991. He is currently the Vice President of the Syndicate of Chemical Industries. He was also a founding former president of the Aley Industrialists Association.
Chehayeb worked as a director of summer festivals in Aley during the nineties. He was the founding president of the “Aley Club for Cycling” in 2019.
He is an environmental activist, who contributed to the establishment of the Shwayya Cedar Forest Reserve. He is reportedly working on extensive afforestation campaigns in several areas in Aley and the neighborhood.
Politically, he acts as an advisor to the head of the Lebanese Democratic Party, Druze Politician Talal Arslan, an opponent to Druze leader Walid Jumblatt.
Chehayeb was chosen by Talal Arslan to lead Lebanon’s Ministry of The Displaced in the newly formed government of PM Najib Mikati.
