The initiative to establish a business school in Beirut was driven by professor Fayek Abillama, the president of HEC Alumni Association chapter in Lebanon in collaboration with the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

At early 1995, Jean-Pierre Lafon, former Ambassador of France to Lebanon, advocated for stronger French-Lebanese cooperation in the field of education and training.

ESA Business School was officially inaugurated on 5 April 1996, in the presence of the President, Jacques Chirac, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.

Under the Ottoman Empire, from 1860, German missions transformed the Levant region into an orphanage and a hospital, built and occupied by the deaconesses of Kaiserswerth on the order of St. John (Johanniterorden) of Jerusalem.

In 1995, when the idea of creating ESA Business School was started, demining operations were carried out by the military; rehabilitation work was launched by Jacques Chirac and Rafic Hariri, who inaugurated the opening of the site on 5 April 1996.