Naguib Onsi Sawiris (or Sawires; ar, نجيب اُنسى ساويرس ; ; born 15 June 1954) is an Egyptian

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busi ...

businessman. Sawiris is chairman of

Weather Investments Wind Telecom S.p.A. was a telecommunications holding company owned by the multinational telecommunications company VimpelCom. In 2011, it was merged into VimpelCom It was originally founded as Weather Investments S.p.A., a holding company cont ...

's parent company, and the former chairman and CEO of

Orascom Telecom Holding Global Telecom Holding S.A.E. (GTH; formerly Orascom Telecom Holding) is a holding company based in Amsterdam, and a subsidiary of the multinational telecommunications services company VEON. GTH previously owned mobile network operators in multipl ...

and Orascom Investment Holding S.A.E.

Early life

Born on June 15, 1954, in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

, to businessman

Onsi Sawiris Onsi Sawiris (also written Sawires; ar, أنسى ساويرس; ) (August 14, 1930 – June 29, 2021) was an Egyptian businessman. He was the patriarchal head of the Sawiris family and founder of the Orascom Group conglomerate. Early life Sa ...

(founder of

Orascom Group Orascom Construction PLC (OC) is an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor based in Cairo, Egypt. The company was Egypt's first multinational corporation and stands at the core of the Orascom Group companies. OC is active in mo ...

) and Yousriya Loza Sawiris, Naguib is the eldest of three brothers. His brothers, Nassef and Samih, are also billionaires. Naguib received a

Diploma A diploma is a document awarded by an educational institution (such as a college or university) testifying the recipient has graduated by successfully completing their courses of studies. Historically, it has also referred to a charter or offici ...

from the German Evangelical School in

Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah'' arz, الجيزة ' ) is the second-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and fourth-largest city in Africa after Kinshasa, Lagos and Cairo. It is the capital of Giza Governorate with a total population of 9.2 ...

, as well as a Diploma of Mechanical Engineering with

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Technical Administration from

ETH Zurich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , a ...

Career

Since joining Orascom, the family business in 1979, Sawiris has contributed to the growth and diversification of the company into what it is today one of Egypt's largest and most diversified conglomerates and the country's largest private sector employer. Sawiris built the railway, information technology, and telecommunications sectors of Orascom. Management decided to split Orascom into separate operating companies in the late 90s: Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH), Orascom Construction Industries (OCI), Orascom Hotels & Development and Orascom Technology Systems (OTS). Orascom Telecom Holding was established in 1997, and then Orascom Telecom Media and Technologies, in 2011, until the recent rebranding into Orascom Investment Holding S.A.E.(OIH), in which he is the Managing Director & CEO of. In August 2012, Sawiris was appointed chairman of La Mancha Holding. In 2014, Sawiris raised more than $4 billion when he sold his stake in his telecommunications companies to Russian company Vimplecom. In early 2015, Sawiris bought a majority stake in the pan-European television channel

Euronews Euronews (styled on-air in lowercase as euronews) is a European television news network, headquartered in Lyon, France. The network began broadcasting on 1 January 1993 and covers world news from a European perspective. The majority of Eurone ...

. He remained as the main shareholder until beginning the process of selling his stake to

Alpac Capital Alpac Capital is a Portuguese investment management firm which invests in European companies ranging from telecom operators, industrial and agribusiness companies to healthcare, mass media and renewable energy, among other businesses. Operation ...

in December 2021. In September 2015, he offered to buy an island off Greece or Italy to help hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing the Syrian conflict. However, he conceded the plan could face challenges in terms of jurisdictions and customs regulation. In December 2016, Sawiris resigned as the CEO of Orascom Telecom Media & Technology. Launched in 2016, Gemini Global Development owns a USD 2.5 bn global real estate portfolio comprising the Silver Sands mixed-use project in Grenada, Ayia Napa Marina in Cyrus, and the Eighteen luxury residential project in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Personal life

Sawiris is married and has four children. He lives in Cairo. He speaks Arabic, English, German and French. Sawiris was listed in ''Forbes'' magazine as the 8th richest person in Africa, with a personal wealth of $3.2 billion. Sawiris is

Coptic Christian Copts ( cop, ⲛⲓⲣⲉⲙⲛ̀ⲭⲏⲙⲓ ; ar, الْقِبْط ) are a Christian ethnoreligious group indigenous to North Africa who have primarily inhabited the area of modern Egypt and Sudan since antiquity. Most ethnic Copts ar ...

. In May 2022, his son Onsi was married in one of Cairo's big churches, and the reception was in a big event under the pyramids.

References

External links

Sawiris profile at Orascom telecom websiteAbout - Orascom Investment Holding
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sawiris, Naguib 1954 births Living people Egyptian billionaires 20th-century Egyptian businesspeople Egyptian nationalists Free Egyptians Party politicians Egyptian people of Coptic descent Orascom Group VEON Businesspeople in telecommunications Sawiris family Coptic Christians Politicians from Cairo 21st-century Egyptian politicians Coptic politicians Egyptian political party founders