Onsi Sawiris (also written Sawires; ar, أنسى ساويرس; ) (August 14, 1930 – June 29, 2021) was an

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

businessman. He was the patriarchal head of the

Sawiris family The Sawiris family () is an Egyptian Coptic Christian family that owns the Orascom conglomerate, spanning telecommunications, construction, tourism, industries and technology. In 2008, ''Forbes'' estimated the family's net worth at US$36 bill ...

and founder of the

Orascom 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 m ...

Group conglomerate.

Early life

Sawiris was born August 30, 1930 in

Sohag Sohag ( , ), also spelled as ''Sawhāj'', ''Suhag'' and ''Suhaj'', is a city on the west bank of the Nile in Egypt. It has been the capital of Sohag Governorate since 1960, before which the capital was Girga and the name of the governorate was ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

– June 29, 2021 in

El Gouna El Gouna ( ar, الجونة ' , "the Lagoon") is an Egyptian tourist city, owned and developed by Samih Sawiris' Orascom Development, dating from 1989. It is located on the Red Sea in the Red Sea Governorate of Egypt, north of Hurghada. It is ...

, Egypt) to Naguib Sawiris, a lawyer, and his wife, the youngest of four children. Sawiris received a bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering from Cairo University in 1950 and managed his family’s 52-acre farm for two years after graduation.

Career

In 1952, Sawiris established his own construction company, Onsi & Lamei Co, which began as a road and waterways contractor. In 1961, the business was nationalized under then Egyptian President

Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...

and later became known as the El Nasr Civil Works Company. Mr. Sawiris continued to run the nationalized business for five years. He was prevented from leaving the country for six years in the 1960s. After a period of time in

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

, he returned to Egypt in 1976 during the regime of Egyptian president

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat, (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 ...

and founded Orascom for Constructions and Trade as a general contracting and trading company. The name was later changed to Orascom for Construction Industries, and the investment portfolio expanded in the 1980s and the 1990s to include tourism, hospitality, computing, and cell phone networks, under the government of Egyptian president

Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in t ...

. Today, the Orascom conglomerate is run by his three sons,

Naguib Sawiris Naguib Onsi Sawiris (or Sawires; ar, نجيب اُنسى ساويرس ; ; born 15 June 1954) is an Egyptian billionaire businessman. Sawiris is chairman of Weather Investments's parent company, and the former chairman and CEO of Orascom Telec ...

Samih Sawiris Samih Onsi Sawiris ( ar, سميح أنسي ساويرس, ; born in 1957) is an Egyptian- Montenegrin businessman and billionaire and the second of three sons of Onsi Sawiris, the other two being Naguib Sawiris and Nassef Sawiris. He is the former ...

and Nassef Sawiris. In 2003, the Sawiris family held the three largest stocks by market capitalization on the Cairo exchange: Orascom Telecom, Orascom Construction Industries and MobiNil. He was estimated to be worth approximately $1.2 billion according to ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'' in 2017.

Personal life

Sawiris was married to Yousriya Loza Sawiris and had three sons Naguib, Samih, and Nassef. Sawiris was

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 ...

References

1930 births 2021 deaths Coptic businesspeople Egyptian businesspeople Egyptian people of Coptic descent Egyptian billionaires Onsii People from Sohag Governorate {{Egypt-bio-stub

Early life

Career

Personal life

See also

References