Samih Sawiris Egyptian Billionaire Barron with wealth from Hotels

Naguib Sawiris (b. in 1954), is an Egyptian businessman. He is the Chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom, and Chairman of board of Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A. and Mobinil. He is one of the richest man in Africa. He is the son of Onsi Sawiris the founder of Orascom Group.




Mr. Sawiris holds a diploma in Mechanical Engineering with a Masters in Technical Administration from the Swiss Institute of Technology, ETH Switzerland and a Diploma from the German Evangelical School, Cairo, Egypt. Mr. Sawiris is married, with four children and lives in Cairo, Egypt. He speaks Arabic, English, German and French.

Mr. Sawiris is a Board member of the GSM Association representing Orascom Telecom Holding since January 2003. He is a member of the newly formed International Advisory Committee to the New York Stock Exchange Board of Directors (IAC). Mr. Sawiris has been appointed to jointly chair the Italian-Egyptian Business Council for 2006-2007 periods. He is also a member of both the Board of Trustees and the board of Directors of the Arab Thought Foundation, a board of Trustees member and Head of the Financial Committee of the French University in Cairo, a board member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, the Consumer Rights Protection Association and the Cancer Society of Egypt.


Since his appointment with Orascom began in 1979, Naguib Sawiris has continuously contributed to the growth and diversification of the company into what it is today – one of Egypt’s largest and most diversified conglomerates with the largest market capitalization. Mr. Sawiris established and built the railway, information technology, and telecommunications sectors of Orascom. The extraordinary success of these ventures as well as the other sectors of the company led to the management decision to split Orascom into separate operating companies. Hence, in late 1997 Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E. (OTH) and Orascom Technology Systems (OTS) were established and chaired by Mr. Sawiris.

As Chairman and CEO of OTH, Mr. Sawiris led the growth of the company at a rapid pace, to be the leading regional telecommunications player, operating GSM networks in 7 different countries in the Middle East, Africa, and the Indian Subcontinent with over 30 million subscribers as of December 31, 2005, in addition to a number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and satellite service providers serving a population of 500 million people, with an average penetration rate of 9.5%. In addition, Mr. Sawiris is Chairman of the Board of Wind Telecomunicazioni S.p.A., Weather Investments S.a.r.l and the Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (ECMS)