Onsi Sawiris
Onsi Sawiris | |
|---|---|
| Born | Template:Birth date Sohag, Egypt |
| Died | June 29, 2021 (aged 90) El Gouna, Egypt |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Known for | Founder of Orascom Group |
Onsi Sawiris (also rendered as Sawires; ; August 14, 1930 – June 29, 2021) was a prominent Egyptian entrepreneur, recognized as the patriarch of the Sawiris family and the originator of the Orascom Group conglomerate.
Background and personal life
Sawiris was born in Sohag, Egypt, into a family of Coptic Christian heritage, being the youngest among four siblings. He completed his undergraduate studies in agricultural engineering at Cairo University in 1950. Initially, he oversaw the management of his family’s agricultural lands before redirecting his efforts toward road construction projects, leveraging government investments in infrastructure development.
He was married to Yousriya Loza Sawiris and fathered three sons—Naguib, Samih, and Nassef—who have continued to oversee the Orascom Group’s operations. Sawiris died at 91 years old in El Gouna, Egypt, succumbing to kidney failure.
Career
In 1952, Sawiris established Onsi & Lamei Co, a company specializing in road and waterway construction. The enterprise was nationalized in 1961 during President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s administration but remained under his leadership for an additional five years. Following travel limitations imposed during the 1960s and a professional stint in Libya, he returned to Egypt in 1976 amid President Anwar Sadat’s tenure and founded Orascom for Constructions and Trade. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, under President Hosni Mubarak’s rule, the company diversified into multiple industries including tourism, hospitality, information technology, and telecommunications.
By 2003, the Sawiris family held ownership of the three largest market-capitalized companies listed on the Cairo Stock Exchange—Orascom Telecom, Orascom Construction Industries, and MobiNil—and were preparing to list these entities on American stock exchanges. In 2017, Forbes valued his personal fortune at roughly $1.2 billion.