Naguib Sawiris

Naguib Sawiris is an Egyptian businessman, born in Cairo on 15 June 1954, the eldest of the three sons of Onsi Sawiris. He built Orascom Telecom into one of the largest mobile operators in the emerging markets, chairs Orascom Investment Holding, and founded the Free Egyptians Party after the 2011 revolution. ¹

Sawiris was born in Cairo to a Coptic family, members of the Coptic Orthodox Church, and was educated at the German Evangelical School in Giza and at ETH Zurich, where he took a diploma in mechanical engineering and a master's in technical administration. ¹ Jadaliyya's profile calls him "the eldest of three prominent Coptic Christian brothers" and quotes his own words to the interviewer Charlie Rose in 2008: "I'm a very strong believer [in Christianity] and this has always been the source of my strength". ² A 2026 report of his France 24 interview likewise describes him as a Christian from a Coptic Orthodox family. ³ The Arabic article gives his birth differently, as 17 June 1955 in Tahta, Sohag; the date built in this record follows the English article and Wikidata, with the Arabic reading preserved in the data note. ⁴

Sawiris joined Orascom in 1979 and developed its railway, information technology and telecommunications sectors, establishing Orascom Telecom Holding in 1997 and launching Mobinil, Egypt's first private mobile network. ¹ He sold his telecom stakes to VimpelCom in a merger completed in 2011, bought a majority stake in the Euronews channel in 2015, and built a gold-mining portfolio through La Mancha. ¹ In 2011 he founded the Free Egyptians Party; in September 2015 he publicly offered to buy a Mediterranean island to shelter refugees fleeing the Syrian war. ¹

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