Onsi Sawiris

Onsi Sawiris[1](also written Sawires,[1] Coptic: ⲁⲛⲥⲓ ⲥⲉⲩⲏⲣⲟⲥ, Arabic: أنسي ساويرس‎;[1] born January 2, 1930[2] in Sohag, Egypt – June 29, 2021 in El Gouna, Egypt)[3] was an Egyptian businessman. He was estimated to be worth approximately $1.2 billion according to Forbes in 2017.[4] He was the patriarchal head of the Sawiris family. Sawiris was a member of Egypt's Coptic Christian minority.

During his early business career, he was disenchanted with the socialist government of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. He was prevented from leaving the country for six years in the 1960s.[5] After a spell in Libya, he returned to Egypt during the more business-friendly regime of the following Egyptian president, Anwar Sadat. He and his three sons, all educated in Europe and the United States, resumed their activities in Egypt over the past three decades under the government of Hosni Mubarak and its liberal business policies.

He founded the Orascom conglomerate, whose various construction, telecommunications and tourism, science and technology, and industrial companies are run by his three sons, Naguib Sawiris, Nassef Sawiris, and Samih Sawiris. Orascom is involved in tourism development, telecommunications, construction, and other fields. In 2003, the Sawiris family held the three largest stocks by market capitalization on the Cairo exchange: Orascom Telecom, Orascom Construction Industries and MobiNil.[6]