Naguib Sawiris is presently the Chairman & CEO of Orascom Telecom Holding S.A.E., Chairman & CEO of Weather Investments and Chairman of the Board of Wind Telecomunicazioni SpA.
Since joining Orascom, the family business, 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.
The Orascom Group is the country’s largest private sector employer and has the largest market capitalization on the Cairo & Alexandria Stock Exchange. Mr. Sawiris established and built the railway, information technology, and telecommunications sectors of Orascom.
As Chairman and CEO of Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH), Mr. Sawiris has dynamically led the growth of the company, to be the leading regional Telecom player and among the best regarded Emerging Markets players in the world. OTH operates GSM networks in seven different countries in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia (Egypt, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Algeria, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, and North Korea ) with 78 million subscribers as at December 2008. In addition, it operates a number of leading Internet Service Providers (ISPs), as well as value added services and handset distribution companies.
After founding Weather Investments in early 2005, Mr. Naguib Sawiris led the landmark leveraged buyout of a majority stake of Wind Telecommunications in Italy and took over management as its Chairman in late summer 2005.Almost a year after this important step, he led Weather Investment’s acquisition of Tim Hellas in Greece and re-branded it under the name “Wind Hellas. In November 2006, Wind Telecommunications floated the largest ever PIK debt in Europe with proceeds used to complete the buyout of Wind from ENEL resulting in the Sawiris Family owning 98% of Weather. These latest acquisitions mark a new milestone in Mr. Sawiris’ long and successful career journey in leading the international growth of both Orascom Telecom and Weather Investments.
At international and regional levels, Mr. Sawiris serves on several Boards, Committees and Councils.
Mr. Sawiris is also the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, industry awards and civic honors, including the " Legion d’honneur “ (the highest award given by the French Republic for outstanding services rendered to France) and the recipient of prestigious “Sitara-e-Quaid-e-Azam" award (conferred upon Mr. Sawiris in 2006 by General Pervez Musharref for services rendered to the people of Pakistan in the field of telecommunication, investments and social sector work).
Mr Sawiris holds a diploma of 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.