Nassef Sawiris

Nassef Sawiris is an Egyptian businessman, born in Aswan on 19 January 1961, the youngest of the three sons of Onsi Sawiris. He leads the OCI fertilisers and chemicals group, co-owns Aston Villa Football Club, and is Egypt's richest person, with a fortune estimated at US$8.5 billion in January 2026. ¹

Sawiris was born in Aswan into a Coptic Christian family and was educated at the Deutsche Evangelische Oberschule in Cairo before taking a bachelor's degree in economics at the University of Chicago in 1982. ¹ The English article states in its own text that "He is a Coptic Christian", and his African CEO Magazine profile likewise lists his religion as Coptic Christian and states that he practices it. ^{1 2} He is married to Sherine, has four children, and lives in Cairo with a residence in New York. ¹

Sawiris joined the Orascom group in 1982, took over its construction activities from his father in 1995 and became chief executive of Orascom Construction Industries in 1998, later leading OCI NV and its successor OCI Global, one of the world's largest nitrogen fertiliser producers. ¹ He has sat on the boards of LafargeHolcim and the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchanges, took a stake in Adidas in 2015 and joined its supervisory board in 2016. ¹ In July 2018 his consortium with Wes Edens bought a controlling stake in Aston Villa, then in England's second tier; the club was promoted to the Premier League in 2019, and their V Sports group has since added Portugal's Vitória S.C. and a stake in MSG Sports. ¹

• The source entities cited above, registered under data/source/.