- Source of Wealth: Construction, Telecom, Tourism
- Age: 89
- Birth Place: Egypt
- Marital Status: Married
- Full Name: Onsi Sawiris
- Nationality: Egypt
- Date of Birth: August 14, 1930
- Occupation: Businessman
- Children: three children
Onsi Sawiris is an Egyptian businessman and the patriarch of the wealthiest family in Egypt who has an estimated net worth of $1.19 billion as of April 2016 according to Forbes. He is the fourth richest person in Egypt, the eleventh person in the list of 40 Richest People in Africa and 736th in the world.
Mr. Sawiris has built his estimated net worth of $1.19 billion when he founded the Orascom conglomerate, a general contracting and trading company, in 1976. By the early 1990’s, he had established the company as the leading private sector contractor as it worked in partnership with international companies with projects in Egypt.
Onsi Sawiris was in-charge of overseeing the diversification of the business into new areas such as tourism and information technology. He also led the company with its biggest growth and success to become the largest conglomerate operating in Egypt with its three major companies – Orascom Telecom Holding (OTH), Orascom Construction Industries (OCI) and Orascom Hotels and Development (OHD).
His son, Nassef, took over OCI in 1995 and is now the most valuable publicly-traded company in Egypt. Naguib runs OTH and is an investor in Mobinil, the main mobile phone company in Egypt while Samih heads OHD. Today, Orascom is also involved in science and technology, and industry companies.