Nassef Sawiris

Sawiris was born on 19 January 1961, in Aswan, Egypt, into a Coptic Christian family. He received his secondary education from the Deutsche Evangelische Oberschule Kairo. He then continued at University of Chicago where he received a bachelor's degree in economics in 1982.

Sawiris joined the Orascom group in 1982 and oversaw the construction activities of Orascom Construction following the transfer of management control from his father Onsi Sawiris in 1995. He became CEO of Orascom Construction Industries following the company's incorporation in 1998. He served on the board of Besix, following OCI SAE acquiring a 50% stake in the company in 2004, and a member of the remuneration and nominations committee until 2017.

He was on the board of directors of the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchanges from 2004 to 2007, and was also a board director at the Dubai International Financial Exchange DIFX from July 2008 to June 2010.

In January 2013, he became CEO of OCI NV when they acquired the former parent company OCI SAE. In 2015, he was elected a board member of LafargeHolcim, having served on Lafarge SA's board since 2008.

In October 2015, it was reported that Sawiris had acquired a stake in Adidas AG via his investment company NNS Holding Sàrl Luxembourg. In 2016 he was appointed supervisory director of Adidas AG, Herzogenaurach, Germany.

In October 2020, Sawiris founded Avanti Acquisition Corp, a special-purpose acquisition company. However, after failing to acquire another company, Avanti Acquisition was wound up in October 2022.

Sawiris is married to Sherine, has four children, lives in Cairo, and maintains a residence in New York City. He is a Coptic Christian.