Mobinil Egypt - Minamar Hotel - Profile of Naguib Sawiris Egypt - Get Egyptian Telephone during your travel

Mr. Sawiris is Chairman of Egyptian Company for Mobile Services (MobiNil). He is also Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Orascom Telecom (OT), MobiNil's shareholder, and one of the leading international players in telecommunications, GSM operations, Internet services, satellite and related communication services.

Since his appointment with Orascom 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, employers and investors with the largest market capitalization. Mr. Sawiris established and built the railway, information technology, and telecommunications sectors of Orascom. The extraordinary success of these ventures as well as the other sectors of the company led to the management decision to split Orascom into separate operating companies. Hence, in late 1997 OT and Orascom Technology Systems (OTS) were established and chaired by Mr. Sawiris.

As Chairman of OT, Mr. Sawiris has led the growth of the company in a dynamic pace, now operating GSM networks in 7 different countries in the Middle East, Africa, and the Indian Subcontinent, in addition to a number of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and satellite service providers serving approximately 500 million people around the globe.

In January 2003, OT represented by Mr. Sawiris, was appointed as Board Member in the GSM Association. A well earned recognition for the regional role Orascom Telecom plays in the telecommunication business as an international Operator and an acknowledgement for the efforts exerted by its founder Mr. Sawiris who has been the driving force behind Orascom Telecom's regional expansion and success. During the past two years, Mr. Sawiris has managed the company's aggressive and visionary investment strategy making it one of the largest international GSM operators in the region.

In May 2005, Mr. Sawiris acquired, through his company Weather Investments which owns a controlling stake in OTH, purchased the Italian telecommunications operator "Wind Telecommunications". Wind is the third largest mobile operator and second largest fixed line operator ("Infostrada") in Italy. It also owns the most popular portal and ISP called "Libero". The total deal value of Weather Investments exceeds 17.2 billion euro. The acquisition is the largest LBO in the history of Europe.

Mr. Sawiris is a member of both the Board of Trustees and the Board of Directors of the Arab Thought Foundation, a board of Trustees member and Head of the Financial Committee of the French University in Cairo, a board member of the Egyptian Counsel for Foreign Affairs, the Consumer Rights Protection Association and the Cancer Society of Egypt. He 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. He speaks Arabic, English, German and French.