Sawiris was born on January 28, 1957, in
Sohag,
Egypt, into a
Coptic Christian family. He received his
Engineering Diploma in
Engineering management from
Technische Universität Berlin in 1980. He founded National Marine Boat Factory, followed by Orascom Projects for Touristic Development in 1996 and Orascom Hotels and Development in 1998; the latter two companies later merged to form Orascom Development Holding AG. He has served as CEO and chairman of Orascom Development Holding AG from its incorporation, and stepped down in December 2021. His son succeeded him. Through his organisation, Sawiris developed holiday resorts in
Egypt and
Switzerland. In 2011, he took a 12.5% stake in Swiss football club
FC Luzern. In 2017, he invested in Bidroom, a membership-based online hotel booking platform. In December 2019, he acquired
Thomas Cook (Germany) through his Raiffeisen Touristik (RT) Group, which he had bought 74.9% of its shares back in 2014. In December 2021, Sawiris stepped down as chairman of Orascom Development Holding and transferred his duties to his son, Naguib Samih Sawiris. ==Personal life==