Nassef Sawiris, the richest man in Egypt, is leaving his position as executive chair of OCI Global, which he has headed for over 20 years and built into one of the biggest producers of fertilizer worldwide.
Nassef Sawiris informed OCI Global on March 3, 2026, that he would be leaving his position as Executive Chair of the Board, citing other professional obligations, with effect from the upcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM).
In due course, OCI will give the market additional information about the appointment of an Executive Director to the Board,” the announcement stated.
On March 4, 2026, OCI announced in a separate statement that Sawiris would formally step down from his position as Executive Chair and run for election as a Non-Executive Director at the same AGM.
Adidas, however, recently said that at its annual general meeting on May 7 in Würth, Germany, it would that Nassef Sawiris take over as chairman in place of Thomas Rabe.
Sawiris, 65, is concentrating on reorganizing his commercial ventures around a new infrastructure platform at the time of the relocation. The engineering division of the Sawiris family and OCI announced plans to join in December 2025.
According to a report by Billionaires Africa, the merger would see OCI liquidated and delisted from Euronext Amsterdam, with its assets rolled into a combined company to be called Orascom, with its headquarters located in Abu Dhabi.
Over the course of his more than 40-year career, Sawiris built the companies that eventually became OCI. After graduating from the University of Chicago with a degree in economics, he joined the family’s Orascom company in 1982. In 1998, he was appointed CEO of Orascom Construction Industries.
Later on, he directed the establishment of OCI as an independent business and oversaw its growth throughout the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. OCI paid out almost $22 billion in dividends to stockholders while it was a publicly traded business.
In order to concentrate Sawiris’s efforts on U.S. infrastructure under the new Orascom platform, OCI recently sold off more than $11.6 billion in assets, including its methanol operations, Iowa fertilizer plant, and European companies.
With an estimated net worth of $8.5 billion, Sawiris is the richest individual in Egypt and co-owns a Premier League team with American businessman Wes Edens.