Loading ...Who are the Arab or Arab Americans on the Forbes 500 List?
YouTubeBy: Ala Abed-Rabbo/Arab America Contributing Writer
Forbes Magazine
Man’s AmbitionPublished bi-weekly original articles on investment, manufacturing, financing, and promoting are the focus topics of Forbes, an American business magazine. Forbes also reports on correlated subjects such as technology, relations, science, political affairs, and law. Located in Jersey City, New Jersey are its headquarters.
Nassef Onsi Sawiris # 252 on the Forbes List
Born in 1961, Sawiris is an Egyptian billionaire businessman. He is the youngest among his brothers, Naguib and Samih. His net worth was estimated to be at 7.6 billion dollars as of 2019. On Forbes Magazine, he is the fourth richest African in 2019. The German International School of Egypt is where Nassef received his secondary education. Then in 1982, he received a bachelor’s degree in Economics at the University of Chicago.
Since he graduated in 1982, he has held senior positions with numerous organizations. During that same year, he joined the Orascom Group. Following the company’s incorporation in 1998, he became Chief Executive Officer of Orascom Construction Industries.
From 2004 to 2007, he also served on the board of directors of the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchanges and, from 2008 to 2010, was a board director at the Dubai International Financial Exchange DIFX.
Moreover, in July of 2018, it was declared that Sawiris would replace Tony Xia as chairman of Aston Villa F.C. after the purchase of a 55% controlling stake by NSWE, a company cooperatively owned and controlled by Sawiris’ group NNS and American billionaire Wes Edens.
In 2015, Sawiris divided Orascom Construction Industries into two units: OCI and Orascom Construction. OCI, one of the world’s biggest nitrogen fertilizer producers with plants in Texas and Iowa and is operated by Nassef. It exchanges on the Euronext Amsterdam trade.
An engineering and building firm, Orascom Construction, deals on the Cairo exchange and Nasdaq Dubai. “His holdings include stakes in cement giant Lafarge Holcim and Adidas; he sits on the supervisory board of Adidas.”
Naguib Sawiris
Naguib Sawiris, brother of Nasef Sawiris, joined the family business, Orascom, in 1979. He has added to the growth and expansion of the company into Egypt’s leading and most diversified corporations and the country’s biggest private-sector employer. As of 2019, his net worth is three billion U.S. dollars.
Naguib is the founder of OTH and has managed the development of the company, culminating in the joint agreement between Wind Telecom, the parent company of Orascom Telecom Holding, and VimpelCom Ltd. “Sawiris led the acquisition of La Mancha Resources Inc through a tender offer launched by Weather Investments II.”
Alec Gores
Born in 1953, Alec Gores (#388 on the Forbes 2019 List) is an American billionaire entrepreneur with a net worth of 2.1 billion dollars. His wealth developed through leveraged purchases of technology firms at the firm Gores Group. He is of Lebanese and Greek descent.
Gores went to Western Michigan University, where he earned a degree in Computer Science. Tom Gores, the founder of Platinum Equity and Sam Gores, the head of Paradigm Talent Agency, is Alec’s brothers.
Alec is the founder of Executive Business Systems, in 1978, with $10,000, selling computers from his basement. The company employed over 200 people, by 1986, and was bought by Contel for approximately $2 million. Following the purchase, Gores started acquiring and operating non-core businesses from big companies. In 1987, he then established The Gores Group, a private equity corporation, and since then has bought 80 companies over 25 years.
Alec and his brother Tom have been involved in several agreements jointly, including the 2011 gain of Alliance Entertainment, which supplies DVDs, CD’s, and video games to stores like Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, and Target.
Tom Gores
Moreover, Tom Gores, with a net worth of 5.6 billion dollars, (#118 on the Forbes 2019 List), runs more than 25 companies, such as Platinum Equity. Young Tom stocked shelves at his father’s small grocery store. He went to Michigan State University and graduated in 1986 with a bachelor’s degree in Construction Management.
After graduation, Gores had a short period at Continental Telephone before assisting and found a lumber-logistics software organization (Ventech). Gores established Platinum Equity in 1995 in his home.
He discovered his initial project with Litigation Services, Inc. (LSI), a then unprofitable company that created computer-generated re-creations of accidents for courtroom proof and testimony. He purchased it for $200,000, restructured some of the business formations, and had restored it to value within six months. Gores led 32 purchases, between 1996 and 2001, with those of Pilot Software, Racal, and Williams Communications. By the subsequent year, Platinum Equity’s range involved units of Motorola, Fujitsu, and Alcatel.
The Maloof Brothers
Casino.orgMaloof’s brother’s net worth is 1 billion dollars. They are part of the famous Las Vegas, Nevada family of business property owners. The Maalouf family is of Lebanese descent. In 1937, is when the family’s success started with the supplying rights of Coors Beer in the Southwest part of U.S. George J. Maloof Sr., and his wife Colleen had five children, Adrienne Maloof-Nassif, Joe, Gavin, George Jr., and Phil.
Moreover, the family developed their beer and liquor distribution strategies, and in 1992, launched their first gaming. Joe and Gavin Maloof established the Maloof Money Cup in 2008, a match for both skilled and amateur skateboarders.
Gavin Maloof is a prominent sports and technology businessman, and at once owned the NBA Houston Rockets, the NBA Sacramento Kings, and the NHL Vegas Golden Knights. At STAXOS, he is an executive partner, a technology and telecom firm offering cloud, telecom, and security solutions to corporations.
In many businesses, such as sports competitions, hospitality, liquor, and technology, Gavin has succeeded. Gavin was known as the president of the Houston Rockets, in 1980, at the age of 24, where he became the youngest owner and operator in professional sports history.
George J. Maloof, Jr., is the primary force behind the building and business of the Palms Casino Resort, just in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has directed the company of hotels through the Southwest and California, among which are the Central Palace Casino in Colorado, and the Palms the Fiesta hotel-casino in North Las Vegas.
Carlos Slim Helu
Helu is a Mexican, with Lebanese Decent, business tycoon, venture capitalist, patron, and engineer. Slim was ranked as the wealthiest person in the world by Forbes business magazine from 2010 to 2013. Through his firm, Grupo Carso, his success started. In 2012 Slim purchased 30% stakes in Pachuca and León, two Mexican soccer teams via his telecommunications company America Movil.
As of 2019, his net worth is at 63.6 billion dollars. He is Mexico’s richest man, and he and his family manage America Movil. Also, his businesses include education, health care, engineering production, transport, real estate, broadcasting, energy, hospitality, entertainment, high-technology, retail, sports, and financial services.
At the age of 12, when his first stock purchase was made by acquiring shares in a Mexican bank. As he turned 15, Slim had become a shareholder in Mexico’s primary bank. He later studied civil engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. In 1961, after graduation, he launched his career as a stock trader in Mexico.
By the 1970’s, he expanded into several businesses, including auto parts, aluminum, air companies, chemicals, tobacco, industrial of cables and wires, and many more.
In 2015, Slim’s venture group Control Empresarial de Capitales invested in IMatchative, a technology startup that positions the world’s hedge funds creating in-depth social profiles and business analytics. Also, “on April 15, 2015, Slim formed his own oil company called Carso Oil & Gas.”
Thomas J. Barrack Jr.
Born on April 28, 1947, Barrack is a Lebanese American private equity real estate stakeholder. He is also the founder and executive chairman of Colony Capital Inc., with a net worth of 1.5 billion dollars. Barrack graduated with a bachelor’s degree, in 1969, from the University of Southern California. He then attended the USC Gould School of Law and, in 1972, from the University of San Diego School of Law received his J.D. degree.
Barrack founded Colony Capital, in 1990, with initial funds by Bass and GE Capital, and then by Eli Broad, Merrill Lynch, and Koo Chen-fu. During the first two years, Barrack achieved 50% profits by aiming at distressed properties, including the federal Resolution Trust Corporation.
In 2010, Barrack joined with the Qatar Investment agency to acquire the Weinstein film production company Miramax for $660 million. In 2017, he sold a $70 million investment in One California Plaza to the Abu Dhabi crown prince’s financing fund.
Check out Arab America’s blog here!
