Fayez Sarofim (, arz, فايز صاروفيم; 1929 – 27 May 2022) was an Egyptian
Coptic-American heir to the Sarofim family fortune, fund manager for a number of
Dreyfus family stock funds, largest shareholder of
Kinder Morgan
Kinder Morgan, Inc. is one of the largest energy infrastructure companies in North America. The company specializes in owning and controlling oil and gas pipelines and terminals.
Kinder Morgan owns an interest in or operates approximately of ...
(NYSE: KMI) and part owner of the
NFL
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the maj ...
team
Houston Texans
The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston. The Texans compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) South division, and play their home games at N ...
.
Sarofim had an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion in May 2022. His investment firm oversaw over $30 billion in assets.
Early life
Fayez Shalaby Sarofim was born in 1929 in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo met ...
. His family belonged to the old
nobility
Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteri ...
of Egypt. As the son of an Egyptian aristocrat and agricultural
magnate
The magnate term, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders, or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or o ...
, Sarofim spent his early life as a member of Egypt's political and wealthy elite in modern
Heliopolis. Holding the title of a
Bey (or ''
Chieftain
A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom.
Tribe
The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia.
Tribal societies are sometimes categorized as ...
''), Sarofim's father also held large, feudal cotton estates throughout North Africa. Upon his death, Sarofim inherited a portion of his fortune.
Sarofim came to the United States in 1946 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1961.
After earning degrees from the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
and
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...
, Sarofim took a job with cotton company
Anderson, Clayton and Company in Houston.
[Texas Monthly: "Can’t Buy Me Love" by Skip Hollandsworth](_blank)
October 2000
Career
In August 1958, he founded Fayez Sarofim & Company, a Houston
investment firm
An investment company is a financial institution principally engaged in holding, managing and investing securities. These companies in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and must be registered under the ...
. In 1997, he was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame. Sarofim is ranked third on the most influential Egyptian Americans. The Sarofim family is recorded in
Burke's Peerage
Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogy, genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke (genealogist), John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knig ...
and the 'Imperial and Asiatic quarterly review and oriental and colonial record'.
Philanthropy and political donations
Sarofim was a contributor to the
Houston Ballet
Houston Ballet, operated by Houston Ballet Foundation, is a professional ballet company based in Houston, Texas. The company, consisting of 59 dancers, produces over 85 performances per year.
History
Tatiana Semenova (1955–1967)
Houston dev ...
and the
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Buil ...
, a favorite of his daughter Allison. He provided support to
Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK or MSKCC) is a cancer treatment and research institution in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital. MSKCC is one of 52 National Cancer Institute– ...
, the Texas Children’s Hospital and the
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston for construction of the $120 million Fayez S. Sarofim Research Building. Sarofim also made financial gifts to the
Houston Grand Opera
Houston Grand Opera (HGO) is an American opera company located in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1955 by German-born impresario Walter Herbert and three local Houstonians,Giesberg, Robert I., Carl Cunningham, and Alan Rich. ''Houston Grand Opera at ...
, the
Houston Symphony
The Houston Symphony is an American orchestra based in Houston, Texas. The orchestra is resident at the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts.
History
The first concert of what was to become the Houston Symphony took place on June 21, ...
, the
Hobby Center for the Performing Arts
The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts is a theater in Houston, Texas, United States. Opened to the public in 2002, the theater is located downtown on the edge of the Houston Theater District. Hobby Center features glass walls with views ...
, creating the 2600 seat, Sarofim Hall, designed for touring Broadway shows,
the Alley Theatre, and the
Los Angeles Opera
The Los Angeles Opera is an American opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth-largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center.
Leadersh ...
.
Sarofim was a major supporter of
Jeb Bush
John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born February 11, 1953) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. Bush, who grew up in Houston, was the second son of former President George H. W. Bush a ...
's 2016 presidential candidacy.
Personal life
Sarofim was married three times. In 1962, he married Louisa Stude, adopted daughter of Herman Brown, founder of
Brown and Root;
they had two children:
Christopher Sarofim and Allison Sarofim.
In 1984, he had a son, Andrew Sarofim, with Linda Hicks, a former employee at his company. In 1986, they had another son, Phillip, and in 1989, another son Maxwell was born. In 1990, he divorced his first wife who received a $250 million divorce settlement.
In 1990, he married Hicks;
in 1996, they divorced with Hicks receiving a $12 million settlement.
Hicks later died while climbing
Mount Kilimanjaro
Mount Kilimanjaro () is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: above sea level and ab ...
.
Maxwell died in 2015.
In December 2014, Sarofim married Susan Krohn, the ex-wife of fellow billionaire
Tracy Krohn, and mother of his son Phillip's ex-wife Lori Krohn.
He died on 27 May 2022.
Houston billionaire philanthropist Fayez Sarofim reportedly dies at 93
/ref>
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarofim, Fayez
1929 births
2022 deaths
American billionaires
American money managers
American people of Coptic descent
Egyptian businesspeople
Egyptian emigrants to the United States
University of California, Berkeley alumni
Stock and commodity market managers
Egyptian billionaires
Coptic Orthodox Christians from Egypt
Harvard Business School alumni