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 (NYSE: KMI) and part owner of the NFL team Houston Texans. 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 metro ...

. His family belonged to the old

nobility Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...

of Egypt. As the son of an Egyptian aristocrat and agricultural magnate, Sarofim spent his early life as a member of Egypt's political and wealthy elite in modern Heliopolis. Holding the title of a

Bey Bey ( ota, بك, beğ, script=Arab, tr, bey, az, bəy, tk, beg, uz, бек, kz, би/бек, tt-Cyrl, бәк, translit=bäk, cjs, пий/пек, sq, beu/bej, sh, beg, fa, بیگ, beyg/, tg, бек, ar, بك, bak, gr, μπέης) is ...

(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 a ...

''), 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
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 t ...

. 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 genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great ...

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, 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 The University of Texas System (UT System) is an American government entity of the state of Texas that includes 13 higher educational institutions throughout the state including eight universities and five independent health institutions. The UT& ...

at Houston for construction of the $120 million Fayez S. Sarofim Research Building. Sarofim also made financial gifts to the Houston Grand Opera, 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. 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 KBR, Inc. (formerly Kellogg Brown & Root) is a U.S. based company operating in fields of science, technology and engineering. KBR works in various markets including aerospace, defense, industrial and intelligence. After Halliburton acquired Dress ...

; 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. Maxwell died in 2015. In December 2014, Sarofim married Susan Krohn, the ex-wife of fellow billionaire

Tracy Krohn Tracy W. Krohn (born August 26, 1954, in Houston, Texas) is an entrepreneur and auto racing enthusiast who was a new addition to the 2006 Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans, at #320. Biography He has a petroleum engineering degree from ...

, 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
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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