Charif Souki (born 1953) is an American businessman. He is the co-founder and former CEO of

Cheniere Energy Cheniere Energy, Inc. is an American liquefied natural gas (LNG) company headquartered in Houston, Texas. In February 2016 it became the first American company to export liquefied natural gas. Cheniere Energy is the largest exporter of LNG in t ...

, an oil and gas company which specialized in

liquefied natural gas Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volume o ...

. He was the highest-paid chief executive officer in the United States in 2013.

Early life

Charif Souki was born in 1953 in

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, Egypt. His father, Samyr Souki, was a member of the

Greek Orthodox Church Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Christianity in Greece, Greek Christianity, Antiochian Greek Christians, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christian ...

. Souki moved to

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

, Lebanon in 1957.

Career

Souki worked as a banker on Wall Street. He also worked as a restaurateur. Souki served as the chief executive officer of

until December 2015. He earned US$142 million in 2013, making him the highest-paid CEO in the United States that year. Souki claims he stepped down as CEO after a disagreement with board member

Carl Icahn Carl Celian Icahn (; born February 16, 1936) is an American businessman and investor. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach, ...

. Souki is the co-founder of Tellurian Investments with Martin Houston. Tellurian ousted its chairman and co-founder, Charif Souki, late 2023 after auditors raised doubts about the company's ability to cover future expenses.

References

Living people 1953 births Egyptian emigrants to the United States American people of Lebanese descent American bankers American restaurateurs American company founders American chief executives {{US-business-bio-1950s-stub