Samih Sawiris

My guest today is Samih Sawiris, the founder of Orascom Development Holding which operates 33 hotels with over 7,000 rooms and controls approximately 100 million sqm of land. He is perhaps best known as the person behind El Gouna, a tourist resort town on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. Samih is above all, a sort of renaissance man, and a person who doesn’t define himself by his career or profession. He has a multitude of interests and he consciously prioritises the work / life balance. Now that he is no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the company, he is spending time developing his passions and checking off his extensive bucket list. Our interview was recorded at the end of 2020. If you’re enjoying the show, leave us a review in [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-i-did-next/id1549640242), or [IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14051098/), or reach out to us on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/what.i.did.next/).