Édouard Louis Joseph, 1st Baron Empain

Édouard Louis Joseph, 1st Baron Empain (20 September 1852 – 22 July 1929), was a wealthy Walloon Belgian engineer, entrepreneur, financier and industrialist, as well as an amateur Egyptologist. During World War I he became a known major general. His major claims to fame are being the original winner of the contract to build the Paris Metro, and developing the town of Heliopolis in Cairo.

Early life Empain was born at Belœil, Belgium, and was the son of schoolteacher François Julien Empain and his wife Catherine (née Lolivier). He went into business with his brother, Baron François Empain and other family members, and amassed a great fortune.

Empain began his career a draughtsman at a metallurgical company, Société métallurgique, in 1878, and became involved in railway construction when he noticed that transport infrastructure in the countryside was inadequate. After success in Belgium with the Liège-Jemeppe line,

Egypt

Édouard Empain arrived in Egypt in January 1904, intending to rescue one of the projects of his company S.A. des Chemins de Fer de la Basse-Egypte; being the construction of a railway line linking Mansourah (on the Nile river) to Matariya (on the far side of Lake Manzala from Port Said).

In 1906, Empain established the Cairo Electric Railways and Heliopolis Oases Company, which bought a very large stretch of desert (25 square kilometres) to the northeast of Cairo at a low price from the Egyptian government. War Cross Grand Officer in the Order of Leopold. Knight grand Cross of the Order of the Nile. Knight grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic Companion of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath. Commander of the Legion of Honour.