Fayez Sarofim

Early life Fayez Shalaby Sarofim was born on 19 November 1928 in Cairo to Shalaby and Mary Simaika Sarofim as the second of three children. His family belonged to the old nobility 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 (or Chieftain), Sarofim's father also owned large, feudal cotton estates throughout North Africa. Upon his father's death, Sarofim inherited a portion of his fortune.

He attended Victoria College in Alexandria and the English School in Cairo. He emigrated to the United States in 1946, where became a naturalized American citizen in 1961.

After earning degrees from the University of California, Berkeley and the Harvard Business School, Sarofim took a job with cotton company Anderson, Clayton and Company in Houston.

Career In August 1958, he founded Fayez Sarofim & Company, a Houston investment firm. 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 and the Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review and Oriental and Colonial Record '.

Philanthropy and political donations Sarofim was a contributor to the Houston Ballet and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, a favorite of his daughter Allison. He provided support to Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center, 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, the Houston Symphony, the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts—creating the 2600 seat Sarofim Hall there, designed for touring Broadway musicals— along with the Alley Theatre, and the Los Angeles Opera. A future Susan and Fayez Sarofim Hall is planned for the Rice University campus in Houston.

Sarofim was a major supporter of Jeb Bush's 2016 presidential candidacy.

Personal life In 1962, Sarofim married Louisa Stude, adopted daughter of Herman Brown, founder of Brown and Root; In 1986, they had a second son, Phillip, and in 1989, another son Maxwell was born. In 1990, he divorced his Stude, who received a $250 million divorce settlement.

In December 2014, Sarofim married Susan (née DeBarneure) Krohn, founder and owner of Brooke Staffing Companies and owner of New Orleans Auction Galleries. the ex-wife of Sarofim's son Phillip.

Sarofim died on 28 May 2022.