Wafic Rida Saïd is a businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist.

About

Saïd Business School

Wafic Rida Saïd is a businessman and philanthropist. He is the founding benefactor of the Saïd Business School, part of Oxford University. Since its establishment in 1996, it has become one of the highest-ranking business schools in the world, an entrepreneurial school deeply embedded in one of the world’s greatest universities, known internationally for its cutting-edge degree and executive education programmes and its ground-breaking research.

 

Wafic Saïd with Nelson Mandela at the opening of the Nelson Mandela Lecture Theatre at the Saïd Business School, 2002

The Saïd Foundation

Wafic Saïd is also the founder of the Saïd Foundation, a non-sectarian and non-political charity which works through education and in other ways to change lives for the better. Since its inception in 1982 it has focused in particular on Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and the UK. Through his donations, Wafic Saïd helps talented students from the Middle East and beyond to study for degrees they could not otherwise afford and supports the humanitarian relief and development needs of displaced and other disadvantaged children and their families. The Foundation also promotes better health outcomes for people globally by supporting innovative and impactful projects at world-leading medical research institutions.

Banking and hospitality

He started his career in 1963 training as a banker at UBS in Geneva, following which he left banking and moved to England. Wafic Saïd opened two restaurants serving Middle Eastern cuisine in London in 1967, including the restaurant Caravanserai on Kensington High Street, which became a sought-after London venue. The restaurants were sold in 1969.

Construction

Following a visit to Saudi Arabia in 1969, Wafic Saïd saw an opportunity to help the country by becoming involved in construction and started a company specialising in turnkey construction projects. In the 1970s and 1980s, following the oil boom, Wafic Saïd’s companies played a crucial role in building the airports, desalination plants, housing and hospitals which helped rapidly develop Saudi Arabia.

Saïd Holdings Limited

Since the 1980s, Wafic Saïd has focused on his investment, philanthropic and educational activities.  In 1987 he founded Saïd Holdings Limited (SHL), a privately-held international investment company with assets across the globe. SHL is the principal investment vehicle for the Saïd family interests and unites an entrepreneurial approach with the rigour of an institutional investor.  SHL has a diversified portfolio of investments including private equity, quoted and unquoted securities and real estate.

Wafic and Rosemary Said with the former Chancellor of Oxford University, The Lord Patten of Barnes CH PC, at the Sheldon Medal Awards Ceremony

Wafic Saïd is a recipient of the Sheldon Medal, awarded by the University of Oxford, a Foundation Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford and a holder of the Grand Commandeur Ordre de Mérite du Cèdre of Lebanon and Ordre de Mérite of Morocco.