Misplaced Pages

Mohamed Al-Fayed

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 80.169.192.244 (talk) at 09:41, 2 December 2009 (→Dodi Fayed's death). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 09:41, 2 December 2009 by 80.169.192.244 (talk) (→Dodi Fayed's death)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous.
Find sources: "Mohamed Al-Fayed" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2008) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Mohamed Fayed
Wax statue of Mohamed Fayed
Born (1933-01-27) January 27, 1933 (age 91)
Alexandria, Egypt
NationalityEgyptian
Occupation(s)Businessman
Owner of Harrods and Fulham football club
Spouse(s) Samira Khashoggi ​ ​(m. 1954⁠–⁠1956)​
Heini Wathén (1985-present)

Mohamed Abdel Moneim Fayed (Template:Lang-ar) (born 1933) is an Egyptian businessman living in London estimated to be worth £650 Million.

Amongst his business interests are ownership of Harrods department store in Knightsbridge and the English Premiership football team Fulham Football Club.

He has two brothers; Ali Fayed and Salah Fayed. Since 1985 he has been married to Finnish socialite and former model Heini Wathén. Together they have four children: Jasmine, Karim, Camilla and Omar. A fifth child, Dodi Fayed, from Fayed's first marriage, was unlawfully killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997, along with Diana, Princess of Wales and Henri Paul, the driver of the car.

Biography

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, as the eldest son of an Egyptian primary school teacher, Fayed's first entrepreneurial venture began at school where he sold homemade lemonade to his school friends.

He was married for two years to Samira Kashoggi (1954 - 1956). Fayedand his brothers founded a shipping company in Egypt before moving its headquarters to Genoa, Italy with additional offices in London. It was then that Fayed moved to England where he lived in central London.

In the mid 1960s, Fayed met the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Rashid al Makhtoum who entrusted Fayed with helping transform Dubai. Fayed introduced British companies like Richard Costain (which he became a director of and 30 percent shareholder), Bernard Sunley and Taylor Woodrow to Dubai to carry out the required construction work, earning Britain £8 billion during a difficult economic time. Fayed set up IMS (International Marine Services) in 1968 Dubai. He purchased a Scottish castle and surrounding estate in 1972. Fayed spent millions restoring it and was awarded The Freedom of the Highlands by the Scottish Tourist Board.

He briefly joined the board of the mining conglomerate Lonrho in 1975 but left after a disagreement.

In 1979, Fayed bought The Ritz hotel in Paris, France and is thought to have spent $500,000 per room restoring it. The French government awarded him the Medaille de Paris and made him a Chevalier in the Legion d'Honneur. He later restored the Villa Windsor in the Bois de Boulogne. The French government promoted to an Officier in the Legion d'Honneur and in 1989 awarded him the rare Grande Plaque de Paris.

In 1984 Fayed and his brothers purchased a 30 percent stake in House of Fraser, a group that included the famous London store Harrods from Roland 'Tiny' Rowland, the head of Lonrho.

In 1985, he married Wathén, his second wife.

In 1985, he and his brothers bought the remaining 70 percent of House of Fraser, a move that angered Rowland who had been seeking to buy Harrods. Rowland took the Fayed brothers to a Department of Trade inquiry, involving one of the most bitter feuds in British business history. The pair made peace in 1992.

In 1994, House of Fraser went public, but Fayed retained private ownership of Harrods, investing millions into it to restore and enhance much of the building's heritage and prestige.

For years, Fayed unsuccessfully sought British citizenship. Both Labour and Conservative Home Secretaries rejected his applications. He took the matter to court, but failed. It has been suggested that the feud with Rowland contributed to Fayed's being refused British citizenship the first time.

Mohamed Fayed named MPs who had failed to declare fees paid to them by Fayed to ask questions in Parliament about Rowland and his business practices. This became known as the cash-for-questions affair. Fayed had offered money for questions in the commons to the Conservative MPs Neil Hamilton and Tim Smith. Both left the government in disgrace. Fayed also revealed that the cabinet minister Jonathan Aitken had stayed for free at the Ritz Hotel in Paris at the same time as a group of Saudi arms dealers leading to Aitken's subsequent unsuccessful libel case and imprisonment for perjury. MPs are permitted to accept fees to ask questions in parliament, however they are obliged to declare them in the register of members' interests. During this period Fayed was represented former BBC journalist Michael Cole.

In 1997 Fayed bought Fulham Football Club.

Major Business Purchases

  • 1979 - Ritz Hotel Paris (£10 million)
  • 1985 - House of Fraser Group (including Harrods)(£615 million)
  • 1997 - Fulham FC (£30 million)

Business Interests

Dodi Fayed's death

Main article: Death of Diana, Princess of Wales

Fayed's oldest son, Dodi Fayed, was romantically involved with Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. Both of them died in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997. Mohamed Fayed believed that the driver, Henri Paul, had plotted with the Royal Family to kill Diana and Dodi.

It is standard practice for a public inquest to be held into the deaths of any UK national who dies abroad and is returned to the UK for burial or cremation. It was ten years before a public inquest was granted.

On February 18, 2008, Fayed accused Prince Phillip and Prince Charles of killing Diana, because Charles was furious that she was dating with Dodi.The inquest lasted six months and ruled that the couple were "unlawfully killed".

Fulham FC

Fayed bought Second Division (equivalent to modern Football League One) Fulham F.C. from chairman Jimmy Hill in the summer of 1997. His initial, ambitious long-term aim was that Fulham would become a FA Premier League side within five years. To this end he installed the managerial "dream team" of Ray Wilkins and Kevin Keegan, which resulted in the sacking of Micky Adams, who had guided Fulham to promotion from the then named Third Division.

Fulham stormed to the Second Division title with a record 101 points in 1999. Kevin Keegan was appointed manager of England at this time. In 2001, Fulham took the First Division (now Football League Championship) under manager Jean Tigana, winning 100 points and scoring over 100 goals in the season. This meant that Fayed had achieved his objective of Fulham being a Premiership club a year ahead of schedule. Also, by 2002, Fulham were competing in European football, winning the Intertoto Cup and challenging in the UEFA Cup.

Fayed stated that he wanted Fulham to become the "Manchester United of the South", referring to United's status as one of the biggest clubs in the world.

On 5 May 2007, Fayed celebrated his 10th year with Fulham. This was marked by a 1-0 win over Liverpool, which ensured that the club retained their Premiership status for another season.

In 2009, Fulham had finished 7th in the Premier League, making them eligible to play in the newly-formed Europa League, the European competition that succeeded the UEFA Cup.

Notes

  1. ^ BBC News accessed 18/02/08
  2. Cash for Questions . http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/336797.stm Retrieved 20/10/07
  3. CNN News accessed 18/02/08

External links

Categories: