Omar Fayed Biography
Omar Fayed (Arabic: عمر الفايد; born October 1987) is a British-born Finnish-Egyptian environmentalist and publisher. He is CEO of ESTEE (Earth Space Technical Ecosystem Enterprises), based in Switzerland and Britain, that advocates human space exploration, space colonization, and sustainable human development within the biosphere. He is co-founder and CEO of EarthX, a data visualization and mapping company based on NASA’s World Wind Project. He is chairman of Synergetic Press based in New Mexico, and a fellow of the Ins*ute of Ecotechnics.
Fayed was ranked 75 in Arabian Business magazine's "Power 100" list in 2009.
Early life
Omar Fayed was born in London, England, to Finnish model Heini Wathén and Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed. Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed was his half-brother.
Career
Fayed started in business as a teenager trading commodities. In 2006, aged 19, he was appointed to the Harrods board and in ten subsidiary companies including Fulham F.C. and the Ritz Hotel in Paris, all companies owned by his father. Fayed was expected to take over as chairman of Harrods, however he resigned in 2009 to pursue his studies for an MBA. He expressed a desire to focus on environmental entrepreneurship instead, commenting in an interview, "that consumerist culture wasn’t doing anything positive for the future of humanity." His father Mohamed Al-Fayed, subsequently sold Harrods in 2010, to Qatar Holdings, the sovereign wealth fund of the emirate of Qatar, for £1.5 billion ($2.3 billion).
Fayed is chairman of Biotecture, a provider of modular green wall systems, that built large-scale living walls for the Walkie Talkie skyscraper in the City of London, and the Veolia recycling and energy recovery facility in Leeds. In 2014, he founded Living City, an initiative to connect and consult green enterprises and government projects. He is a director of the Ritz Hotel Paris.
Fayed directed satirical magazine Punch before it ceased print publishing in 2002. He continues to publish Punch posts via Facebook, as the page editor.
Fayed was executive producer for the 2015 do*entary film The Sunshine Makers, about the manufacture of the psychedelic compound LSD in the 1960s.
References
External links
- Earth Space Technical Ecosystem Enterprises Website
- Living City Website
- Omar Fayed on Twitter
- Omar Fayed at IMDb
- Punch magazine on Twitter
