RIYADH, 7 July — Sheikh Suleiman ibn Saleh Al-Olayan, a prominent Saudi businessman who died Friday in Manhattan, was a generous supporter of charity inside and outside the Kingdom. He had a reputation for avoiding the spotlight in both his business and social life.
Olayan, 84, had turned down offers to sit on the boards of many corporations although he did serve as director of Mobile and CS First Boston. He rarely gave interviews.
Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, has ordered a special Saudi Arabian Airlines flight to bring Olayan’s body to the Kingdom today. Funeral prayers will be held at Imam Turki ibn Abdullah Mosque here.
As a philanthropist, Olayan sat on numerous charitable, advisory and educational boards, including the board of the American University of Beirut. The Suleiman Al-Olayan Charitable Foundation supports a large number of philanthropic projects in the Kingdom. Sheikh Olayan is survived by his wife and four children — a son and three daughters.
He was the founder and chairman of the Al-Olayan Group which began as a Saudi trucking business in 1947 and grew into more than 50 companies with offices around the world. The group owns 20 percent of Saudi-British Bank and has substantial shares in Chase Manhattan. Olayan’s energy, insurance and consumer goods businesses as well as investments had made him one of the richest men in the world. He often made the lists of the world’s richest men. Last year, Forbes’ annual list put him at No. 38 with $8 billion, just ahead of the publisher Rupert Murdoch who was valued at $7.8 billion.
Olayan’s primary residence was in Riyadh but he also had houses in New York, London and Lucerne, Switzerland.
It was announced yesterday that Khaled Olayan would succeed his father as chairman of the Olayan Group. His three sisters will also play important roles: Hayat as vice president of Olayan Financing Company, Hutham as president of the Olayan American Corporation and Lubna as chief executive of the financing company.
Olayan was born in Unaizah, some 150 miles from Riyadh, on Nov. 5, 1918. His mother died a few months after his birth and his father, a successful spice merchant, died when he was six. A few years later, his brother, Abdullah, took him by camel to the eastern coast and then by boat to Bahrain, where he attended school and learned English.
Upon his return to Saudi Arabia, he took a job with the California Arabian Standard Oil Company which later became the Arab-American Oil Company (Aramco).
With the oil industry expanding, he struck out on his own and established the General Contracting Company. This company later joined forces with Bechtel Corporation to build the Trans-Arabian Pipeline which linked Saudi oil fields to Mediterranean shipping terminals in Lebanon. Olayan went on to play a central role in developing the Kingdom’s earliest insurance, electrical and gas companies.
In the 1950s he opened a goods and consumer distribution business that eventually became the exclusive distributor for Kimberly-Clark, General Foods, Pillsbury and Atlas Copco.
The Olayan Group became an influential participant in global equity and financial markets, particularly in the US and Europe but also in Japan and Australia. In the US, the group has substantial minority holdings in public companies such as Coca-Cola, Occidental Petroleum and JP Morgan.
In a press statement issued yesterday, the group expressed its condolences to the business community and staff of its companies inside and outside the Kingdom. The statement said that Olayan was one of the longest serving members on the board of Saudi Arabian Airlines. He also served as the founder and chairman of Saudi-British Bank, chairman of the Council of Saudi Chambers and was a member of Aramco’s Supreme Council.
Olayan’s interests went well beyond business to international affairs, economics, education and science. He earned wide recognition both at home and abroad for his tireless efforts on behalf of his company, community, country and the development of international relations.
Among his international honors were Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE), the Royal Order of the Polar Star from Sweden, and the Order of Merit from Spain.
In his obituary, Aziz Syriani, the group’s chief executive officer, said: "In all that it does, the Olayan Group will remain guided by the vision of Sheikh Suleiman. Orphaned at a young age, he was a deeply modest but determined man who literally journeyed from Unaizah to Wall Street. Olayan’s values — hard work, determination, an insatiable curiosity, generosity, respect for others, and unassailably scrupulous business practices — will remain deeply embedded in our corporate ethos as the Olayan Group moves ahead."
