Wafic Rida Saïd () (born 21 December 1939) is a Syrian-Saudi Arabian businessman, financier, and philanthropist who has resided for many years in Monaco.David Pallister, 'The man of substance in the shadows', The Guardian, London, 22 May 1992, pg. 25
Saïd lived in Syria, the country of his birth, until his early twenties, when he left for Switzerland and worked as a banker, before making his fortune in the Saudi Arabian construction industry in the 1970s. He came to public prominence after helping facilitate the Al-Yamamah arms deal between the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia in the 1980s. He established the Saïd Foundation in 1982 and the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford in 1996 with an initial £20 million donation. Saïd owns several properties worldwide, including Tusmore Park in Oxfordshire.
He is a Foundation Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford.
Early life and education Saïd was born in Damascus, Syria, in 1939 to a prominent Syrian family. Saïd's grandfather had served in the Turkish army during the Ottoman period, reaching the rank of general and was a colonial governor of Ottoman Syria.
Saïd was the youngest son of Rida Saïd, a prominent Syrian ophthalmologist who was the Syrian Minister for Higher Education and who had founded the Syrian University in Damascus in 1926 on the request of then King of Iraq Faisal.
Saïd's father died when he was still a child, and after initial schooling by Jesuits in Beirut, Lebanon, Saïd studied at the Institute of Bankers in London.
Saïd had been offered a place at the University of Cambridge, but was unable to take up the place as a result of political instability in Syria in which his family's assets were sequestrated.Valerie Grove. 'My Battle with the Dons', The Times, London, 13 November 1996, pg .17
Saïd finally left Syria amidst the 1963 Syrian coup d'état. Saïd described the atmosphere in Syria at the time as being similar to 'the Terror in the French Revolution' in which 'young men were being rounded up.'
In Switzerland Saïd worked for the Union de Banque Suisse (now UBS), and later the Banque Commerciale Arabe SA, before his return to England. Business career
Early Ventures Saïd established two restaurants serving Middle Eastern cuisine in London in 1967, including Caravanserai on Kensington High Street, the restaurants were sold in 1969.
Saudi Construction Saïd moved to Saudi Arabia in 1969. Saudi Arabia lacked much modern infrastructure at the time, and large infrastructure projects were subsequently funded by the rising price of oil in the early 1970s. During this period of time, he founded and invested in companies that supported large-scale government infrastructural projects, including airports, desalination plants, housing, and hospitals.
In the 1960s, Saïd became acquainted with the Saudi Arabian princes Bandar and Khalid, sons of Prince Sultan, who was the brother of King Fahd and would later become the Saudi defence minister. Princes Bandar and Khalid would later serve as the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States and co-commander of Allied forces in the Gulf War, respectively.
Following his acquaintance with Akram Ojjeh, a fellow Syrian financier and the founder of the TAG Group, Saïd established TAG Systems Constructions SA, a civil engineering and telecommunications business, which he chaired.
Al-Yamamah contract
Saïd helped facilitate the al-Yamamah deal between the British and Saudi governments in the 1980s. The al-Yamamah deal is the biggest export deal in British history and has generated £43 billion in revenue for the British company BAE Systems. The Daily Telegraph has described Saïd as a 'key fixer' who 'helped broker' the deal, with the Guardian describing Said as the 'fixer at the heart' of the deal.
The Guardian newspaper wrote that from the proceeds of al-Yamamah '[British] Police later calculated that more than £6bn may have been distributed in corrupt commissions, via an array of agents and middlemen'. In June 2007, the BBC's Panorama alleged BAE Systems had paid Prince Bandar "hundreds of millions of pounds" in return for his role in the al-Yamamah deals. Turki bin Nasser was also a recipient of money from BAE.
An investigation into the al-Yamamah deal was opened by the British Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and later closed for reasons of national security after the Saudi Arabian government had threatened to withhold cooperation on anti-terrorist issues.
In a 2007 statement issued by Saïd on the al-Yamamah deal said that he had "...never been the 'business manager' for anybody, let alone any member of the Saudi Royal Family, nor has he ever 'distributed commissions' to any member of the Saudi Royal Family". Saïd's role in al-Yamamah has led to him being described as an arms dealer, a term that he rejects. In 2001 Saïd said that the deal '... brought a huge boost to British industry: you are talking about thousands of jobs. But for some reason, which I cannot understand, the press want to portray this as a shady, mysterious deal ... Quite honestly, I thought I was doing this country a favour; I have never even sold a penknife. I was not paid a penny [for advising British Aerospace] but I benefited because the project led to construction in Saudi Arabia that involved my companies.'
Saïd's friendship with Thatcher's son, Mark Thatcher, has been perceived as having played an important role in Britain securing the al-Yamahah deal. Mark Thatcher and Saïd have both denied allegations of commissions from the Saudi government. Companies linked to Saïd acquired properties in Belgravia and Mayfair that were 'put at the service' of Thatcher and Dick Evans, the BAE chief executive after the al-Yamamah deal according to The Guardian.
Jonathan Aitken in his 2013 book, Margaret Thatcher: Power and Personality dismisses the belief that Mark Thatcher was pivotal to the deal. Aitken emphasises the role of Margaret's husband, Denis Thatcher as the intermediary between her and Prince Bandar with the assistance of Dick Evans. Aitken described a dinner party at his house in honour of Richard Nixon at which Saïd met the Defence Secretary Michael Heseltine who told him of his optimism that Britain would secure a large defence contract for BAE Hawk aircraft with Saudi Arabia. Saïd told Heseltine of his scepticism of the deal's success, and he was later approached by James Blyth, the Ministry of Defence's head of defence sales. Blyth asked Saïd about the progress of the deal and Prince Bandar reported from his father, Prince Sultan that he had signed a letter of intent with the French government instead of the British. Saïd informed Thatcher who impressed upon him the historic ties between Britain and Saudi Arabia, which appealed to the Pro-British Prince Bandar and Saïd.
Saïd Holdings and Other Investments In 1987, Saïd founded Saïd Holdings Limited (SHL), a private international investment firm based in Bermuda. The company manages a diversified portfolio including private equity, quoted and unquoted securities, and real estate. Saïd now serves on the board of directors.
Saïd owned almost 50% of British Mediterranean Airways, and loaned the airline £8 million before its 2007 sale to BMI.
In 1995 Saïd co-founded Sagitta Asset Management, which handled his family's wealth and the assets of other ultra high-net-worth individuals and their families, it was sold to Fleming Family & Partners in 2005.Caroline Merrell. "Fleming buys arms broker's fund", The Times, London, 23 November 2005, pg. 51
Saïd also invested in the merchant bank established by Jonathan Aitken, Aitken Hume, and invested £5 million in the short-lived Sunday Correspondent newspaper. In the United States, Saïd invested in the National Bank of Washington and Garfinckel's stores.
In 2018, Saïd backer Ellerman Hotel Company's acquisition of the leasehold of The Beaumont, a hotel in Mayfair, London, and became director of Beaumont Hotel (Midco) Limited.
Saïd is the sole owner of Al Shams Investments Limited, an investment company incorporated in Bermuda in December 2020. Al Shams is the largest shareholder in Braemar Hotels & Resorts, a New York-listed hotel real estate investment trust.
Mr Said is the founder and owner of Ezidhar Holding. In April 2026, the Syrian Ministry of Tourism announced the Beaumont, a mixed-used development in Damascus to be delivered under a fifty-year joint venture with Ezidhar Holding at an estimated cost of $250 to £300 million.
Ambassadorship Saïd was ambassador and head of the delegation of St Vincent and the Grenadines to UNESCO from 1996 to 2018. Saïd also previously served as St Vincent and the Grenadines ambassador to the Holy See.
Philanthropy
Saïd Foundation and Scholarships The Karim Rida Saïd Foundation was established in 1982 by Wafic and Rosemary Saïd in memory of their son. It was renamed the Saïd Foundation in 2008. It is registered in England under Charity number 1073096.
Since 1984, the Scholarships Programme has offered scholarships and training opportunities for talented young Syrians, Jordanians, Lebanese and Palestinians, mainly to study in the UK, to enable them to acquire skills that will bring benefits to others in their countries of origin. To date, the Foundation has funded scholarships for almost 900 students from these countries.
In 1993 the Foundation established the Child Development Programme (CDP) with the aim of supporting Jordanian, Lebanese and Palestinian community-based organisations to develop and deliver good quality and sustainable care services for disabled children and education in areas of greatest need. The CDP has funded more than 250 project grants since its start, reaching tens of thousands of children.
In 1996, the Foundation established the first Disability Programme in Syria, opening an office in 2001 to directly implement the Programme. The office became a locally registered charity in Syria in 2012, the Saïd Foundation for Development. The programme worked to strengthen the professional capacity of disability practitioners and organisations, raising awareness of disability, developing a cadre of national trainers in disability-related fields and supporting or providing services for children with disabilities (and their families), especially in marginalised communities.
The Saïd Foundation also supports the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.
Syria Saïd claims that his "experiences in exile, and in witnessing the difficulties faced by people who did not get the opportunity to flee the country at the time, developed into a deep commitment to supporting the people of Syria".
Since late 2011, the Saïd Foundation has been providing support for non-political organisations that are delivering emergency humanitarian assistance, including shelters, medical care and schooling, to Syrians most affected by the crisis, whether refugees in Lebanon and Jordan or internally displaced within Syria itself. It has pledged over US$1.8 million to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for university scholarships for Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon.
Saïd assisted the future Syrian president Bashar al-Assad with securing a place in Britain to study ophthalmology in 1992, and was acquainted with the Anglo-Syrian family of Assad's wife, Asma al-Assad (née Akhras).
In a 2012 interview with Charles Moore in The Spectator, Saïd said that he had found Bashar '...civilised, nice, polished', and that he admired Asma as 'a caring person'. At the time, Saïd welcomed Bashar's ascension to the Presidency of Syria following the death of his father, Hafez al-Assad, feeling it was Syria's 'only salvation'. Saïd supported Bashar's stated aims to 'reform the legal system, revoke the [now 50-year-old] emergency laws, and fight corruption.'