Patrick Drahi has built a $12bn fortune making shrewd bets in telecoms, his latest being the surprise move to become BT’s biggest shareholder. Born in Casablanca, Morocco, in 1963 to two maths teachers, Drahi moved to France as a teenager and holds Israeli, French and Portuguese citizenships. Drahi attended the École Polytechnique in Paris, the French university famed for turning out the country’s most successful business leaders and politicians. Earlier this year the Amsterdam-listed Altice Europe, home to SFR and Drahi’s other operations on the continent, was taken private. Drahi, whose hobbies include the arts, painting, classical music, skiing, cycling and walking, has four children with his Syrian Greek Orthodox wife.

Source: The Guardian June 10, 2021 15:00 UTC