Wafic Rida Saïd (Arabic: وفيق رضا سعيد) (born 21 December 1939)[citation needed] is a Syrian-Saudi-Canadian businessman, financier, and philanthropist[4] who has resided for many years in Monaco.

[5] 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.

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.

[5] In 1969, Saïd married Rosemary Thompson, whom he had met in Switzerland, and they had three children together; two sons, Karim and Khaled, and a daughter, Rasha.

Saïd was attending a ceremony at the prince's house at the time to receive Saudi citizenship by royal decree.

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'.

Visiting Syria in 2011 at the advent of the Syrian uprisings in response to the Arab Spring, Saïd told Asma that 'the winds of change are contagious.

'[7] Saïd was appalled by the resulting Syrian Civil War and was summoned to see Bashar al-Assad in June 2011[18] as he wished to gauge Western views of the conflict.

Due to the current turmoil in 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.

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.

[5][21] In 1992, Saïd won a unanimous verdict in a libel case in the British high court, and was awarded £400,000 in damages.

[26] 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'.

[26] 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.

[28] 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.

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.

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.

Aitken emphasises the role of Margaret's husband, Denis Thatcher as the intermediary between her and Prince Bandar with the assistance of Dick Evans.

[33] Saïd had agreed to donate the money after the university had voted in 1990 for the creation of a business school, and needed funds of £40 million.

[36] A new building at the school, the Thatcher Business Education Centre was opened by The Prince of Wales in 2013 and named by Prime Minister David Cameron in 2014 in the presence of Saïd and his wife, Rosemary.

[41] The Sheldon Medal is awarded annually to a member of the Chancellor’s Court of Benefactors that has 'made a strategic difference to the life of the university'.

[49] Saïd has significantly donated to St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, London, The Prince of Wales's Charitable Foundation, Eton College, and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

[50] He is the founding donor of the Wafic Saïd Molecular Cardiology Research Laboratories at the Texas Heart Institute.

[55][56] Saïd was a prominent racehorse owner, having owned the Henry Cecil trained horses Bosra Sham and Lady Carla.

[58] Saïd family trusts own two homes in the United Kingdom, a £10 million property in Eaton Square in London's Belgravia district, which when bought in 1992, was then the highest price paid for an apartment in the United Kingdom,[59] and Tusmore Park, a 3,000 acre estate near Bicester in Oxfordshire.

[60] In 2012 Saïd erected a 92 ft limestone obelisk topped with gold in the grounds of Tusmore Park to honour the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.