Baron Empain
| Édouard, Baron Empain |
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|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Édouard Louis Joseph Empain 20 September 1852 Belœil, Belgium |
| Died | 22 July 1929 (aged 76) Woluwe, Belgium |
| Nationality | Belgian |
| Occupation | Industrialist, General and amateur Egyptologist |
| Known for | Building Paris Métro and town of Heliopolis |
Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Empain (20 September 1852 – 22 July 1929), was a wealthy Belgian engineer, entrepreneur, financier and industrialist, as well as an amateur Egyptologist. During World War I he became a known Major-General.
Empain was born at Belœil, Belgium, and was the son of schoolteacher François Julien Empain and his wife Catherine (née Solivier). He went into business with his brother, Baron François Empain and other family members, and amassed a great fortune.
Empain began his career a draughtsman at a metallurgical company, Société métallurgique, in 1878, and became involved in railway construction when he noticed that transport infrastructure in the countryside was inadequate. After success in Belgium with the Liège-Jemeppe line, his companies developed several railway lines in France, including the creation of the Paris Métro.
Because he felt that he depended too much on the banks for his industrial plans, in 1881 he founded his own bank, Banque Empain, which later became the Belgian Industrial Bank ("Banque Industrielle Belge"). The Empain group of companies expanded greatly throughout the 1890s, constructing electric urban tramlines in Europe, Russia, China, the Belgian Congo, and in Cairo, Egypt. Desiring to also be independent of electricity producers, Empain also was involved in forming a number of electricity companies to power his projects.
Édouard Empain arrived in Egypt in January 1904, intending to rescue one of the projects of his company S.A. des Chemins de Fer de la Basse-Egypte; being the construction of a railway line linking Mansourah (on the Nile river) to Matariya (on the far side of Lake Manzala from Port Said). Despite losing the railway contract to the British, Empain stayed on in Egypt.
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