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Olayan calls Aramco "my university." His years there taught him how Western corporations operate and made him eager to do business with them. Aside from some real estate in England and interests in a few West German companies, his investments are concentrated in the U.S. Most of his portfolio is in shares of utilities and companies involved in coal and other resources. But about a third of his holdings are in stocks of nine banks. Explains Olayan: "Their resources are infinite. Their raw material is money, and it does not deplete" like oil and gas. Associates also cite a gut interest in banking, perhaps stemming from a time 15 years ago when Olayan's Saudi companies were overextended and Citibank called in $2 million in loans. Says a friend: "Since then he has had a hate-love relationship with banks. He can get very excited when he tells of how they almost pulled the rug out from under him."
Olayan has no desire to run the companies he invests in. He keeps his holdings low, because "after 10%, you become part of management." The one exception is his more than 11% stake (worth $8 million) in the brokerage firm of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. When Chairman Richard Jenrette, an old Olayan friend, asked him if he wanted to put a representative on the board, Olayan replied, "You are my representative."
He takes pride in advisory posts he holds at the Stanford Research Institute and Rockefeller University. Three of his four children have U.S. degrees and his third wife, Mary Padikis Olayan, once a secretary for Aramco, is American. Now that his only son, Khaled, 32, is running the Saudi companies, Olayan appears to be concentrating on the U.S. economy to provide his business with a long-enduring international dimension.