Pope Tawadros II is the 118th Coptic Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark since he took office on 18 November 2012, two weeks after being selected. Pope Tawadros II was born Waǧīh Ṣubḥī Bāqī Sulaymān on 4 November 1952 in the city of Mansoura to the north of Cairo, Egypt.

He studied at the University of Alexandria, where he received a degree in pharmacy in 1975. After a few years of managing a state-owned pharmaceutical factory, he joined the Monastery of Saint Pishoy in Wadi Natrun and was ordained priest in 1989. On 15 June 1997, he was consecrated as a general bishop by his predecessor, Pope Shenouda III, with the Greek name of Theodoros, which translates to Tawadros in Coptic or Theodore in English. He was assigned to serve in the Diocese of Behira in the northwestern Delta. His Holiness presides the Coptic Churches within Egypt and abroad.