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ENGINEERED FOR MEN WHO KNOW THAT THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE COMPLICATED.
Portuguese Perpetual Calendar Ref. 5023: You don’t need to walk on the surface of the moon to succumb to its fascination; after all, its effects are omnipresent here on
makers at IWC who developed the Portuguese Perpetual Calendar. The 18-carat red gold case houses an impressive automatic movement with a perpetual calendar and perpetual
earth. Its gravitational pull causes the rise and fall of the tides. Its appearance and disappearance mark the end and the
moon phase display, countdown to the next full moon and a Pellaton automatic winding system, to mention only the most
beginning of each day. And wonders of all kinds have been ascribed to the full moon for as long as anyone can remember. These qualities were the inspiration for the master watch-
sophisticated of its complications. Needless to say, it runs with the same unerring precision as the moon in its orbit around IWC . ENGINEERED FOR MEN . our planet.
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You may not want any of these things in your jet, but if you did, you could have them all. Airbus corporate jets have the widest and tallest cabin of any business jet, and can be fitted out just the way you want. What more could you ask for? We’re ready to find out.
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Š 2010 Acropolis Aviation Ltd. All rights reserved. Cabin outďŹ tting by ACJC. Cabin design by Alberto Pinto. Picture by Luc Boegly. Airbus, its logo and the product names are registered trademarks.
2014 july / august 11
CONTENTS Business 16 Globetrotter
38 Social Entrepreneur
54 Breathing Numbers
18 First Word
42 Global Citizenship
58 100%MAD
Global summer gatherings Back office V’s front office executives
20 Investment Destination
B.K Modi on bidding for Forbes Media Group Arton Capital creates industry benchmark
22 Investment
Special Report Philanthropy
24 Cover
46 Al Jalila Foundation
30 Profile
48 Citizen Foundation
34 Finance
50 Autism Rocks
South Africa
Crowdfunding helping UAE SMEs Exclusive with 39th President Jimmy Carter Billionaire Len Blavatnik New Peer to Peer trading platform
pioneering medical research in UAE
Muna Harib
Tariq Qureishy
62 Mimi Ullens foundation Baroness Myriam Ullens
64 Pachamama
Chef Yannick Alléno in Madagascar
66 PCRF Summer Camp
‘Through the eyes of Innocents’
Teenage pilot Haris Suleman Sanjay Shah
22
24
30
54
58
62
12 july / august 2014
68
94
96
68 Gizmos & Gadgets
78 Hotels
90 Travel
70 Auto
82 Dining
94 Fashion
74 Art
86 Little Black Book
96 Horology
76 Yachts
88 Design
The Coolest Gizmos on the Market
BMW i8
Lucio Fontana’s Spatialism Movement
Viriella Dreamboat
Wellness Resorts
Casual Cafes
Hamptons
Monte Carlo
Street Chic
A Touch of Blue
Grey Matter
70
74
76
78
82
90
2014 july / august 13
Editor’s LETTER GLOBAL CITIZEN editor Natasha Tourish - nt@global-citizen.com Business Editor Tahira Yaqoob - ty@global-citizen.com Lifestyle Editor Nausheen Noor - nn@global-citizen.com ART DIRECTOR Omid Khadem - ok@global-citizen.com Finance Manager Muhammad Tauseef - mtauseef@reachmedia.ae CONTRIBUTORS Heba Hashem, Emma Inglis, Simon de Burton, Daniel Bates, Madeleine Lee Shane Phillips, Nawied Jabarkhyl, Thibault Mortier Printed by Masar Printing and Publishing www.global-citizen.com www.issuu.com/global-citizen www.facebook.com/GlobalCitizenMag
ith Ramadan on our doorstep and the scorching heat outside, it’s difficult not to think about those who are less fortunate but as statistics prove there is donor fatigue in the Middle East and it’s having an impact on the way we give to charity. I feel embarrassed when I’m reminded that for the price of a coffee or less you can provide drinking water for a village of people. Yet why don’t we always put our hands in our pockets? For most, it is not about the amount of money that is asked of them, it is simply a matter of convenience. Tariq Qureishy believes he has the answer by tapping into the younger generation through his not-for-profit 100%MAD, using a mobile app and text messages to ask for $1 from young people around the world to raise his target of $1 billion for various water charities. Our annual philanthropy issue celebrates this youth movement. From the 17 - year old US teenager who is flying his own plane around the world in 30 days with his father to raise money for The Citizen Foundation in Pakistan so children - especially girls - can have an education, to Dr BK Modi, the founder of the Global Citizen Forum and a campaigner for equal rights for young people around the world. While the young are being championed, those at the opposite end of the age spectrum often lead the charge. Our man in New York, Daniel Bates, got an exclusive interview with this month’s cover subject and one of the world’s biggest champions of women’s rights, former US president Jimmy Carter. As he approaches his 90th birthday, Carter is as outspoken as ever.
Natasha Tourish 14 july / august 2014
MEDIA REPRESENTATIVE Fierce International Dubai Internet City Business Central Tower A | Office 2803 T: +971 4 421 5455 | F: +971 4 421 0208 tarek@fierce-international.com
REACH MEDIA FZ LLC publisher Armand Peponnet Advertising sales@reachmedia.ae SUBSCRIPTION subscription@reachmedia.ae Dubai Media City, Building 8, Ground Floor, Office 87, PO Box 502068, Dubai, UAE T: +971 4 385 5485 Email: info@reachmedia.ae Copyright 2014 Reach Media. All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the permission of Reach Media. Where opinion is expressed it is that of the author and does not necessarily reflect the editorial views of the publisher or Global Citizen. All information in Global Citizen is checked and verified to the best of the publisher’s ability, however the publisher cannot be held responsible for any mistake or omission enclosed in the publication.
Photo by Billy Howard
2014 july / august 15
CONTRIBUTORS
Simon de Burton
Daniel Bates
Shane Phillips
is a UK-based journalist and author who covers a variety of subjects ranging from high-end cars and motorcycles to luxury watches and international auctions. He is a contributing editor to the Financial Times How To Spend It magazine.
is a British freelance journalist based in New York. He is a regular contributor to the Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and Daily Express in the UK and has covered major stories in his decade as a reporter, from the BP oil spill to the Boston Marathon bombing.
is a leading executive search consultant in the region and managing director of Shane Phillips Consultants, a local boutique search firm. Shane hosts his own show on Dubai Eye every Thursday evening called Eye On Careers.
Heba Hashem
Emma Inglis
Louise Barnett
is a freelance journalist based between Abu Dhabi and Cairo. She reports regularly on the solar and nuclear power sectors for CSP Today and Nuclear Energy Insider. She has a BA in communications and media studies from Middlesex University.
cut her teeth on newspapers in London back in the 1990s before training as a psychologist. She recently returned to journalism and now writes for newspapers and magazines from CondĂŠ Nast Traveller to the Daily Telegraph on a wide range of subjects.
is a Cambridge-educated British freelance journalist based in Berlin. She writes for publications including the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper and was the Londonbased Consumer Editor of the Daily Express national daily newspaper prior to her relocation to the German capital in 2010.
16 july / august 2014
www.hamiltonwatch.com
INTO THE DREAM
AUTOMATIC SWISS MADE Limited Edition
2014 july / august 17
18 july / august 2014
Three men and one very powerful lady! British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Swedish Prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte talk over EU reforms while boating near the summer residence of the Swedish Prime Minister outside Stockholm in early June.
the Big Picture
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Precisely your moment DS-2 12-hoUr preciDriVe chronograph With 1/100 Sec. WWW.certina.com
2014 july / august 19
Globetrotter JULY
August 2014
2 5 j u ly
1 3 AUG
2 1 AUG
The Elite London 25-26th July, 2014
Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, USA 13-17th August, 2014
Hublot Polo Gold Cup, Gstaad 21st-24th August, 2014
The Elite London showcases offerings from all key sectors of the luxury and lifestyle industries. London’s Biggin Hill airport will host this summer event that combines the very best of private jets, turboprop aircraft and helicopters with the top luxury brands, supercars, powerboats and yachts - all in one private location.
Automobile enthusiasts will convene under the Californian sunshine at Pebble Beach for five days of classic car-related fun, which culminates in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on Sunday, August 17th. This year’s lineup will showcase the Maserati Centennial, Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa and early steam cars among others.
Since its launch in 1996, more than 6,000 spectators enjoy the weekend matches against the backdrop of the stunning Swiss Alps, as well as the festive Players Parade on Friday afternoon in the streets of Gstaad. VIP ticket holders indulge in gourmet canapes and sparkling cocktails prepared by the chefs of Gstaad Palace.
24 AUG
27 AUG
Notting Hill Carnival, London 24th – 25th August, 2014
Venice Film Festival, Italy 27th August-6th September, 2014
Europe’s biggest street festival is a colourful homage to London’s multicultural past and present. Since 1964 the capital’s Caribbean communities have celebrated their culture and traditions with a two-day festival of live reggae and salsa music with soca floats, steel bands and the best jerk chicken and fried plantain you’ll eat outside the islands themselves.
The world’s oldest film festival, now in its 71st edition, will bring the customary red carpet glitz and glamour. Whether on land or water there is plenty to do and see in the charming Italian city even if it’s away from the festival spotlights.
20 july / august 2014
International Sales Executive of theYear OR CORRUPT NEGOTIATOR? We help you decide.
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the first word Perspectives from the top
Meet Me in the Middle “Will future chief executives need to come from the back office instead of the front with operations, risk, IT, compliance, legal and other shared services at the heart of boardroom discussions?” By Shane Phillips
Brad Boyson
executive director, Society for Human Resource Management MEA “In many ways this question further parses what Nobel Laureate Gary Becker called firm-specific human capital. I believe someone with more hands-on, organisation specific experience will always have an advantage over someone with less. However, knowledge or experience without the ability to influence others is akin to clapping with one hand. My preference is to favour back office experience with the key caveat: in either case, the person must have the ability or at least demonstrate the potential to inspire and influence both the front and back of operations.”
Vikas Mittal
chief executive officer, Unikai Foods “The back end role itself has undergone a fairly dramatic transformation over the last few years as business needs have necessitated the back end functions in a co-piloting mode rather than as service providers in managing the growth agenda, mitigating risks and delivering competitive advantage. Those with hands-on experience in leading large teams across very diverse functions, especially back office roles, are trained to grasp the complexities of ambiguous situations and execute with precision and speed. This unique set of functional skills is becoming increasingly important to corporate competitiveness.”
22 july / august 2014
The first word
Paul Trowbridge
chief executive officer, United Arab Bank “Relationships between a bank and its customers are a complex, multi-layered series of risks and relationships from counter-party banks, treasury management, IT reliance and internal and external regulators as well as overseers such as internal audit, central banks and other prudential bodies. A CEO’s CV ideally should be a mix of front office and back office exposure and should understand and be appreciative of the balancing act between revenues, governance and, most importantly, being a custodian of customers’ money.”
Robert Pearce
managing director, Jacuzzi Middle East “Corporate governance, IT and compliance issues are of course all very relevant and pertinent to the businesses we run today. Any CEO managing a business has to have multiple skills and a far greater awareness of compliance requirements. That does not necessarily mean the CEO of the future has to come from that sector of the business, any more than a CEO previously needed to come from an accounting background because of the financial considerations of the business. Regardless of the background of the CEO, the skill today is to keep the business as simple as possible, customer focused, and people-driven.”
Maurice Faber
regional general manager, Carestream Health “A CEO needs to be a strong leader with great analytical and strategic thinking capabilities. Operations, risk, IT, compliance, legal and other shared services are important corporate support and guidance functions. As markets today are fast changing, a CEO needs to have a thorough understanding of the market dynamics and the customers. He is expected to be able to foresee the customers’ future needs and be able to convey his vision to his team and guide them to make the right decisions. I am convinced that a CEO has to be from the front. There are always exceptions of course and visionary leaders are rare and hard to find.”
2014 july / august 23
Investment Destination
The vineyard north of Cape Town in the French-flavoured town of Franschoek
The ultra-modern Venetia mine owned by De Beers in the extreme North of Transvaal, South Africa
All That Glitters South Africa has transformed itself in the past 20 years
hen millions of people voted in South Africa’s general elections in April 1994, they had one thing in mind – freedom from the apartheid regime. And it was that desire for freedom that fuelled the election of Nelson Mandela to preside over Africa’s largest nation and pull it back from the brink of disaster. Twenty years on, the country has made giant strides toward restoring political and financial stability, with tangible results. The economy has been growing at an average annual rate of 3.2 per cent, compared to only 1.5 per cent in the 1980s, while employment has soared by 60 per cent over the last two decades. Today, Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) ranks among the world’s top 20 stock exchanges in terms of market capitalisation and was worth more than $1 trillion at the end of last year. However, until three years ago, foreign companies were subject to foreign exchange rules which limited the amount of equities local investors could hold. Having changed rules to allow locally established foreign companies to be treated as domestic listings, JSE’s regulatory shift attracted its first new member in three years. Dubai-based Arqaam Capital, JSE’s first brokerage from the GCC region,
24 july / august 2014
joined several heavyweights on the South African equity market, including British American Tobacco and SABMiller. “Arqaam South Africa offers exposure to African stocks to over more than 700 mature market and Middle East and North Africa investors,” says Riad Meliti, the firm’s chief executive. Like JSE, South Africa is widely regarded as a gateway to the continent with a multitude of international players choosing to establish their regional offices in the country, from technology pioneers like Huawei and Acer to aerospace giant Bombardier. While Acer Africa set up its base to export to the Southern African Development Community, Angola and the islands along the Indian Ocean, Vodafone expanded into Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Ghana after launching a local hub in 2009. It is not merely geographic positioning. South Africa has stayed ahead of the game by creating 11 different incentive schemes to spur international investment. The Headquarter Company (HQC) regime was introduced to increase the country’s appeal as a gateway for foreign multinationals, eliminating barriers such as controlled foreign company rules, dividend withholding tax and capital gains tax. Many HQCs went further by setting up factories to benefit
Image courtesy of Gettyimages
By Heba Hashem
Investment Destination
from the incentives offered by the country’s Special Economic Zones. “South Africa is among the countries well known for manufacturing,” says Pumla Ncapayi, deputy director general of Trade and Investment South Africa, a unit of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). “We are now focusing on the Special Economic Zone programme, where we offer 14 per cent off the tax rate for companies and benefits like the 12l tax allowance [for greenfield and brownfield projects]. We have four free zones and are looking at increasing them to 10.” The UAE has yet to take advantage of South Africa’s new investment-friendly environment. It is currently South Africa’s 20th largest trading partner, with bilateral trade valued at around $3 billion last year, compared to Saudi Arabia’s trade value of $7.5 billion. Investment by UAE firms in South Africa is also below potential, sitting at about $38.9 million, with companies like GAC Logistics and Better Homes already profiting from this sizeable market. “Our export capacity over the years has been characterised by commodities in terms of the GCC region. We have been focusing on exporting our agroprocess products as well as machinery and automotive parts into the region and we are also looking at supplying juice, canned food and frozen products,” says Ncapayi. DTI has created a policy framework to put South Africa at an advantage in a number of sectors focusing on manufacturing, which goes hand in hand with infrastructure developments
taking place in the country. As much as $80 billion has been allocated for new and upgraded infrastructure over the next three years, according to Pravin Gordhan, the country’s Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. “South Africa is championing one of the largest infrastructure programmes in the world,” says Ncapayi. “That also extends to energy.” Meanwhile, the mining landscape appears to be glittering once again. Although South Africa fell from being the world’s number one gold producer to number six, former deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe recently stressed the industry should not be measured solely by the performance of its gold sector. He said there were huge proven unexploited deposits in other sectors, including iron ore, platinum, chrome and diamonds. Wasting no time, De Beers, the world’s second biggest diamond producer, recently entered the market with a $2 billion investment to extend the lifetime of its Venetia Mine in South Africa beyond 2040, taking its investment over the past 14 years to $18.7 billion. The new mine is expected to start underground production in 2021, replacing the existing pit as the country’s largest diamond mine. AT Kearney’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) confidence index, conducted across 300 of the world’s leading multinational corporations, ranks South Africa as the 13th most attractive destination globally. And with tourists reaching their highest level ever last year with nearly 10 million visitors, South Africa is proving a viable investment destination.
Main trading hub: East London Port, South Africa 2014 july / august 25
Investment
Joining the Crowd Small businesses in the UAE are getting a head start, thanks to online crowd investing sites which raise much-needed cash to help their brand’s profile By Louise Barnett
e is the picture of elegance, dressed in a crisp white shirt and sharp suit complete with a white silk pocket-handkerchief. The stylish male model is the current face of the Dubai-based brand Monsieur Fox, whose online range includes cufflinks inset with rubies, ties and tie clips. This men’s accessories brand is part of the UAE’s burgeoning fashion industry and also one of the first local fashion firms to seek funding in a way that is relatively new to the Middle East: crowd investing. Monsieur Fox aims to raise $164,063 to grow its business by a deadline of September 8th via crowd investing website Eureeca.com. In return, its financial backers will get a slice of equity in the firm.
Adrian Azodi, Monsieur Fox’s creative director and co-founder
26 july / august 2014
Adrian Azodi, Monsieur Fox’s creative director and cofounder, says crowd investment offers entrepreneurs a muchneeded alternative to traditional bank loans. “When you look to crowd investing there is much more opportunity to reach out to people who become evangelists of your brand,” he explains. Simply put, crowd investing is a business deal where investors are buying a slice of company equity. It is distinct from crowdfunding where donors pledge financial support for mostly creative projects, often with no expectation of a financial return. Eureeca’s British co-founder Chris Thomas, who is based in Dubai, says: “When we created Eureeca.com our focus was really to allow the non-tech businesses and bricks and mortar businesses the ability to raise money. They are good businesses and are stable but they totally fall beneath the radar of traditional funding routes.” So how does crowd investing work? First, small to mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) approach Eureeca.com with their business plan and financial projections together with a funding proposal. Acceptance onto the site is by no means guaranteed. Of the 500 business applicants it has received since its June 2013 launch, Eureeca has listed funding proposals for just 20. Each firm’s 90-day fundraising drive on Eureeca is accompanied by a promotional video, an explanation of their fundraising goals and the percentage of company equity for sale. Their aim is to catch the eye of the website’s 5,000 registered potential investors who are based as far afield as Japan, Canada and Switzerland. Interested investors can even ask the entrepreneurs questions online. The average Eureeca investor pledges $4,500 a time although investments can be much higher or lower. The range of firms seeking funding via Eureeca is diverse. Monsieur Fox has rubbed shoulders on the site with funding proposals for a car maintenance and repair app and a beauty products brand. Now more fashion firms from the region are set to follow in Monsieur Fox’s footsteps by growing their business via crowd investing. A collaboration between Eureeca and Fashion Forward, the UAE’s bi-annual fashion week-style event, will introduce more up and coming design talent to the crowd investing concept. The aim is for more entrepreneurs championed by Fashion
Investment
AND ITS MOMENTS Crowdinvesting with Eureeca has, in one short year, seen massive growth regionally and globally.
1
OUR INVESTORS Investors from as far and wide as Japan, Norway, Switzerland and Lebanon have pledged funds to our growth stage businesses
Forward to receive Eureeca’s support and advice in launching their funding campaigns online. “We hope to help a lot of fashion designers to develop their business and raise some growth capital,” Thomas says. Women’s accessories firm Poupée Couture was the Middle East’s first fashion brand to successfully seek crowd investment via Eureeca. It raised more than $112,800 via the site in January this year, well in excess of its $70,000 target. Whether it is for fashion or for food brands, Thomas is
BELGIUM
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Although it might yield some annual dividends, crowd investing generally involves tying up funds for several years before making any profit. And of course, not all small businesses turn a large profit or even survive. From the entrepreneur’s perspective, the crowd investing process can be a helpful means of raising their brand’s profile and forging useful links with influential players both in the UAE and further afield. Some firms even exceed their original funding targets and IRELAND
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Crowdinvesting has provided an innovative solution that bridges the gap between a crowd of investors and traditional venture capital
4,617
AND ITS MOMENTS Crowdinvesting with Eureeca has, in one short year, seen massive growth regionally and globally.
People pooled investments
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OUR INVESTORS Investors from as far and wide as Japan, Norway, Switzerland and Lebanon have pledged funds to our growth stage businesses IRELAND
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“This is going to become mainstream. It will be the air that we breathe. Every business will raise its money this way because it works. As long as you have support and people who believe in you, there’s enough money on the ground to fund you.”
$ $
Crowdinvesting has provided an innovative solution that bridges the gap between a crowd of investors and traditional venture capital
4,617
to raise:
for growth-stage businesses over the last year on Eureeca
Largest individual investment
$61,000
Average investment size
$4,500 $ $
$
AVERAGE INVESTOR
MALE TO FEMALE RATIO
INVESTOR AGES
MALE, AGED 38
1 IN 4 INVESTORS
OLDEST INVESTOR - 70
BASED IN DUBAI, UAE
ARE FEMALE
YOUNGEST INVESTOR - 21
INVESTMENTS ARE MADE INTO FUNDING PROPOSALS TYPICALLY ON WEDNESDAYS AND THURSDAYS BETWEEN 12PM AND 4PM. SUN
for growth-stage businesses over the last year on Eureeca
$61,000
$4,500
MALE, AGED 38
1 IN 4 INVESTORS
OLDEST INVESTOR - 70
BASED IN DUBAI, UAE
ARE FEMALE
YOUNGEST INVESTOR - 21
INVESTMENTS ARE MADE INTO FUNDING PROPOSALS TYPICALLY ON WEDNESDAYS AND THURSDAYS BETWEEN 12PM AND 4PM.
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783.7
465 37%
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decide to accept more investment in return for more equity. ON THE SITE Businesses that do not hit their funding targets within 90 days get nothing; their potential investors do not part with any money. In these cases, Eureeca waives its usual fee (7.25 per cent of total crowd investment raised) and charges only its standard 2 $250 compliance check fee. OURinvesting SMES For Azodi, the benefits of crowd go beyond its potential to raise money to expand his business. The average number of years an entrepreneur as runs their business “It lends some industry approval well,” he says. “When before seeking growth and expansion stage capital. 2 by already received Forward or people realise you are 1.7 either promoted Fashion funding from institutional investors. people like Eureeca.com they say you have been vetted. We have found people turn their heads when they see we are in SMEs have signed this for the long haul.” up to crowdinvest SMES APPLICATIONS TO EUREECA BY INDUSTRY
SUN
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TOTAL HOURS
$1,343,020
convinced crowd investing is the future for young firms that require a cash injection to move forward. “This is going to become mainstream,” he says. “It will be individual investment the air that we breathe.Largest Every business will raise its money this way because it works. As long as you have support and people who believe in you, there’s enough money on the ground to Average investment size fund you.” For investors, crowd investing is an opportunity to diversify beyond property and stock markets into the previously difficult to access SME sector. It gives a feeling of personal involvement with $small, growing businesses and the possibility of a healthy $ $ return as they expand and are possibly sold in the future. AVERAGE INVESTOR MALE TO FEMALE RATIO INVESTOR AGES On the downside, this is generally a longer-term investment. People pooled investments
to raise:
$1,343,020
WED THU
FRI
SAT
23%
ONLINE/INTERNET
HOW LONG DO THEY TAKE TO GET FUNDED?
2014 july / august 27
54 DAYS ON AVERAGE
Š Billy Howard
Cover story
Former 28 US President Carter at his home in the Plains, Georgia july / august 2014
Cover story
Writing the world’s wrongs With his 90th birthday looming, former US president Jimmy Carter looks back on his troubled term in office and talks to GC about his new book and his ongoing fight to end the abuse of women and lethal waterborne diseases By Daniel Bates
eXCLUSIVE
he week before former president Jimmy Carter calls me from his home in Plains, Georgia, three appalling instances of abuse to women and girls take place that shock the world. In Sudan, a woman gave birth to her second child in shackles in a cell after being sentenced to death for being a Christian by a strict Islamic judge. In Pakistan, a pregnant woman was stoned to death outside a court by her own family for marrying the man of her choice as police reportedly looked on and did nothing. And in Nigeria, there was still no sign that more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped by radical Islamists Boko Haram would be set free. If you were not convinced by Carter’s argument that the “pervasive denial of equal rights to women” is the greatest unaddressed challenge facing the world, right now it is hard to argue otherwise. He claims the issue poses more of a danger to our economic, moral and societal future than famine, war or the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Carter, who turns 90 in October, says it was the sheer scope of the problem that inspired him to write about it in his latest book A Call To Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power. “Wars and famine are possibilities for the future but for instance, there are at least three honour killings in Pakistan every day,” he says. “When one gets reported as it was last week, that makes a big headline, but you don’t see all the other honour killings that take place. “Sexual assault takes place regularly and I believe slavery among women and girls is worse now perhaps than even the slavery that involved black people coming out of Africa in the 18th and 19th century.
2014 july / august 29
Photo courtesy of Staub
Cover story
Humanitarian mission: Carter in Nigeria with local children
“These things go on constantly but the world has the inclination to look the other way because leaders don’t want to admit these crimes take place on their own command.” Reeling off one report after another, Carter argues holding back half the world’s population from fulfilling their potential is bad for us all. It is also not a problem that is confined to developing countries. The US Department of State reported that in 2012 alone, there were 60,000 girls sold into sexual slavery. Carter, who has been a Baptist all his life, blames misinterpretation of religious texts as the main reason why this has happened. He says: “These derogations of women, ostensibly in the eyes of God, cause potentially abusive men to look upon women as being inferior to them. “This applies to a husband that wants to abuse his wife or an employer who think it’s okay to pay a woman less than a man for the same kind of work. “There’s a misinterpretation in the Quran concerning the mutilation of women’s genital organs. There is nothing in the Quran that mandates that.” That Carter should address this issue is in keeping with his work since leaving the White House in 1981 after his single term in office as America’s 39th president. He has published 11 books, won the Nobel Peace Prize and in 1982 founded the non-profit The Carter Centre to pursue
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humanitarian causes after waking up in the middle of the night with the idea. Blessed with a mixture of determination and longevity, Carter effectively set the standard for the post-presidential second career. Without him, Bill Clinton might have been spending his days playing golf instead of running his Global Initiative. The Carter Centre has been described as a “mini State Department” based out of its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. It employs 175 people with dozens more in field offices commanding a budget of $90 million to supervise elections and, in Carter’s words, to “wage peace”. Last year the Carter Centre treated about 36 million people for curable diseases that are still a problem in the developing world. The organisation’s biggest achievement has been its campaign to rid the world of guinea worm, a horrific parasite that enters the body through dirty drinking water and grows up to 3ft long before forcing its way out of the skin. Carter says: “When we started out working on this disease we found it in 25,000 villages in 20 different countries. “We located 3.5 million cases of guinea worm. Last year we had 148 cases in the whole world and this year we only have 19 cases. We are approaching the elimination of this disease.” The Carter Centre is funded by donations and Carter, who was originally an engineer by trade, keeps donors updated with a statistics-driven approach that lets them know just how effectively their money is being spent.
Cover story
swept to power. Carter says: “One of the key goals in my life has been to bring peace to Israel and in doing so to bring peace to Israel’s immediate neighbours. “So even when other governments including the United States and Europe don’t want to address the difficult issues in the Middle East, the Carter Centre does this. “We constantly emphasise the plight of the Palestinians and try to call for an opportunity to make progress in the peace process. “We are the only organisation which does this. The rest of them avoid controversy. “Most people won’t deal with Hamas but we were in Palestine monitoring the (2006) election when Hamas candidates were encouraged by Israel and the US to participate and then after they won, and only after they won the election, did the US and Israel decide to call the Hamas candidates terrorists. Now they have a legal obstacle to dealing with Hamas.” Carter also feels it is not enough for any country, including those in the Middle East, to just donate money to bring about peace, they have to act too. He said: “All countries have an obligation to communicate with people who cause problems. “Sometimes there are people who refuse communication with, say, the US, because they are doing something we don’t like. “They are the ones we have to talk to in order to get in to change their policies to promote peace or to stop perpetrating terrible human rights crimes. “At the Carter Centre, I have made a policy ever since I left the White House to go where I choose and to meet whom I please. I am free to say what I really believe and to promote peace.” There is undoubtedly continuity in Carter the man, the
Photo courtesy of DiCampo
Upon request the centre can provide details on the minutiae of its work, whether it is the number of people treated for blindness or surgeries it performed. Another lesson Carter has learned over the years is to be efficient and spend what he calls a “tiny proportion” of the centre’s income raising money. Carter does not name the amount but says it has not changed since the centre’s budget was five times smaller than it is now. As for violence against women, the solution is outlined in his book. The final chapter is a long list of demands including encouraging young women to speak out more, remove commanding officers under investigation for sexual abuse from the armed forces and prosecute pimps and prostitutes’ clients. He even urges First Ladies like Michelle Obama to do more, though the book was written before she started the hashtag ‘bringbackourgirls’ over the Boko Haram incident. Such a bold move is something Carter would have no doubt approved of. He has never been shy of courting controversy and attracted criticism from Republicans in the US for his close relationship to Yasser Arafat, the former head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Yet one of the most significant achievements of his term in office was bringing then-Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin to the table for the Camp David peace accords in 1978 in a bid to halt the Arab-Israeli conflict. Carter says talking to all parties involved in a dispute is the only way to achieve long lasting peace. In the Middle East, the Carter Centre has full-time offices in Jerusalem, Gaza, Ramallah and regularly talks to both Fatah and Hamas, including during the 2006 elections where they
Carter watches over children in Ghana as they receive vaccines for guinea worm
2014 july / august 31
Cover story
humble peanut farmer from rural Georgia who joined the navy, became governor of his state and rose to become president in 1977. His term in office, however, is considered problematic at best. During his tenure high unemployment, soaring inflation and the Iranian hostage crisis dominated the Carter White House, especially in his last year in office. It was five minutes after he handed over to his successor Ronald Reagan that word came through all 66 American diplomats and citizens, who were being held hostage in the US embassy in Tehran, had been freed after 444 days in captivity. Announcing their release to the world was Reagan’s first
in Jimmy Carter’s case, his opponents would say he also manufactured his own bad luck.” Any suggestion the good work in Carter’s post-presidency has undone this damage is “not based in reality”, she adds. Carter disagrees and says when he looks at his own record “I have never thought it needed any redemption”. Citing how he normalised relations with China after a 35year impasse, Carter says he has been doing the “same thing since I left office as I did when I was in office as president”. “All of the commentaries, particularly the ones that are critical of me, say I was too weak to get our hostages back in a timely fashion.
“I have made a policy ever since I left the White House to go where I choose and to meet whom I please. I am free to say what I really believe and to promote peace.”
official job. Historians are still divided on whether it was Carter’s negotiations which secured their freedom, the fear of tougher terms from the incoming president or revenge from the Iranians for Carter’s support of the Shah. The drama overshadowed the historic Camp David peace accord between Israel and Egypt, which ended 31 years of war between them. Dr Barbara Perry, a presidential scholar at the University of Virginia’s Miller Centre, says the very qualities that got Carter elected were his undoing while in office. She says: “He was so modest and so populist, it didn’t prepare him for the way that Washington worked. “He became completely ineffective on the international stage. “Some people say you can make your own good luck and
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“My plan was carried out successfully in that every hostage came back home, safe and free and we did not cause any unnecessary loss of life. “Every hostage came back in good health. So no, I don’t have any regrets.” It is fair to say Carter is likely to be remembered more for his exemplary post-presidential work. He has been retired for longer than some people have careers, holds the longest post-presidency and the second longest presidential marriage. Asked about the prospect of entering his tenth decade, Carter says with dry wit: “I’m older than when I was 80 or 70.” Given his seemingly endless drive, he will probably be doing the same when he gets to 100.
Images courtesy of Corbis / ArabianEye.com
Carter (2nd R) and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt (L) were part of an election observation team in the West Bank during the 2006 Palestinian elections where Hamas came to power
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Profile
The Mystery Billionaire He has gazumped Roman Abramovich, endows the Tate Modern and Oxford University and his Cannes parties are so exclusive even Mick Jagger can’t get in. So who is Len Blavatnik? GC finds out
34 july / august 2014
Blavatnik with former US President Bill Clinton at the Film Society of Lincoln Centre’s 40th Anniversary Chaplin Award Gala in New York
Blavatnik’s social life is varied. His close circle in London includes Sir Ronald Cohen and Jacob Rothschild. He also likes to throw his London and New York homes open to a wider circle of glamorous young people — actors and musicians, as well as writers such as Simon Sebag Montefiore and Andrew Roberts. Lord George Weidenfeld, who attended his 50th birthday party on the French Riviera at the Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat, says despite these extravagant parties, Blavatnik is a modest man who is accumulating an important 20th century art collection: “If anything, he plays down his wealth.” “Len Blavatnik was very shrewd,” says Andrew Langton, chairman of Aylesford International, who acted on the property deal. “He realised there was a wave of very rich individuals coming to London from the East who would want to buy up
Stephen Robinson/ The Times/ The Interview People
here is a saying in Russian oligarch circles that, roughly translated, declares “every rich man must have a back-up aerodrome”. This has two meanings, the first quite literal. But the maxim goes much deeper than that. The wise oligarch knows he needs to spread his assets around. Len Blavatnik’s gilded reputation is everywhere, yet relatively little is known about the nature of the man behind it. Ten years ago the peripatetic mogul bought a Gatsby-esque home next to Kensington Palace and decided to make London his base while maintaining his US citizenship. The non-domiciliary tax laws and the ready supply of spectacular, self-contained houses make London attractive to foreign billionaires who want both space and security. Now ranked at number four on The Sunday Times Rich List, his fortune is put at around $17 billion, although he has made the bulk of his money in the US and the former Soviet Union. Should you seek monuments to the “back-up aerodrome” maxim, there is the $30m of scientific scholarships in New York, millions donated over the years to British institutions including the Tate Modern, National Gallery and the Royal Academy. Most munificent of all is the bold new headquarters of the Blavatnik School of Government, inching upwards into the Oxford skyline, thanks to a whopping $128 million endowment. Blavatnik lets his billions speak for themselves. He prefers to pay the expensive PR outfit Brunswick to buff his reputation for him. But there is another Russian saying: that you never ask an oligarch how he made his first million. Though he is an American citizen and has a sensational Manhattan apartment, he finds London a congenial base this side of the Atlantic. So in 2004 he bought the ultimate billionaire’s retreat, 15 Kensington Palace Gardens. He outbid his oligarch rival Roman Abramovich by spending what was then considered a preposterous $70 million on the 13- bedroom Italianate mansion. He has since sunk millions more into the house, creating underground parking with a car lift, cinema, and what is believed to be London’s only hybrid indoor/outdoor swimming pool.
Image courtesy of Gettyimages
By Stephen Robinson
Profile
properties that had been used as embassies and he got in early.” In 2011 he acquired Warner Music in the US and entered a new world of celebrity performers and their hangers-on. His party aboard his 164ft yacht, Odessa — relatively modest by the standards of his oligarch peers — is an annual highlight of the Cannes film festival. Joss Stone, signed to Warner, has performed onboard to the delight of Blavatnik and his friends. A week after paying $3.3 billion for Warner Music, Blavatnik pulled his yacht into Cannes’ old port. Aboard was his normal retinue, plus some of his Hollywood friends, including Jane Fonda, Melanie Griffith and Sarah Jessica Parker. As the champagne flowed, Mick Jagger pulled up alongside with friends in tow and wondered if they might come aboard to join the fun. Blavatnik turned him away. He also has Sir Michael Pakenham, a retired diplomat and the third son of the late 7th Earl of Longford, on his payroll to advise him on English manners and ethics. Should you be invited onto Blavatnik’s yacht, by all means refer to him as a tycoon or philanthropist, but do not call him a Russian oligarch, for he hates the guilt by association. He has a point, in that he is not Russian, but was born in Odessa, in Ukraine, in 1957. As a boy, Blavatnik was not exactly poor, but money was tight in the family home headed by two academics. Being Jewish held him back when his family moved to a small town outside Moscow. As a result, though precociously bright, he was barred from admission to prestigious Russian universities — where strict Jewish quotas applied — and ended up studying at the unglamorous Moscow Institute of Transport Engineers. His life-changing stroke of luck was that his coming of age coincided with a loosening in the Soviet Union’s attitude to Jewish emigration. In 1978, when he was 21, his family left for America and like many new arrivals settled in Brooklyn. Blavatnik attended Columbia University, then Harvard Business School. He is far better educated than most oligarchs and more westernised. He took US citizenship and now speaks impeccable English with a light accent sprinkled with American phrases and intonation. While studying at Harvard in 1986, Blavatnik set up an investment company, Access Industries, working through the night in the kitchen of his tiny Brooklyn apartment. The really big opportunities opened up back home in the 1990s during Boris Yeltsin’s botched privatisation programme. With a Russian partner, Blavatnik began buying up aluminium plants at knock-down prices and became a leading player in the Russian market. Next, he diversified into coal, making a huge profit on a coal field in Kazakhstan. Then he moved into oil via a company
His life-changing stroke of luck was that his coming of age coincided with a loosening in the Soviet Union’s attitude to Jewish emigration
Joss Stone and Naomie Harris attend a lunch hosted by Blavatnik and Harvey Weinstein and Warner Music during the 66th Cannes Film Festival 2014 july / august 35
Profile
Blavatnik and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin at the Warner Music Group annual Grammy party
known as TNK, which was soon embroiled in a gruelling legal and political battle with BP for control of another oil company, Chernogorneft. For the past few years, Blavatnik has been moving away from the traditional oligarch’s sources of wealth, energy and aluminium. He is now embarked on creating a new digital content empire. Hence his purchase of Warner Music and investment in web-based music streaming companies, including Spotify and France’s Deezer. Since the purchase of Warner, he has acquired Parlophone and artists such as Pink Floyd and Coldplay. But there is no concealing the fact that his wealth was accumulated in often dirty fights in the former Soviet Union, by buying up assets at rock-bottom prices, in an era when some of his associates were prepared to sail close to the wind. Some, therefore, question the wisdom and morality of Oxford University accepting $128 million from him for its school of government. “Blavatnik wants his name to stand in comparison to Kennedy’s [which adorns the equivalent school at Harvard], but, really, this is simple reputation shopping,” says Ilya Zaslavskiy, who worked for TNK-BP and is now a fellow at Chatham House in London. Such concerns are dismissed by Professor Ngaire Woods, dean of the Blavatnik School. Woods says Oxford has grown over nine centuries into a world-class institution through vast
36 july / august 2014
private benefactions like this. “We carry the name of Blavatnik with pride,” she says. “Len Blavatnik has stepped up to the plate and said we are going to improve governance with a huge philanthropic gift.” She describes him as “extraordinarily clever” and blessed with the American immigrant’s drive. Yet, as others have noted, she says Blavatnik is calm in person, almost humble. “He is a natural global citizen. He gets the importance of good governance across the world.” It is sometimes difficult to square this assessment with Blavatnik’s past, but several people — not all beneficiaries of his largesse — said the same of him. It is certainly true that the school reflects its founder’s internationalism, and though Oxford will be proud of its new addition, it will not initially be of much benefit to British students. Of this year’s intake of 63 graduate students, only three or four are British. The school is constitutionally a university department and Blavatnik would not be able to influence its operations even if he wanted to. But Woods says he is very engaged with the students when he comes to Oxford, and speaks to them individually and at length. Perhaps Blavatnik should be seen in the grand tradition of adventurers with ambiguous backstories, men who eventually need to do good. Blavatnik’s activities in Britain illustrate vividly how the vast inflows of international money have upended established practice. Money, influence and patronage are linked via elaborate networks of shifting alliances. Through Access Industries (UK), Blavatnik has given $58,650 to the Conservative Party. Bill Clinton and Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, adorn the Blavatnik School of Government’s international advisory board. Meanwhile, Blavatnik is a generous donor to the Tate, which said it does not discuss individual donors. Could it be an exchange of money for influence, of vast wealth for respectability? For perhaps, were anything disobliging ever to turn up about Blavatnik’s past or present, the embarrassment would not be strictly personal, but spread widely around his new best friends in high places. Equally, this billionaire makes a good case for altruism. Either way, as Melinda Gates, a very different sort of philanthropist, once put it: “Helping people doesn’t have to be an unsound financial strategy”.
Image courtesy of Gettyimages
“He is a natural global citizen. He gets the importance of good governance across the world.”
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Saving Money Abroad A new online peer-to-peer trading platform will allow customers to buy foreign currency, cutting out the middle man and putting a dent in the profits of large financial institutions which previously benefitted By Emma Inglis
Oliver Muller, CEO of Peer Dealer
he frustration of feeling ripped off by high street foreign exchange dealers, banks and brokers could soon be a thing of the past. Plans are underway to launch the world’s first peer-to-peer market place for foreign exchange – Peer Dealer – which will offer users a dealing platform free of the egregious spreads and commissions charged by middle men such as banks, brokers and high street dealers. “We want to remove banks and brokers from the equation and offer trading for free,” explains Oliver Muller, chief executive of Peer Dealer. “There will be no spreads, no fees and no commissions.” If successful, Peer Dealer promises to place a large dent in the profits reported by financial institutions as their commission, fees and spread profits from providing foreign exchange to the retail market go into free fall. In fact, Muller is keen to draw parallels with the music sharing platform, Napster, and mobile app car service, Uber - both of which took their respective industries by storm - by suggesting Peer Dealer could have a similarly disruptive impact on the financial industry. Whether you are a day trader seeking the tightest spreads and lowest cost for foreign exchange or simply someone needing foreign currency for a holiday or an asset purchase abroad, Peer Dealer holds the promise that soon anyone will be able to access the low cost and tight spreads enjoyed today only by an elite
38 july / august 2014
group of large financial institutions. Muller, an ex-currency dealer, believes banks and brokers today play a role that is surplus to requirements when it comes to foreign currency dealing: “The technology is now available for these services to be provided for free.” Technology can also offer other appealing aspects to the business of foreign exchange. Peer Dealer’s browser-based application will encourage users to upload photos, trading details and other information. This open platform will enable customers to see exactly who they are dealing with. “We aim to make things completely transparent,” says Muller. Of course, the key to Peer Dealer’s success will be to garner enough customers to provide a liquid and efficient market. The group has back-up provided by German bank Varengold who will provide extra liquidity at the start of launch. As volume grows, Varengold will step back. The business model being adopted by the new venture is to attract enough customers to start to offer paid-for, value-added services while also offering the platform to advertisers interested in a targeted demographic. If the market becomes large enough, the dealership is also contemplating a small subscription fee. For now, the focus is simply to attract users with the promise of zero cost, fees and commissions. Still in soft-launch phase, interest in Peer Dealer is high, with investors already on board.
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Eccentric businessman turned philanthropist Bhupendra Kumar Modi built his fortune from savvy industrial and telecom investments but he hopes to pull off one more coup by bidding for Forbes Media By Natasha Tourish
42 july / august 2014
Photography by Boa Campbell
Modi’s Modus Operandi
Social entrepreneur
“We were planning to shift the legal headquarters (of Forbes Media) to Singapore, which is a new hub for capitalism.”
hupendra Kumar Modi’s early years in India, where he was born into an industrialist family, is a far cry from the norms of his lavish private jet lifestyle, where he travels with an entourage, including his own nurse. “I don’t stay more than three days in a place,” says the magnate known as BK when we meet in his sprawling Burj Khalifa apartment, typical of the prime properties he owns around the world. In London, he calls a penthouse in Buckingham Gate overlooking the palace gardens home; in New York, it is 100 United Nations Plaza and in LA, it’s Beverly Hills. Seventy per cent of Modi’s assets have been invested in property in what he calls “global cities”, including Delhi, Mumbai and his main base of Singapore, where he moved the headquarters of his $2 billion conglomerate Spice Global in
2012 after becoming a Singapore citizen. His diversified portfolio includes assets in telecommunications, healthcare, hospitality and financial services after he built his business empire on joint ventures with multinationals such as Xerox, Alcatel and Olivetti. Last year, Forbes magazine - which he is currently in the running to buy from the Forbes family in the US - estimated the 65-year-old’s personal fortune at $850 million. The businessman will only say with a smile: “I have enough.” With an unsaturated appetite for pulling off business deals and in particular, investing in new technologies, the eccentric businessman has decided to use his wealth to prolong his own life by investing in stem cell technology. “I put my health first and my wealth as number two,” he says, stroking a diamondstudded, life-sized stuffed decorative lion that sits by his side. In March, the self-dubbed “futurepreneur” invested in US company Stemedica based in San Diego, which has approval from the Food and Drug Administration for clinical trials in the US only. As Modi wanted to undergo the stem cell treatment, he travelled to Kazakhstan in April, where it is legal to undergo treatment. “In the last few years I have become really interested in healthcare. I’ve always found that in every field, technology has made so many changes but not much has happened in the past few years in healthcare.” Modi has coined a phrase for his new healthcare venture, calling it Smart Living. Under this umbrella he is also investing in a 3.5 million sq ft Smart City in Delhi comprised of a 12,000bed hospital and housing for staff. Although Modi says he has no serious illnesses, both his parents were diabetics. He has been taking diabetic medication for a number of years as a borderline case and hopes the treatment will help reduce his blood pressure, raise his energy levels and strengthen his joints so he can play tennis. “I’m doing it because I want to live a longer and healthier life without diseases,” he says. Modi’s trip to Kazakhstan cost him $50,000 - although the actual stem cell treatment costs between $2,000 and $3,000. The stem cells were administered in the form of an injection. If he continues the treatment, he will have to go back once per year. When asked about any associated risks, Modi said it was a natural treatment and he didn’t believe there were any. “I’ve been researching for more than two years. This is the best that is available. The doctor has done more than 3,000 treatments. As a global citizen, I don’t want to do anything illegal,” he added. Modi, who prides himself on being a global citizen and promulgates a borderless world, set up the Global Citizen Forum
2014 july / august 43
Philanthropy
Modi looking out at the impressive Dubai skyline from his Burj Khalifa apartment
(GCF) to facilitate his cause. “One of the ideas of GCF is to bring equalisation. The laws have to be similar in every country, they cannot be anti-youth or anti-globalisation.” Forbes buy out The sale of Forbes Media that began in mid -November last year is now entering its eight month. An announcement of the new owner was expected in February after all five foreign bidders submitted their offers but reports in the US suggest the favourites - China’s Fosun International and Germany’s Axel Springer Group, the media giant that has a licensing deal for the Russian edition of Forbes - have opted out of the race, leaving Modi’s consortium as a frontrunner. Modi’s bid was reportedly $300 million but he will not confirm how much he and his co-investors offered, only saying: “What Forbes was looking for, none of the bids could accomplish.” If he is successful, he will have to be willing to work with Forbes media chairman Steve Forbes, who told employees at a quarterly company-wide town hall meeting in March that he will keep a minority stake in the company after it is sold. According to analysts, the $400-500 million valuation Forbes was asking for was not in line with the falling ad revenues the company has witnessed in the past years. In 2004, the Forbes
44 july / august 2014
family turned down a $400 million buyout offer from Conde Nast. According to Modi, “the high price is an exploitation of the brand’s potential rather than a valuation of the company as it is today.” “When you say Forbes, you think of billionaires. Everybody wants to lead that lifestyle. I’d like to incorporate the concept of smart living into it where you have both wealth and health. There are smart business people but they are not doing smart living. “We immediately got interested because Forbes is a growing brand but it is very US-orientated. Its main revenue comes from the US even though it’s global. “We were planning to shift the legal headquarters to Singapore, which is a new hub for capitalism.” Modi says whoever the new owner is has a responsibility to tell the stories of the extremely wealthy through a digital platform. He says: “There is huge content because they have been following the history of these entrepreneurs and billionaires for decades. “We are trying to make it very global and more online. There is a need to tell the stories of these people through seven to nine minute videos. Nobody likes to read anymore.” One thing is for sure - while he waits to find out if he is the new owner of Forbes Media, the grass won’t grow under Modi’s feet as he doesn’t stay in one place long enough.
Luxury
2014 july / august 45
Global Citizenship
Find a Perfect Match The Arton Index allows investors to easily compare countries and choose the most beneficial immigrant investor program for their needs
or high net worth investors from the Middle East, China, Russia, S. Africa and even the US, it’s no longer enough to have a diversified portfolio with just SWAG (silver, wine, art, gold) investments. Instead, savvy businessmen are piling their money into immigrant investor programs (IIP’s) as a way of ensuring political diversification for their assets. “A fundamental first step for global citizens is to minimize risk— both the physical and financial, and the best way to safeguard your family and your investment portfolio is from being under the helm of any one single government,” says the chief executive of Arton Capital, a global financial advisory firm who specialises in tailored immigrant investor programs for Global Citizens. Adding that it’s a matter of being “prudent.” “Investing in immigrant investor programs is a case of prudent financial planning for any high net worth individual, especially for those who find themselves living in a country where political and financial instability hang over them like a dark cloud.” However, Arton concedes that for newcomers to the industry who want to invest in a second residency or citizenship it can be a “daunting task” when deciding on which country and immigrant investor program suits their individual needs best. He says, “To make the process easier and more transparent, we have created the Arton Index— an industry benchmark which allows global citizens to quickly evaluate each immigrant investor program country by country and figure out which program is right for them and their business needs.” Why did Arton Capital create the Arton Index? Arton says his team developed the Arton Index after he identified a gap in the industry for a comparative benchmark, so clients can easily dilute information. “I’m confident that the Arton Index will become a universal reference point for our industry.” Each one of Arton Capital’s immigrant investment programs offers a host of unique benefits to investors. These benefits have been organized into five key pillars— cost, speed, global mobility, simplicity, quality of life — each have been laid out in the Arton Index, which helps investors make a decision about which country suits their needs best. Each category, in turn, comprises sub-factors that represent the attractiveness of every product in the Index from the investor’s perspective. Take the Hungarian Investor Residency Bond Program as an example, with a total score of 64 points (out of a possible 100) it ranks in sixth place.
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The first pillar is the cost related to the process. The direct costs are examined, such as the required investment, the application and government fees, as well as incidental costs. Hungary gets 17 out of 30 points here. Then, the time it will take for a person to become a citizen in the selected country is considered by also assessing the time required to obtain residence when such mandatory steps exist in the respective jurisdiction. For speed, the country is awarded 11 out of 20 points. The third pillar is global mobility, which analyses the accessibility to some of the most important business and cultural hubs worldwide. You may have access to a greater number of countries with a certain passport but it is more important if it enables you to travel visa-free, while extending your business reach and global network. Hungary scores a high 16 out of the 20 maximum here as the country’s passport permits visa-free travel to more than 160 countries worldwide, including the US and Canada. The quality of life in the receiving country is also extremely important when one considers relocation. The ranking in this fourth pillar is based on two reliable independent sources and is adjusted to the ranking of the Index. Again, Hungary is in top under this pillar getting eight out of 10 points. And finally the fifth pillar is simplicity. Hungary has scored 12 out of 20 points. In this respect, simplicity comes down to the different countries that may provide incentives for global citizens, which they will consider from one country to another. For example, being exempt from the requirement of having knowledge in the local language, or a waiver to spend a certain amount of time in the respective country, are considered as incentives and will most likely influence an investor’s decision. Hungary has just announced one such incentive in the cost pillar and it’s expected to implement further legislative changes in the coming months, including a fast track option to citizenship within one year, if investors double their investment and a reduced timeframe to citizenship (from eight to five years) for the normal investment amount, this will further improve its ranking and its elevation within the other countries that the index examines, leaving it as a forerunner among the ten programs that are currently available from Arton Capital.
See www.artoncapital.com for a full list of the immigrant investor programs offered.
Global Citizenship
ARTON INDEX
TOP FIVE COUNTRIES RANKING
1. Cyprus 2. Bulgaria 3. St.Kitts & Nevis 4. Hungary 5. Grenada
Investor Residency Bond Program
70 66 65 64 63
64
17
11
16
cost
speed
global mobility
130k EUR FIN
RES = 4M CIT = 5Y
8
12
eu
no interview
quality simplicity of life
160+
no physical presence
countries
Updated yearly, the Arton Index is an overall assessment and comparative benchmark of the country and its investment program
Investor Program for Residence and Citizenship
Citizenship by Investment Program
70
66
21
8
cost
speed
180k EUR FIN
RES = 6m CIT = 5Y
RES: residency
10
global mobility
160+ countries
CIT: citizenship
7
20
eu
no interview
quality simplicity of life no physical presence
FIN: FINANCING COST OF INVESTMENT
12
15
cost
speed
850k EUR FIN
CIT = 3m
16
global mobility
155+ countries
7
20
eu
no interview
quality simplicity of life no physical presence
2014 july / august 47
EMPOWERING GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP “The event was extremely well organized, insightful, candid, and above all
October 2-3, 2014 Four Seasons, Toronto, Canada
48 july / august 2014
actionable. That has all the hallmarks of a high-value event, which others should experience when invited in future years. It was truly a pleasure, thank you!� - Mykolas Rambus, CEO, Wealth-X on GCF 2013 in Dubai
Global Citizen magazine is proud to be a media partner of the Global Citizen Forum.
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IF YOU CAN'T PREDICT THE FUTURE, CREATE IT Join government officials, immigration, financial and legal professionals, policy advisors, wealth managers, high net worth investors, affluent real estate developers and other influential business sector representatives to exchange on the future of global citizenship.
NOTABLE SPEAKERS AND PANELISTS Mr. Armand Arton, President & CEO, Arton Capital, Founder, Global Citizen Forum Hon. Gaston Browne, Prime Minister, Antigua & Barbuda Hon. Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister, St Kitts & Nevis Mr. Dory Jade, President, Canadian Association of Prof. Immigration Consultants Mr. Val Kempadoo, Founder, Kittitian Hill Mr. Patrick Liotard-Vogt, Chairman, ASMALLWORLD Hon. Sergio Marchi, Former Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Chairman, Board of Advisors, Arton Capital Mr. Nikolay Milkov, Ambassador, Republic of Bulgaria Mr. Svetoslav Mladenov, Executive Director, Invest Bulgaria Agency Mr. Sándor Pintér, Minister of the Interior, Hungary Mr. Mykolas Rambus, CEO, Wealth-X Mr. Robin Sharma, Leadership expert and best-selling author Ms. Madeleine Sumption, Senior Policy Analyst, Assistant Director for Research at the Migration Policy Institute Mr. Dan Wachtler, President & CEO, IPSA International For a full list of invited speakers, please visit www.globalcitizenforum.org
World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Migration will inaugurate a study commissioned by Arton Capital on the benefits and future of the immigrant investor programs.
Arton Capital is due to unveil a second joint report co-authored with Wealth-X focused S I N GA P O R E | B E I RUT | B UDA P E S T | GUA N GZ H O U | H O N G KON G | KUALA LUMP UR L O N D O N | LUGA N O | on M A D Rphilanthropy. I D | M UM B A I | N E W YO R K | SYDN E Y
COUNTRIES TO BE REPRESENTED Antigua & Barbuda, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, Dominica, Grenada, Hungary, Portugal, St Kitts & Nevis, USA, and UK.
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The forum will feature discussion panels and breakout sessions and some of the topics to be discussed are: • • • • • • •
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Special Report
Laying the foundations Al Jalila Foundation is pioneering medical innovation in the UAE with a new medical research centre in Dubai By Tahira Yaqoob
t promises to put Dubai on the map as a world-class centre for medical discoveries. Plans have been drawn up by the Al Jalila Foundation, a charitable organisation championing medical innovation, for a new 10-storey research centre to be built within two years with aims to attract 100 scientists from around the globe. A plot has already been earmarked between the Mohammed Bin Rashid Academic Medical Centre and the proposed 400bed teaching University Hospital. And while the first clod of earth has yet to be dug in this patch of Dubai Healthcare City, work has begun on a new medical
research centre, which is groundbreaking in every respect, from the innovative nature of its scientific pursuits to the accountable structure of the new venture. Their primary focus will be to find new ways to combat five major killers and conditions in the UAE, with the potential to have an impact on treatment around the world. Those conditions include obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and mental health problems. “This is to put Dubai on the map of research, development and healthcare,” says Dr Abdulkareem al Olama, the chief executive of Al Jalila Foundation.
Al Jalila has partnered with Prince Harry’s patron charity Sentebale to build the Mamohato children’s centre to help children with HIV in Lesotho 50 july / august 2014
Philanthropy
“In everything else, Dubai and the UAE are on top, whether it is roads, airports or finance - except when it comes to research and development. These are areas of improvement. “We cannot say we are like the United States but Dubai and the UAE are perfectly situated to be a medical destination centre for health.” Al Jalila was founded a year ago by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai, and named after his seven-year-old daughter Jalila. Earlier this year, he visited the foundation’s current headquarters in Healthcare City with his daughter to view designs for the ambitious scheme. Once the building goes up, with contractors set to start digging this year, three or four floors will be dedicated to the research centre while the rest of the building will be leased as a commercial venture. While the foundation has already raised the Dh100 million needed to build the centre in the first place, thanks to generous donors and fundraising events (the Al Rostamani family alone gave Dh10 million) its managers hope it will be self-sustaining and are banking on tenants and donations to keep filling its coffers so they can maintain research projects. “Research is costly,” says professor Sehamuddin Galadari, chairman of the organisation’s scientific advisory committee. “No one should be fooled into thinking you can do research on peanuts but the return on that investment is immense, even if you only take it on face value in terms of social, economic, business, societal, psychological and health.” Persuading the UAE’s population to see the long-term benefits of donating to research has been a battle, admits Dr Olama. While giving money to schools and hospitals shows an immediate and highly visible return, it takes a more long-term vision to see how funding scientific development will help a greater number of people in the long run. “Tell me about it,” sighs the chief executive. “It is hard as people want to see results immediately but we have managed to do a shift in their minds from paying money to hospitals or schools to paying for research. The community is maturing.” The foundation has three main focus areas, education, treatment and research. While 70 per cent of its funds will be dedicated to research programmes, 20 per cent will be put aside for teaching purposes to give UAE nationals the chance to learn from world-class experts while the remaining 10 per cent will go toward healthcare for those who cannot afford it, primarily targeting children born with congenital deformities and disabilities. Al Jalila has already covered the costs of youngsters needing cochlear implants, cancer patients and initiatives helping children
“This is to put Dubai on the map of research, development and healthcare”
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai viewing the plans of the new Al Jalila Foundation Research Centre with the board chairwoman Raja Easa al Gurg
with autism and their families. And they partnered with the charity Sentebale, fronted by Britain’s Prince Harry, to help children diagnosed as HIV positive in Lesotho. An astonishing Dh4 million was raised during a dinner hosted by the prince in Dubai last year and ground has already been broken for a children’s centre. But paying for treatment is a small part of Al Jalila’s mission. Its primary goal is to bring in world renowned scientists and researchers and to raise standards of medical research within the UAE. To that end, the foundation aims to be accountable, with a board of directors and trustees in place, chaired by the businesswoman Raja Easa al Gurg and the chairman of Emirates airline Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al Maktoum respectively, as well as an independent audit by the international firm Deloitte to ensure greater transparency. Meanwhile a pot of Dh8 million will get the ball rolling in September, with seed grants of up to Dh300,000 for researchers worldwide who want to investigate health-related issues in the UAE, fellowships for Emirati biomedical professionals who want to study abroad and funding for student research placements of up to three months. “We are hoping this will encourage the community to understand the opportunities that lie ahead of us and be wise enough to put their money where our mouths are to invest in biomedical research,” says Prof Galadari.
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17-year-old Haris Suleman will pilot his own plane to over 30 countries with his father Babar to raise money for children’s education in Pakistan
Mission Takes Flight GC speaks to a 17-year old American teenager set to become the youngest person to fly himself around the world in 30 days, all to raise funds for an educational charity in Pakistan By Nawied Jabarkhyl
hile most young people around the world pack away their schoolbooks and go on holiday, a US teenager is hoping to write his name into the history books by flying his own plane around the world in just 30 days. Haris Suleman, 17, and his father Babar, from Indiana in the United States, will fly around the world, passing through 30 countries in just 30 days. They are doing it to raise money for The Citizen Foundation (TCF) – a non-profit organisation in his native Pakistan, which provides low-cost education in disadvantaged areas. Since its inception in 1995, more than 145,000 children
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have been educated in TCF schools. In April, it opened its 1,000th school. “We thought it was a fantastic milestone which needed celebrating,” Babar says from Biggin Hill airport just outside London. “The work they are doing is changing the lives of so many families.” The pair have raised more than $500,000 so far and have an ambitious target of $1 million. If they succeed, Haris - who has been flying with his father since he was eight - will be the youngest ever pilot to accomplish such a challenge. “My dad actually gave me a surprise flying lesson in 2011 and ever since then I have been flying and studying to get my
Philanthrophy
licence,” he says. “In the past year, I managed to do that and have been putting in extra hours for this trip.” Babar – who will be co-pilot on the trip - says his son will be in command of the plane the entire time: “I will only take over the controls in an emergency situation.” He speaks about his son’s achievements with great pride and has full trust in the hundreds of hours of training Haris has put in. “When he first started flying with me, he couldn’t see above the windshield, but he would keep the three instruments in line,” he says. “No 17-year-old pilot has ever done a roundthe-world trip so far.” The Sulemans also aim to break the record for the fastest circumnavigation around the world in a private airplane, weather permitting. They estimate the cost of the trip will be about $70,000. Babar – who is an engineer working in the power industry - is covering the costs himself. Their journey starts in Indiana and will include stays in Canada, Iceland, the UK, the UAE, India, Thailand, and Australia before returning to the US. The father and son’s longest break will be in Pakistan, where they plan to visit some of the schools they are raising funds for. Haris says: “Hopefully we’ll get to meet some of the students who are benefitting from the project. I think that will be the most rewarding part of the month.” “Access to good education in Pakistan remains a luxury only few can afford,” says Shahab Haider, the chief executive of TCF in the UAE. “The system is so bad, the government is failing to educate millions of Pakistanis.” TCF focuses on providing access to the millions of Pakistani young people who are without a basic education. “The majority of our schools are built in poor communities,” says Haider. “When we first started, we would go into these areas and tell parents about the benefits of sending their children to school. It was something they were unaware of, and so were hesitant to get on board.” Slowly but surely many parents did and Haider believes the results managed to persuade them. “About 70 per cent of our children go on to higher education and universities.” Half of all students have to be girls and all the teachers - of which there are nearly 5,000 - are women. “Having female teachers is vital in persuading conservative parents to allow their daughters to attend school,” he adds. But as these sorts of projects prove around the world, there are far wider benefits to employing and educating women. Access to the labour market enables women’s empowerment. There is also clear evidence that educated women delay marriage and are more inclined to
“When he first started flying with me, he couldn’t see above the windshield, but he would keep the three instruments in line.”
Children from a local school in Pakistan who will benefit from Suleman’s fundraising
educate their own children. These considerations are significant anywhere in the world, not least in a country tackling a growing militant insurgency. The Sulemans are focused on successfully completing their journey and breaking a world record. But both of them know the wider purpose of their expedition. It will help educate countless Pakistani children, who would otherwise have little chance of achieving a basic human right.
2014 july / august 53
Special Report
A Princely Sum for Autism Research British millionaire Sanjay Shah hopes to raise funds for autism research though his charity Autism Rocks, which stages private concerts around the world By Natasha Tourish
ike so many wealthy philanthropists, British millionaire Sanjay Shah did not funnel his charitable contributions in any organised fashion until a personal crisis. His youngest son Nikhil was diagnosed with autism, which sharpened his focus. “I’ve been sponsoring kids in India over the past 10 years through Plan International. I would send money every month but I didn’t really have any focus on what I could do for charity other than that,” says the 43-year-old retired trader. Shah, whose parents immigrated to London from Kenya in the 1960s, grew up in the well-to-do Marylebone neighbourhood in Central London and studied medicine at King’s College before deciding he did not want to become a doctor. He says he did what all medical student deserters do and became an accountant instead. That career path was also short-lived, sacrificed in favour of the high life in the City. “My first job was for the investment bank Merrill Lynch,” says Shah. That was followed by a who’s who resume of investment banks including Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, ING and the Dutch bank Rabobank, where he worked as head of trading until he was made redundant at the height of the financial crisis in 2009. It was a turning point for Shah, who says he hated the daily grind of an office job. “I didn’t like having to go to the office every day and sit there for 10 hours, even if only half of that time I was productive. I didn’t like the commute from my home in Stanmore in North London.” And, he admits, at the time he didn’t have much prospect of getting a new job so he “took a gamble and started my own brokerage business” the same year. He says: “The only way for me to earn a living without limiting my income prospects was to become a broker but I thought rather than me doing that job for a big organisation, I’d rather start up my own business.” He rented a small office, hired a couple of graduates and traders and promised to tough it out for at least a year. “That’s how Solo Capital was born,” says Shah. Entrepreneur turned philanthropist Sanjay Shah
54 july / august 2014
Philanthropy
“I’m in a good position where I can persuade colleagues, clients and friends to donate money”
Shah with his wife Usha and his daughter Esha and sons Aman and Nikhil
Five years on, he has a net worth of $280 million and Solo Capital has offices in Dubai and London with Shah taking a back seat in the day-to-day running of the business, leaving him free to focus on his philanthropic projects and new business venture with Done Events in Dubai, which he has partnered with to organise the annual music festival Blended. “I got to the point about a year ago where [Solo Capital] was doing really well and I didn’t need to spend all my time focusing on it so I decided to take a step back. I’d say I’m retired now.” Autism Rocks In 2011, Shah and his wife Usha had to take their two-year-old son Nikhil to the doctors in Dubai when he couldn’t keep his food down. “It was a really bad week for my youngest son. He threw up everything he ate so we had to take him to hospital and he was put on a drip,” explains Shah. “They suggested that with his behaviour we should go and see a child psychologist to see if he might have a behavioural disorder like attention deficit disorder or autism. There is a well-known connection between food intolerance and autism.” Shah and his wife, who had been living on the Palm Jumeirah with their three children since 2009 after moving from North London, took their son back to the UK to see a child psychologist in Portland Hospital — one of London’s top women and children’s private hospitals — who confirmed their son’s food allergies with a blood test while another four doctors confirmed he was autistic. Shah says he sprung into action immediately and wasted no time in taking on board the psychologist’s recommendations
to get his son applied behaviour analysis (ABA) therapy “as soon as possible”. “Research shows if a child gets up to 20 hrs per week, the quicker the child will develop,” explains Shah. Once back home in Dubai, the family visited Dubai Autism Centre, a government-funded resource to support families with autistic children. However, the Shahs were told Nikhil would have to wait up to five years for the therapy he needed because of the demand on their waiting list. Fortunately for Shah, he was in a position to pay for the treatment his son needed as well as three full-time therapists who rotated shifts to look after Nikhil from morning to night. He concedes for “families who can’t afford therapy, their child won’t develop as quickly.” “I wanted to help them so I went to Dubai Autism Centre and asked what they needed. They told me I could donate money but what they needed right away was minibuses for the kids so we went out and bought them two Hyundai minibuses. “They put our son’s picture on the side of them so now we know which ones we bought if we see them driving around Dubai,” says Shah. “Then I decided there is potential for me to start raising a lot of money. I’m in a good position where I can persuade colleagues, clients and friends to donate money. I thought if I’m going to start raising larger amounts of money I’d rather it gets focused into something.” Shah says with his medical background, he is more interested in finding the causes of autism above helping families with autistic children. “Out here there is a lot of support already
2014 july / august 55
Special Report
Brothers Aman, six, and Nikhil, five
for families and I personally think there isn’t enough money going into research.” With more free time on his hands, Shah started thinking about how he could get into the music scene in Dubai both as a business venture and as a way of raising awareness and donations for autism. “While I was at university I spent a lot of time and effort as a DJ running nightclubs during the week. I am never going to make a million dollars doing it but it’s something that is fun.” In true entrepreneurial spirit, Shah got in touch with Done Events, a Dubai-based government backed event organiser. His first proposal for a reggae music festival was turned down on the basis there was no market for it but after a brainstorming session with Done’s management, they agreed to go 50-50 into a “jazz type festival” venture called Blended that took place this year over a weekend in May and targeted the 40-plus demographic. Shah himself invested $1million in the two-night event, which attracted a few thousand revellers and saw headliners Joss Stone and Elvis Costello perform in Dubai Media City’s amphitheatre. He hopes it will become an annual event on Dubai’s music calendar. While Shah’s partnership with Done events is purely commercial, he plans to draw on their network of showbusiness contacts to stage a series of concerts to raise money and awareness for the Autism Research Trust in the UK, the charity which donates directly to the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge University. After Done Events put him in touch with Prince, Shah
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managed, in under three weeks, to launch his own charity Autism Rocks and staged a top-secret opening concert with the superstar headlining in London’s Café de Paris for a host of VIP guests. “At the time I was in the process of organising a charity dinner at the Ritz in London for my clients. I asked the guy if Prince could do it in April at the Ritz and rather than the planned 70 people, to see if we could get 200 to 300 people and get them to donate £500 or £1,000 each. I was pretty sure we could raise a lot for the charity. “It’s almost like a business. I want to put on concerts that will then generate donations. That is outside the mandate of the Autism Research Trust, of which I am a trustee on the board, but because we had so little time to get approval for the Prince concert, we decided to set up our own charity Autism Rocks.” Shah invited 600 people to the launch event in Café de Paris, including British comedians Alan Carr and Michael McIntyre, and raised £200,000 for Autism Rocks. “The idea for future events is to go to artists and say we are going to pay you anyway but instead of doing a 10,000-person concert at Wembley stadium or a big event in Dubai, we want a smaller event for 500 to 1,000 people and everyone is going to pay a lot of money to charity to attend that event. “Now that I have my own charity, I can direct the money to whichever research projects we want, whether in Europe or the US. We have a board of another four people in London so it is not just me that decides where the money goes.” Shah’s ultimate goal is to create an Autism Rocks compilation album by next year with various pop artists donating a track.
Cover story
Your Ideal Stay at Park Hyatt Istanbul - Maรงka Palas
2014 july / august 57
Special Report
Muna Harib, founder of Breathing Numbers in the Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan
Not Just A Number Muna Harib has brought the faces and stories of Syrian refugees to light through her non-profit organisation Breathing Numbers By Madeleine Lee
ith the conflict in Syria escalating day by day, the UN estimates the number of Syrian refugees - the vast majority of whom are children - is expected to hit three million over the next few months. But for Muna Harib, the 37-year-old founder of Breathing Numbers, statistics are a cold, mathematical measure of war. She wants to tell the living stories of the Syrians forced to flee their country - the stories behind the numbers. Breathing Numbers was born in May last year while Harib was watching the news in her living room. She had reached the
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point, she explains, where she had almost become desensitised to the war until, one evening, she heard 100,000 Syrians had been killed. “It was like a reality check and I felt like I had lost my humanity,” says Emirati Harib, who says her calling came from God. “One thing I could do was to change the way people think of those numbers and bring life to them.” She travelled to the Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan, armed with just her backpack and camera with the sole aim of making a documentary. She had little inkling her idea would evolve into something much more. Using social media as a way
Philanthropy
of making contacts and finding a way into the camps, she met Mahmoud Sadaka, a Palestinian refugee, and began to film stories of the children and families she met. But what started as the intention to make a simple documentary escalated into what she describes as a full-blown humanitarian act. Harib, who also heads the global communications team at Taqa, Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, began to focus on medical cases in particular, work which continues to this day. Through partnerships with doctors and hospitals, Harib helps match artificial legs to those who have lost limbs in the war. She has also struck a deal with a local doctor who carries out free eye operations and provides glasses to children while the Italian Hospital in Amman has an account into which donors can pay money to fund operations. While Breathing Numbers has not yet been registered as a charity, Harib hopes that could be in place by the end of the year. However, the initiative is
due to be brought under the umbrella of a major organisation in the near future, which she will not yet name, to give further support and help ramp up the work that needs to get done. Today, there are 52 volunteers in Dubai and Jordan with some high-profile supporters in the UAE. Since its inception, Breathing Numbers has delivered 1,300 blankets, 200 heaters and 265 caravans to Zaatari. Harib’s next project is an ambitious one: she plans to replace all the tents in the refugee camps with caravans. In the freezing Jordanian winters, many refugees struggle to keep warm and having a caravan rather than a tent, which can flood, is a more humane option. The challenge she faces is that one caravan costs around Dh8,625 ($2,348) to buy during the winter. She is optimistic costs will come down this summer, when she hopes to deliver the next batch. Beyond this year, the future is unknown. Harib does not believe in long-term planning, preferring to work on a day-to-day basis: “I started
2014 july / august 59
A young boy plays in the Zaatari refugee camp
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Named after a young Jordanian girl who lost all her hair from fear, the project’s mascot is a flame-haired doll crafted as a beacon of hope.
this because my heart told me to do something. What’s next, I have no idea. “The biggest thing about Breathing Numbers is to encourage action. Direct help from us can only do this much. We need collaboration. If humanitarian efforts can help save lives, that’s all I can hope for.” The power of collaboration can be seen through her partnership with GlamOnYou, a luxury fashion house in Dubai, to develop the Amal project. Named after a young Jordanian girl who lost all her hair from fear, the project’s mascot is a flame-haired doll crafted as a beacon of hope. The aim of the initiative is to buy four caravans, paint them and fill them with books, colouring pencils, paints, toys and games so children in the camps have a sanctuary. There are no signs of slowing down with the rest of the year promising to be just as busy. Harib also hopes to establish a children’s centre offering therapy and psychological help to children with trauma and special needs. Harib’s documentary is on the backburner for now. Meanwhile, she says everyone can do their bit to help: “To change the world around you, you don’t have to depend on NGO. Everyone can change the world around them and do their part.”
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Philanthropy
Philanthropy at the Price of a Coffee Giving as little as $1 can change the world, says media and telecoms magnate Tariq Qureishy By Tahira Yaqoob
ike many wealthy, successful philanthropists, it was a series of seismic events in Tariq Qureishy’s life that stopped him in his tracks on his career-driven path and made him reflect on the legacy he wanted to leave behind. The first was his father Mumtaz, a former army colonel, being diagnosed with bowel cancer, a disease which eventually killed him at 84 after a six-year battle. The second was the sudden death at 42 of his sister Uzma Husain, who fell sick and died overnight from a mystery illness while visiting Qureishy in Dubai. The knock-on effect for the rest of the family was tremendous, with one sister unable to cope and Qureishy’s mother Ayesha, now 79, left bereft. Qureishy himself, the founder and chief executive of Vantage Holdings, a marketing and consultancy firm for media and telecoms businesses, found himself piling on weight and struggling to be the family anchor he once was. “I was close to rock bottom,” he says. “It was a big personal tragedy and when that happened, a lot of things changed in my life.” But if the saying that out of tragedy comes good has any truth, it galvanised Qureishy, 50, into action to launch a notfor-profit social enterprise. Called 100%Mad - which stands for making a difference while the 100 per cent refers to every cent raised going directly to charity rather than being absorbed in administration costs - it aims to help the disadvantaged around the world by encouraging micro donations of a dollar via a mobile phone app or text message. The businessman is applying all the entrepreneurial skills he has learned during a lengthy career, which includes launching The Times newspaper in the Middle East as its publisher and holding the regional sales contract for Bloomberg TV and multimedia, to his foundling idea of tapping into a youth demographic for the campaign to raise money. “We are starting a youth movement,” he says at his office in Dubai’s Media City, where the glass walls are covered with his frantic scribbles in marker pen as he jots down ideas. “We needed to find a way to target a group that feels
disenfranchised. A dollar is a cup of coffee, a small amount you don’t think about. “If you have to think about the money you are donating, it is too high.” Qureishy, who studied economics and accountancy, has set his sights on raising $1 billion. And if that seems preposterous for a new charitable venture, one has only to think of the fact there are six billion active mobile phone users in the world. If only one sixth were to donate $1 each, he would hit his target.
“If you have to think about the money you are donating, it is too high.” Tariq Qureishy, founder of not-for-profit 100%Mad
Pakistani-born Qureishy himself admits there is donation fatigue, particularly among the older generation, and is tapping into the youth market because they are media savvy and he believes they want to be part of the conversation. And if he likes to think big, it is because the executive is a devotee of leadership courses, which encourage participants to aim high and - rather surprisingly for a driven career man - takes a holistic approach to his enterprises. He starts the day with a “power hour” of meditation, inspirational videos and exercise. And his ideas for charitable schemes have stemmed as a result of courses he embarked on at the time of his personal crises. During one in 1998, while working as regional director for
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Special Report
Dow Jones Markets, he was sent on a month-long programme in Philadelphia, where participants were asked to write their epitaph. “It was boot camp,” he says. “We were on our knees. We were doing well in our lives and the last thing we worried about was death. “I got stuck. I thought, I am super successful in a more traditional sense heading a massive region and why am I not satisfied? That was where I had my epiphany of wanting to serve and give back.” That sense of wanting to do more came back to haunt him when he visited Pakistan in 2001 to help doctor friends treating children with cancer and realised signing cheques was not enough. When his father was diagnosed with cancer shortly afterward, he moved to Dubai to be closer to him and launched his mobile phone consultancy, i2i Group. That sowed the seeds for his idea to use phones to donate to charity but the first incarnation in 2003, called Mobile Aid Development, failed to attract many donors. With less than one billion mobile phone users at the time, it did not hit the $100,000 mark and was put on the back burner when stricter charity regulations were introduced in the UAE. It did, however, give him his acronym for his latest initiative.
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“I don’t see problems, I see things to create a solution around,” says Qureishy. “I just changed the business model.” He enlisted the support of high-profile patrons such as mindmapping expert and author Tony Buzan, Chicken Soup for the Soul co-author Jack Canfield - whose leadership course Qureishy attended in 2012 after his sister’s death - and Deepak Chopra. The executive is also in talks with Google and Facebook about targeting their users to increase donations. His enterprise will be launched in September with initial funds going to Charity: Water, One Drop, Water.org and the Global Citizen Foundation (global-citizen.org) A year later, he hopes to organise a series of concerts around the world with top-ranking stars. Qureishy, who eventually hopes to hand over to a chief executive under 30, plans to eliminate any administration costs through selling merchandise, ticketed events and crowdfunding sites like Indiegogo. He says business skills like his are vital to philanthropy: “The future of philanthropy is entrepreneurship. “You need business skills to raise $1 billion without spending a penny. This engages every ounce of my being.”
Photo courtesy of Team Sager
Philanthropy
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Involve. Evolve. Empower. 2014 july / august 65
Special Report
Aristocratic STYLE Belgian philanthropist Baroness Myriam Ullens de Schooten and her husband, Baron Guy Ullens, are among the world’s biggest owners of Chinese contemporary art. The founder of the Mimi Ullens Foundation talks to GC
yriam Ullens is the kind of women who makes the world better. Elegant, smiling, easygoing, accessible, she is also extremely generous. For her, it is not a question of philosophy, more a way of life. “I’m not doing everything I do to feel better or, as many do, to give back something,” she says. “It is because I really feel concerned. If I could change everything and start again from scratch, I would be a doctor.” The woman her friends and staff call by her nickname Mimi is so humble, she rarely speaks publicly about her charitable works, even though her life would make fascinating reading. That could soon change though as Ullens, 61, has already secretly written a 1,000-page family saga, a manuscript she keeps for the moment hidden in a drawer, until the right time comes. She did not start out in life as blessed as she is now. Raising two children alone, she was struggling to make ends meet. Her passion for food and her skills as a cook led her to launch a pastry workshop. Soon she was working up to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, struggling between her business and her family. “I was looking for investors to develop my small business and that’s when I met Guy,” she recalls. She fell in love with her business partner, Baron Guy Ullens de Schooten Whettnall, 79, a Belgian aristocrat, heir to an important industrial family and billionaire. But it was nearly 10 years before they actually got together and married in 1999. “Guy asked me to quit my company. I accepted but told him I was going to get involved in philanthropy instead.” Life quickly changed but not in the way one would expect for a newly crowned billionaire. Ullens became transfixed on helping those less fortunate. One day in Nepal where she was visiting a friend with her husband, she was struck by the large number of orphans and the poor conditions they were living in so decided on the spur of the moment to open an orphanage. “I did not want to create another humanitarian association or structure so I checked who was involved and partnered with a Nepalese NGO,” she says. For the past 25 years, she has continued her involvement in Nepal, where she goes regularly to oversee operations. “Now we have other orphanages and care centres. But we also opened Guy Ullens and Myriam Ullens at their Mimi Foundation ‘The Power of Love’ gala dinner and auction at Sotheby’s in London 66 july / august 2014
Image courtesy of Gettyimages
By Thibault Mortier
Philanthropy
Ullens has already secretly written a 1,000-page family saga, a manuscript she keeps for the moment hidden in a drawer, until the right time comes. schools and the fees help finance the other operations.” Her good friend Guy Savoy, the Parisian three Michelin star chef, says of her: “Whenever she comes into a room, she fills the whole place with her joy and laughter.” It was this same spirit that carried Ullens through a devastating blow in 2003 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She briefly refers to that period saying: “I was ill for a few years. When I was cured, I decided to devote some of my time to accompany patients who come across difficult times.” Ullens struggled for five years with a tumour and underwent several bouts of chemotherapy. She admits she thought she was going to die because she was so tired and weak. It was the first time that she had to put other people’s battles aside and fight for herself. But true to form, she did not wallow, instead forming the Mimi Ullens Foundation in 2008, which has helped nearly 20,000 patients. “We partner with hospitals, in Belgium, France and Switzerland to help cancer patients fight against their illness,” she says. “Not medically, though, but offering assistance in everyday life to keep them going. It is a really important issue.” Ullens regularly hosts charity dinners and auctions throughout the world to raise money for her foundation. She cites Bill and Melinda Gates as philanthropy models, saying they are “an example for all of us”. From time to time, she gets involved in exhibitions from her husband’s art collection in China. “We composed it together. When we started going there in the early 1990s, Chinese contemporary art was not as fashionable. Nobody was interested. Artists hid themselves in the aftermath of 1989. We would visit them in very hidden places, looking at the paintings with a torch in a staircase or a parking lot.” As a result of her extensive travels and the discovery of the most refined cashmere wool in Asia, Ullens decided to create a capsule collection of fashion for women called Maison Ullens with her granddaughter Laurence. She started with a few pieces
The opening of the Ullens kindergarden school in Nepal
and a small showroom before hiring stylist Veronique Leroy. Her luxurious nomadic ready-to-wear apparel in leather and cashmere is aimed at frequent flyers like herself who want to feel comfortable yet chic. With a flagship store in Paris and plans to expand to the US, Russia, Italy and the UAE, the social entrepreneur says her goal is “to create enough revenue from my fashion brand to pay the expenses of my Mimi Foundation”. In the meantime, the power couple continue to fly from Brussels to Beijing, from Paris to Verbier, where they live, or the Maldives, where they like to spend time in the winter on their magnificent sailing yacht. Although on paper they are every inch the European socialites, when you meet the couple and watch Myriam spend two hours cooking a pasta gratin in the kitchen and talk about her orphanage in Nepal, you can’t help but feel they are the polar opposite.
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Sowing the Seeds for Future Generations Three Michelin starred French chef Yannick Alléno journeys to Madagascar to teach its poor how to cook basic recipes By Thibault Mortier
n less than five years, Yannick Alléno has become the poster boy of French haute cuisine on the international culinary scene. The chef manages 14 restaurants on three continents, including three Michelin star restaurants in Paris and two in Courchevel in the French Alps. When he is not in the kitchen, he dedicates his time to teaching children and young apprentices. After a two-year hiatus after leaving his post at the famed Palace Brongniart - one of Paris’ most statured buildings owned by the Sultan of Brunei -Alléno’s return to haute cuisine at Ledoyen made national headlines. Not that he was unemployed. The 45-year-old chef manages 1947 Cheval Blanc in Courchevel (an LVMH luxury hotel), STAY by Yannick Alléno in Dubai’s One & Only The Palm,
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Terroir Parisien bistro in Paris, Taipei in Beijing and Le Grande Table Marocaine in the Royal Mansour, Marrakech. In 2008, he created the Yannick Alléno Group together with Florence Cane to transport French gastronomy abroad. But it wasn’t enough for the Parisian chef who was brought up in the western suburbs of Paris by his chef parents and became passionate about cooking from a young age. “I really want to give my passion for haute cuisine to the younger generation.” Alléno credits French chef Gabriel Biscay for “opening the doors of the world to him” as he got him his first apprenticeship at the age of 15 in Relais Louis XIII under chef Manuel Martinez. “I feel it is my duty to take care of the newcomers and pass
Social Business
on the knowledge I received from others. But I want them to feel free and decide their future. I am not doing this to keep young cooks under my rule. “They come to us because they are looking for something important from us. I try to be generous in what I offer them. Some find an opportunity to work with me but many leave and create their own restaurants, and I am equally happy,” he says. Many of the new star cooks that have emerged in the past years in France, have been trained by Alléno, including Adeline Grattard (Yam’Tcha, Paris), Philippe Mille (Les Crayeres, Reims) and Gael Orieux (Auguste, Paris). “Many of them have their own Michelin stars,” explains Alléno. “They are brilliant, they are trained, they know how to create recipes and compose a menu. I find it very rewarding.” Alléno wishes he had more spare time to coach youngsters or give lessons at the Paul Bocuse culinary institute, as he used to do several years ago. “I lack time to really teach in class but last winter in Courchevel we trained 15 cooks. We make sure at the end of the winter season they have a job at one of our other restaurants. “If not, we have agreements with other chefs who take members of our staff. What we do is teach them how a three Michelin star kitchen works as a part of their training.” Back at Le Meurice, he had launched Palace Cite, an initiative aimed at training teenagers from abandoned Parisian neighbourhoods. He spent a lot of energy on selecting 10 trainees out of 400 candidates. Of his pupils, only one is still cooking. “He is a great cook. He will undoubtedly have a great career,” says Alléno, who was somewhat discouraged by the outcome of the operation. Nevertheless, it hasn’t deterred the Parisian chef from finding other ways to help future cooks: “We must not force people. We just need to suggest they come and keep them motivated.” Twice a year, he appears in a French reality TV show because he believes chefs need to remain accessible and encourage talented hard workers. “If the kids ask for help, I try to open doors for them. But they have to be highly motivated, because it’s a tough job.” Yam, the monthly magazine Alléno launched three years ago, is another good example of what he does for future chefs throughout the world, in the sense it democratises the access to recipes and knowledge for cooks who don’t have $100 to spend on a chef’s cookbook. A few weeks ago, Alléno was in Hong Kong where he cooked a gala dinner to support 800 low wage construction workers. This is exactly the spirit of Pachamama, a non-profit in Madagascar dedicated to helping locals grow vegetables and learn the basics of cooking through a culinary school that Alléno has helped set up on the island. Drawn to the cause by his close
friend, Jean Francois Tordo, a former captain of the French national rugby team, Alléno has raised €170,000 ($231,360) for the NGO. “In Madagascar, the soil is too burnt to grow rice. Pachamama helps people grow other things and use the earth in a more efficient way to produce other resources. They have created a farm and founded what could be one day a real cooking school.” After his visit in July 2010, Alléno selected three young cooks to train in France at the famed Institut Paul Bocuse in Paris for one year and after their training, secured an internship for
“I feel it is my duty to take care of the newcomers and pass on the knowledge I received from others. ”
Yannick Alléno filming his experience in Madagascar
them for three months with him at Le Meurice so they could put their skills to the test in a Michelin starred restaurant before going back to Madagascar to transfer their skills and hopefully train local cooks to breathe new life into the tourism industry. “The three are still there, showing the youngest how to cook. There is a high demand for qualified cooks in the country and the association helps to train them. It is a drop in the ocean but a drop that means a lot in a world for which profit and bottom line are the common rule,” says Alléno.
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Through the eyes of innocents Children who have been living in refugee camps in the West Bank tell their stories in pictures with the help of three UAE photographers as part of the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund summer camp programme
aving a camera pointed at them by a foreign photojournalist isn’t an unfamiliar sight for most of the children growing up in the Nur Shams refugee camp in the West Bank. But when the tables were turned and volunteers from the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) handed out new Canon digital cameras to “play with” during the annual summer camp the organisation hosts, it was a rare sight. Three photographers and videographers travelled from the UAE to Palestine in late June to photograph and film the PCRF summer camps and run a photography workshop with the children. “The idea of the workshops was to teach the children how to tell a story through photos, write a storyboard and basic photography techniques,” explains Mazen Aloul, UAE spokesperson for the PCRF. The purpose of these camps is to not only give poor children living in refugee camps in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan activities that enable them to enjoy life and their childhood, but also to integrate disabled young people with the able-bodied. “The children work in pairs – disabled and healthy children – in order to bring down barriers and encourage understanding, respect and friendships.”
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Dubai-based freelance photographer Ivana Maglione says: “We used simple point and shoot digital cameras, not focusing too much on how to use them but on how to create stories. “The first morning we did the theory part on how to create visual stories and the children put this on a storyboard, which was used on the second day to turn their stories from a written one to a visual one.” Maglione said that while the conditions in the camp were basic, the host families took great care of them and she was emotional leaving them behind. She says: “The volunteer host families lived in varying degrees of poverty. They had running water but sometimes no windows in the entire flat. My family shared a bathroom with the neighbour. “Living in Dubai away from our families we often attach happiness to material things. Personally I was reminded of what is really important in life.” This workshop will lead to an exhibition at the Nur Shams refugee camp, as well as an exhibition in Dubai in September to enhance awareness of PCRF. The summer camps are among many humanitarian projects PCRF organises in the region alongside its core work, which supplies medical help to sick and injured children in the Arab world.
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lifestyle
C-Explorer 3 (300m)
Dutch company U-Boat Worx has made the deepest depths of the ocean accessible by creating ‘personal submarines’ that are ideal for yachts, tourist ventures, research missions and for private recreation. Their latest model is the C-Explorer 3, which, as the name suggests, is equipped for three people — one pilot and two passengers to explore up to 1000 feet (300 meters). A lithium ion battery has extended the amount of dive time on a single charge to 12 hours, with a full recharge taking just six hours. The single point lifting mechanism means that the sub is much easier to deploy and allows it to be carried on board smaller super yachts.
Price $2.5 million
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gizmos & gadgets
Vertu Signature Touch
Vertu has collaborated with some of the most creative minds in the business to develop their new Signature Touch. The Bang & Olufsen speakers now face the front, as opposed to the side, which pump out the sweet melodies recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra as your ringtone in Dolby Digital Plus surround sound. Another big collaboration, Vertu teamed up with renowned camera maker Hasselblad to help optimise its imaging performance for its 13-megapixel main camera and 2.1 megapixel Skype compliant front camera.
Starting price from $10,300 for Jet Leather (black and silver) to $21,900 for “Pure Jet Red Gold� edition (black and gold)
Herman Miller Mirra 2
The butterfly-backed, climate controlled Mirra 2 has numerous methods of support and responsiveness to get you comfortably through your workday and advance your posture. The chair accommodates anyone weighing up to 150 kg with its adjustable handles and makes switching positions to alter back support a smooth process with a set of lumber dials on its spine that reinforce the lower-back support. The winning feature however, is the wide, high back that cradles the shoulders while promoting healthy posture and allowing air to flow around the body.
Available in eight colours, $845
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Hot Wheels Dubbed the future of the supercar, the i8 is bursting with technology and balances environmental concerns By Simon de Burton
ne has only to look at the latest Formula One cars to see the future of high performance motoring seems to lie in optimised smaller capacity combustion engines paired with auxiliary electric motors. The technology has already filtered down to road car design, notably in the form of the LaFerrari and McLaren P1 hybrid supercars, both of which cost seven-figure sums. But the (marginally) less well-heeled who want to experience the thrills of a thoroughbred hybrid sports car shouldn’t despair because BMW’s much-anticipated i8 has finally arrived - and after driving it from the traffic-clogged streets of Los Angeles to the testing twists of some of California’s most challenging canyon roads, I can tell you it has been well worth the wait. BMW is calling it “the future of the supercar” and it probably is. Looking for all the world like it belongs on a life-sized Hot Wheels track, the i8 combines an ultra-rigid, carbon fibre passenger cell
with lightweight, aluminium underpinnings to provide 50-50 weight distribution that really does offer the sort of on-rails handling that will have you seeking out the back roads. Situated behind the surprisingly spacious two-plus-two cabin is a neat, three-cylinder, 1500cc, 231 horsepower, turbocharged petrol engine which drives the rear wheels while, hanging down low beneath the space which would ordinarily be called the bonnet, is a small but potent electric motor which drives the front ones. Used in purely electric eDrive mode, the i8 makes for a nippy cross-town commuter that can travel up to 22 miles on a single charge and touch 75mph. After that, there are comfort, eco pro and sport modes which offer varying combinations of petrol and electric power to provide anything from ultra-economical long range cruising to adrenalineinducing high speed driving. BMW claims the i8 will return the equivalent of 135 miles per
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auto
gallon, which is decidedly impressive for a car with a restricted top speed of 155mph. At least, it would be impressive, were it not for the fact the best fuel economy I could manage was a far-fromfrugal 40 miles per gallon, while the figure was actually well below 30mpg for the majority of my 150-mile drive. The problem lies with the fact that the official numbers are produced under controlled conditions, not in real world driving. I don’t doubt it would be possible to achieve the claimed 135mpg figure but to do so it would be necessary to make a lot of short, in-town journeys in all-electric mode, charging the batteries in between. Because once you’ve used up your 22-mile electric range, you’re back to running on good old-fashioned petrol. So if you’re expecting to be able to enjoy sustained supercar performance for less than the price of running a Fiat 500, think
Designer Luggage In keeping with the i8’s futuristic look, high-tech petrol-electric power train and carbon fibre bodywork, the luggage too is made from the now ubiquitous material that was once reserved for Formula One cars and space rockets. Produced by Louis Vuitton, the i8’s luggage set comprises two weekend bags, a suit bag and a business case, all of which are designed to sit, fit and stack perfectly inside the car’s load area. And, with carbon fibre weighing just 600gm per square metre, it’s only the weight of what you fill them up with that’s likely to slow you down.
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again. If, however, you decide to buy an i8 on the basis that it is both the most advanced car of its type currently available and that it offers a superb driving experience, then you won’t be disappointed. Its sheer versatility in being able to transform from an emissionsfree, all electric (short range) commuter car to a pure driving machine with nothing more than the flick of a switch is truly impressive. And in full-on petrol mode, it really sounds the part - although its sporty growl is actually down to the fact that its exhaust note is synthesiser-enhanced. But perhaps the most exciting thing about the i8 is the fact that it offers a massive leap towards the future in terms of hybrid sports car technology. As such, it deserves to go down in history as an automotive landmark.
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art
Spatial Awareness The works of Lucio Fontana, founder of the spatialism movement, are being featured in a retrospective at the Musee d’Arte Moderne in Paris By Marina Iordan
ucio Fontana is often regarded as one of the originators of the idea of art as a gesture or performance rather than a physical work. Now for the first time in nearly three decades, the works of Fontana, the founder of the spatialism movement and one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, will be shown in Paris again. The retrospective hosted by the Musee d’Art Moderne presents more than 200 sculptures, paintings and installations, including many artworks displayed for the first time. This exhibition is part of the museum’s efforts to rediscover major artists of the 20th century who have been overlooked or reduced to one style or period. Curator Choghakate Kazarian says: “Compared to the 1987 exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, our show is bigger and more focused on sculpture, with many figurative works that were absent back then. We also got major funding that was not circulating at that time.” Although today Fontana is mostly recognised for Concetti Spaziale, a series of slashed canvases from 1949, he started as a sculptor. Born in 1899 in Argentina to Italian parents, he practiced alongside his father before moving on to his own expressionist sculptures of ceramic and bronze.
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art
In 1947, Fontana returned to Italy after the Second World War and presented his revolutionary Concetti Spaziale the following year. Fontana was a master of several mediums. His prolific career is highlighted at the museum’s exhibition, guiding the visitor across more than 13 of his artistic cycles. The common thread in all of his works is the idea of space and movement. Whether in his brightly coloured canvases, his phosphorescent installations, or in the glistening and highly reflective surfaces of his sculptural work, he indicated the fluctuation of matter and its diffusion into the space that surrounds us. “I have created an infinite dimension,” he declared after perforating his first canvas in 1949. This revolutionising gesture was the crux of the White Manifesto, written by Fontana while living in Argentina and explaining the importance of integrating modern technology and art. “The hole is my invention and that’s that. After this invention, I can die,” he wrote. A walk through MAM and Fontana’s retrospective provokes a range of experiences. The bright, almost industrial-looking, atypical colours chosen for his canvases, the glittering surfaces of his ceramics and sculptures and the phosphorescent installations forming his Ambienti Spaziale reveal the artist’s ever-changing styles. Beyond the visual impact is an invitation to explore one’s perception of space and matter, as the artist intended. Light reflecting off surfaces or piercing through them hints at the idea of movement. Fontana used his whole body in his creative process and the energy put into it resonates from every single piece. Lucio Fontana: Retrospective runs at Musee d’art Moderne in Paris until August 24.
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yacht
Dreamboat
The Viriella fulfils one entrepreneur’s 20-year passion
talian entrepreneur Vittorio Moretti first started taking sailing lessons at the age of 40 during a rather sedate family holiday in Forte dei Marmi on Italy’s Tuscan coast. A passion with sailing soon ensued. Over time, Moretti collected several smaller sailing vessels but it was only at the age of 60 that he was able to purchase his dream racer-cruiser yacht, the Viriella. This elegant sailing yacht, built by the Italian shipbuilder Maxi Dolphin and designed by the architect German Frers, was launched during the Rolex Cup at Porto Cervo in 2001 before taking part in the races in St Tropez. After this series of exhaustive tests, the boat was finally put on the market, where Moretti bought it. The Viriella, composed of composite material and 36m in length, is as luxurious as it is a high performer on the water. The sail plan and the entire rigging have been designed to make handling the yacht as easy as possible. A small crew of four is sufficient to comfortably sail it in cruising mode.
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Natural light floods the interiors through the ports and hatches, illuminating the sleek maple and pear wooden interior. Viriella’s accommodation includes four spacious ensuite cabins. The large owner’s cabin contains a private studio and office space. There are two double guest cabins and an additional guest cabin with three beds. The central living area of the yacht, comprised of a large saloon in the deck house, leads to the dining room located toward the stern on the starboard side. The crew’s quarters are also in the stern. This sailing yacht also boasts excellent facilities for entertaining. It sports the latest in audiovisual equipment. The full canopy over the cockpit is ideal for taking in the stunning views. But the piece de resistance is the large deck area, which includes a magnificent aft swimming platform and deck shower, perfect for sunbathing while sailing the seven seas.
art
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hotels
restorative retreats Recharge mentally and physically this summer and escape with a restorative break at a wellness retreat
Sha Wellness Resort Alicante, Spain This mountainside retreat overlooking the Mediterranean is a modernist marvel in white and chrome. Though the chic surroundings might look like a holiday resort, the main purpose of this hideaway is its carefully designed wellness programme. The medical staff include dozens of doctors and alternative medicine practitioners. Guests come seeking relief from issues varying from weight loss and a need to detox to medical conditions such as addiction management or cancer. The core of the programme is a
macrobiotic diet, which the owner Alfredo Bataller credits with restoring his own health after being diagnosed with cancer. Head chef Pablo Montoro, formerly of El Bulli, is able to create flavourful and satisfying dishes despite the limiting palette. Even simple activities such as soaking up the sun by the infinity pool or taking an early morning walk to the Albir lighthouse have profoundly healing qualities. Sha introductory wellness packages from $1,300 per person. Room rates from $400 for double occupancy.
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hotels
Kamalaya Koh Samui, Thailand No longer just a global party destination, Koh Samui has been repositioning itself as a refuge for world-weary spa devotees. Kamalaya, a retreat located in an undeveloped southeast portion of the island, focuses on creating an environment for long-term personal growth, healing and rejuvenation. It resonates with calming energy. Buddhist monks once used the cave temple at its heart as a place of meditation and spiritual retreat. The resort’s architecture blends seamlessly with the tropical jungle
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foliage. The experience of walking past the trickling lily ponds and bathing pools, down the hillside to a pristine stretch of white sand can only be described as magical. The stylish villas and suites are interspersed in the jungle, along with steam rooms, rock pools, yoga pavilions, massage beds and tai chi classes. While promising to ‘unfold the spirit’, it is unashamedly luxurious. Beachside villas from $1,000 per night
Amangiri Canyon Point, Utah Amangiri, which means peaceful mountain, is located on 600 acres of the Colorado Plateau, a terrain of spectacularly eroded rock formations created 180 million years ago. The resort is tucked into a protected valley with sweeping views towards the Grand Staircase, a layer cake of sedimentary rock formations. With deep canyons, towering plateaus and the constantly changing light of the desert, it is impossible not to be awestruck by the resort’s dramatic and otherworldly surroundings. Amangiri’s wellness programme includes daily guided hikes, yoga classes, afternoon matbased strength and stretch classes and access to facilities at the fitness and water pavilions. With only 34 suites, it promises a more exclusive reprieve from the outside world. Desert view suites from $1,500 per night
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dining
Light Bites It’s time to leave the fussy fine dining behind and dress down for dinner. Here are some of the best casual eateries around town
Fume This delightful restaurant is the latest homegrown venture of the JAS group, which brought us Qbara. Fume embodies laidback cool with an industrial-style interior and vintage decor with quirky touches, such as a bar with whisky barrel flooring. All of the seafood and meat smoking is done onsite using coconut husks as charcoal in the Coco barbecue imported from Bali. The results are superb. A smoked peppered mackerel spread, which arrives in its own tin, is a gourmet spin on what used to be a cheap snack. The beef cheek rendang is a meltingly tender and aromatic rendition of the Malaysian classic. Pier 7, Dubai Marina, +971 4 421 5669
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dining
kauai In a city that’s known for its excess, eating healthily can be a challenge. The answer could be Kauai, a South African chain which has opened its first outpost in the region. The menu of sandwiches, wraps and smoothies contain no trans fat and can accommodate carnivores, vegans and vegetarians alike. The kitchen is a strict no-fry zone; the fattiest item there is the wholesome avocado. Try
the superfood salad, a colourful mix of fruit and vegetables that can easily fulfil your five-a-day quota. The peanut butter bomb smoothie, with a whopping 63gm of protein, is sure to replenish after a workout. Park Island, Dubai Marina, +971 4 800 52824
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Tom & Serg Tom Arnel and Sergio Lopez, both Jones the Grocer alumni, bring a casual hipster vibe to this Al Quoz eatery. The minimally appointed warehouse style space is bright and airy. The lower floor has a lively cafe setting while the upper floor, with its exposed brick walls and leather sofas, is ideal for getting some work done on your laptop. The menu is comprised of inventive and wholesome lunch fare. The banh mi, with its slow-braised beef brisket, piquant pickles and pillow-soft bun, is a must-try. The salmon, quinoa and asparagus salad topped with grapefruit wasabi dressing ensures you’ll have your fill of Omega-3s. They also take their coffee seriously in this establishment, with a bearded and tattooed barista who ranks among the best in the UAE. If you want your milk to be hotter, the menu declares staff will be happy to help you “out the door”. And don’t even think about asking for low fat milk. Al Joud Centre, Street 15a, Al Quoz 3 +971 50 367 5332
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dining
Eat greek The restaurant’s name is actually a command but we would happily do so in this charming establishment that encourages friends and family to linger over homestyle cuisine. Located at The Beach JBR, the decor is reminiscent of breezy Greek islands. A nautical theme plays prominently, olive trees flank the corners and a feature wall is composed of reclaimed window shutters. The menu has a varied selection of Greek classics and hot and cold mezze. The
grilled octopus is tender and served alongside a bean relish. Do not miss the tomato jam, lemon cream and mastic ice cream dessert - a curious combination of ingredients that conceptually shouldn’t work but marry together beautifully. The Beach JBR +971 4 430 5249
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little black book
Little Black Book KIPTON CRONKITE Curator, art advisor and tech entrepreneur, Kipton Cronkite has carved a niche in connecting young artists with the fast moving world of contemporary art through his e-commerce platform @60” Cronkite, who is curating an artistic pop-up project in Sag Harbor, New York, has been summering in the Hamptons for the last 13 years.
Beach party The newly renovated Gurney’s Montauk Resort is back on the map. I love being able to sip champagne on the beach or dance to a DJ during late nights in the summer.
Coffee date ernoon business I schedule my aft e Ambroeus becaus meetings at Sant s ay alw is ere I know the atmosph n count on the ca I d an al ion ss profe coffee. of p perfect cu
90 july / august 2014
The best lobster rolls are at Dock House on the water in Sag Harbor. There’s no better place to have a lobster roll than sitting on the water here during the summer.
Images courtesy of Corbis / ArabianEye.com
Al fresco
little black book
Equestrian delights A premier destination for horse people, the Hampton Classic Horse Show is one of the largest outdoor horse shows in the US. It’s one of the best ways to catch up with friends from around the world and by far my favourite way to end the summer.
Historical sights One of my favourite sights around town are the windmills scattered around the Hamptons in Water Mill, Bridgehampton and East Hampton. Driving around the Hamptons wouldn’t be the same without the historical windmills scattered throughout around the area.
Culture vulture One of the Hamptons’ best kept secrets, the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill contains 12,200 square feet of exhibition space and seven sky-lit galleries devoted to the permanent collection showcasing the story of America’s most enduring and influential artists’ colony—Eastern Long Island.
The Hamptons are special because one can be as social or as private as one wants to be while having every opportunity to have a great time anywhere you go.
Going for a stroll Early in the morning as the sun rises or late at night in the moonlight is my favourite time to take a quiet walk on Gibson Beach in Sagaponack.
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DESIGN
GREY MATTER Allure chair, Matteo Nunziati for Molteni & C, $3,800
Layering tones is as perennially chic as it is calming
Daybed, Rick Owens for the Carpenters Workshop Gallery, London $54,435
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DESIGN
$10,890
Marble chairs, Rick Owens for the Carpenters Workshop Gallery, London $16,330
Hurricane lamps, Ralph Lauren Home, Aati, $350 - $500
Vintage Sputnik style light fixture, The Odd Piece, $2,035
Marble dining table, Rick Owens for the Carpenters Workshop Gallery, London $14,970
2014 july / august 93
Travel
Magnificent Monaco The tiny principality sets itself up for a very big future By Nausheen Noor
much to change the image of his country from a stuffy destination to one with a little more cultural appeal. He has actively supported a flourishing arts scene, from the Monte Carlo Jazz Festival to major art exhibitions at the Grimaldi Forum and the principality’s latest museum, the New National Monaco Museum, which showcases contemporary visual art. He has also pledged to make Monaco cleaner and greener. The country has big plans to transform itself into an international lifestyle destination. Currently, earnings from its famous casino and other gambling outlets only account for four per cent of Monaco’s income. The bulk of the economy is buttressed by money generated by luxury hotels, conferences, multi-million dollar yachts in the harbour and the Grand Prix. The principality wants to capitalise on this. A massive four-year renovation project is planned for the iconic Hotel de Paris. Casino Square will be experiencing a major facelift as the Sporting d’Hiver building is razed to the ground to make way for luxury shops, upmarket residences, offices, recreation and cultural areas. It doesn’t end there. The 20-year plan includes reclaiming land on the coast in an environmentally sustainable manner to create an offshore island for new residential areas complete with lots of skyscrapers, a project estimated to cost $884 million. Turkish Airlines flies daily from Dubai to Nice via Istanbul. Flights start from $714. Booking details at www.turkishairlines.com
Images courtesy of Corbis / ArabianEye.com
onaco is synonymous with the ultra-wealthy. The holiday of choice for Russian oligarchs, race-car drivers, royalty and celebrities alike; the kind of people who would not blink at paying $55 per cocktail and leave their Maseratis parked with the keys still inside. At just a smidgen larger than the Vatican, Monaco is the world’s second smallest state but has long fascinated the world. It is known equally for its tax haven status, glamorous casinos and thriving sports scene with the annual Formula One and international tennis tournaments. The royal family adds to the intrigue with their high jinks perennially appearing in gossip magazines. At first glance, Monaco looks almost comically like something out of a fairytale. The city is full of charming alleyways with belle epoque architecture, replete with wrought iron swirls, perfectly manicured gardens and a prince’s palace set upon a hill. It could be a Disney film set. Those drawn to the thrills of Monte Carlo will be surprised by how small it is. The majority of the high-end luxury shopping is contained within one city block. The opera house and the Monte Carlo Casino are housed in the same building. The close quarters make it ideal for celebrity spotting, whether sipping an espresso at the famed Café de Paris or lounging in the lobby of the Hotel Hermitage. Indeed, it seems as if the entire city-state is a see-and-be-seen kind of place where no one feels embarrassed to be caught blatantly checking someone out. Since his father Rainier III died in 2005, Prince Albert II has done
The view from the Jardin Exotique 94 july / august 2014
Monaco Ville
Monte Carlo harbour
2014 july / august 95
Travel
MUST-SEE & MUST-DO Monte Carlo Casino and Monaco Opera House
Jardin Exotique
Built by the famous architect Charles Garnier, both are contained in the same building. Live out your James Bond fantasies in the casino and then take your winnings for a box seat at the ballet. Don’t forget to look up at the ceiling of the auditorium to be blown away by the superb paintings.
Several thousand rare plants from around the world are presented in a walking tour that is as memorable for its views as it is for the flora and plants. There is also a cave with an impressive display of stalactites and stalagmites, which can be visited with guides. Evidence of prehistoric human inhabitants have been found in the caves.
Oceanographic Museum
Monaco Cathedral
The cathedral was built in 1875 and stands on the site of a 13th century church. It is a Romanesque-Byzantine design dedicated to St Nicholas and is the burial ground for the remains of former princes of Monaco and Princess Grace. The church square also contains some of Monaco-Ville’s finest restaurants.
Images courtesy of Corbis / ArabianEye.com
Perched on a sheer cliff face, this museum is a worldrenowned attraction. With 4,000 species of fish and more than 200 families of invertebrates, the aquarium gives a comprehensive overview of Mediterranean and tropical marine ecosystems. The spectacular views from the rooftop terrace are unmissable.
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Travel
Where to stay Monte Carlo Beach Hotel
Following a renovation spearheaded by interior designer India Madhavi, this iconic hotel has been given that perfect vintage 1950s Riviera look with just the right amount of quirk and kitsch. The restaurant Elsa, with executive chef Paolo Sari, is the only Michelin-starred organic restaurant in the world. Avenue Princesse-Grace, from $1,058 per night
Hotel Hermitage
The pale blue guest rooms, which open out onto fanciful wrought iron balconies with harbour views, are fit for a modern day Marie Antoinette. The lobby’s art nouveau glass and steel cupola was designed by Gustave Eiffel. Guests are given an exclusive Cercle MonteCarlo card, which provides access to the private beach, golf, tennis and Spa Thermes Marins Monte-Carlo. Square Beaumarchais, from $650 per night
Villa la Vigie Monte Carlo
Formerly the home of designer Karl Lagerfeld, this stunning villa with its panoramic view of the Mediterranean, the principality of Monaco and the bay of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin is available for rent year-round. Spread across three floors, it can accommodate up to 12 guests. If the decor doesn’t suit your taste, the furnishings can even be redone at the right price. Route de la Vigie, rates upon request
2014 july / august 97
fashion
Bracelets, Tateossian, Bloomingdales Dubai $260
CITY BREAK Gulf residents enjoy the beach year-round so the summer holidays are the best time to explore new cities. These cool and easy pieces should keep you stylish and comfortable walking around town or just sitting at a cafe and people-watching.
Cotton and linen sweatshirt, Todd Snyder, MrPorter.com, $313
Espadrilles, Castaner, MrPorter.com $125
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Image courtesy of Gettyimages
Sunglasses, Thom Browne, MrPorter.com, $680
Lacoste Spring/Summer 2014
Leather duffle bag, Aigner, Dubai Mall $1,285
fashion
Foldable headphones, Bowers & Wilkins, MrPorter.com, $1,433
Belt, Ferragamo, Mall of the Emirates $315
Foldable sunglasses, Ferragamo, Mall of the Emirates $415
Leather trimmed canvas bag, Mulberry, Mall of the Emirates, $1,192
Cotton shorts, Acne Studioes, MrPorter.com, $758
Grey suede trainers, Santoni, Rodeo Drive, $450 Trussardi Spring/Summer 2014
2014 july / august 99
horology
The HYT H1 Iceberg As bold statement pieces go, the new HYT H1 Iceberg is definitely a stand out from the crowd watch. HYT watches are all about hydro-mechanics – the blending of fluid and mechanical precision for unrivaled innovation in timekeeping – composing of white metal, white dial, white strap and sky blue fluid to indicate the time. Limited edition of 50 pieces, $60,000
Blue Moon Be bold this summer and rock a timepiece with a touch of Blue Patek Philippe Nautilus It may be one of the classics but its also one of the most noticeable watches from a distance because of its iconic features. The slim case and intricate design details like the signed crown and horizontally blue embossed dial make it a stand out piece. On the wrist, the quality of the watch can be seen and felt, as the bracelet sits very comfortably.
Hublot Big Bang Jeans In a break from tradition, Hublot created the “big bang jeans” collection for both men and women, which incorporates Dsquared denim in the dials and straps. The men’s edition creatively uses the material with a geuine blue jean strap with beige stitching and deployant buckle made by Tina Zegg for the first time in watch making history, an Italian denim manufacturer who supplies several luxury and fashion brands.
$26,700
Limited Edition of 250 pieces $16,000
De Bethune DB28 Digitale Featuring a digital jumping hours display with radial minutes and a centrally mounted moon phase, the Digitale takes the DB28 in a completely different and entirely charming direction. They have integrated their signature spherical moon phase (comprised of two halves) at the center of the dial and surrounded it by a blue titanium sky featuring white gold stars, which gives an eye-catching effect. $95,000
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www.omegawatches.com
THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
The Apollo 8 astronauts were the first people to see the dark side of the moon with their own eyes. The black ceramic [ZrO2] Co-Axial Speedmaster salutes the pioneering spirit that took them to a place no human had ever been and it pays homage to the Speedmaster Professional chronographs worn by every Apollo astronaut. OMEGA is a proud partner in mankind’s greatest dreams. Available at:
OMEGA Boutiques Dubai: BurJuman • Deira City Centre • Dubai Mall • Dubai Festival City • Mall of the Emirates • Mina A'Salam • Mirdif City Centre • Sahara Centre • Wafi and at select Rivoli Stores. Abu Dhabi: Marina 102 july / august 2014 Mall • Toll Free: 800-RIVOLI