The David Rubenstein Show: Khaldoon Al Mubarak

[Music] let me just ask you about the country that you're from the United Arab Emirates is a Federation of seven emirates of Willoughby being the largest the oil and the gas is not gonna be here for the next thousand years that's finite and we have to prepare ourself for the future you let a group that bought a team in the Premier League in England over the last 17 years Manchester City has been the most successful club you ever go down on the field and say let me kick a couple balls no I don't do that in order not to embarrass myself what do you fix your time please well people wouldn't recognize me if my tie was fixable okay just steam it this way all right I [Music] don't consider myself a journalist and nobody else would consider myself a journalist I began to take on the life of being an interviewer even though I have a day job running a private equity firm how do you define leadership what is it that makes somebody tick let's talk about something that you're very passionately interested in which is football you let a group that bought a team in the Premier League in England called Manchester City which just won the Premier League it was a great journey you know football is a passion of mine I enjoy football so doing that job was was an absolute joy so 10 years ago we started this journey Manchester City was a modest club back then in terms of their standing within the Premier League they had revenues of about 80 million dollars ten years on we've pushed the revenue to almost 550 million the group is very successful financially economically but more importantly when you're in the business of sports you have to be successful on the pitch and over the last 70 years because it took us three years to build the capability and the club to be competitive over the last seven years Manchester City has been the most successful club in the Premier League we've won the Premier League three times in those seven years so you go into the locker room and give them kind of win one for the Gipper kind of speechless or how do you inspire the troops no I inspire the troops by making sure we have the right organization in place I mean that's what I think I'm good at getting the right ecosystem to for success on the pitch getting the right players that's really what minute wins in sports it's that complete package when they're practicing do you ever go down on the field and say let me kick a couple balls no I don't do that in order not to embarrass myself okay what other teams do you have around the world so we started with Manchester and then we came up with this idea of football as a global sport and as a sport that's growing everywhere how about we create a brand you know our scouting the system or our management systems and use these synergies to be successful in multiple jurisdictions never been done before it was a thesis we didn't know who was gonna work or not but over the last you know six to eight years we've built a group called the city football group that owns controlling stakes or management stakes in clubs all around the world and we're seeing the benefits of that by essentially having a much better proposition for sponsors who you know one access to not just one market but a global market and one have that want to have that local presence through the football network that we have in these clubs we're looking now at India we're looking at China which is kind of a reflection of you know everything else I'm doing if you look at our portfolio new ba-da-da it follows a very similar path as a global platform our presences in all these markets and that's how we've grown over the last 15 16 years let me just ask you about the country that you're from I should disclose that you and I have done investments together you've invested in my firm so we've gotten to know you over quite a period of time and I wanted to ask you about Abu Dhabi so let me give you a quick history lesson the UAE is a federation united arab emirates nighted arab emirates is a federation of seven emirates seven states I would Lobby being the largest Dubai being one of the most famous the Federation was formed in 1971 the father of the nation is His Highness Sheikh Zayed he passed away several years ago but he was the father he established the Federation we have a population of about 10 million overall we have a a wealth of resources particularly in the oil and gas field that's been the foundation of the economic development the oil and the gas is not gonna be here for the next thousand years its finite and we have to prepare ourselves for the future the leadership of this country has focused on maximizing the benefits and the returns from this resource but at the same time build a diversification strategy preparing ourselves for the future and that's what you haven't in the UAE today your economy now is dependent on oil is it 50 percent of your economy 70 percent 80 percent so many years ago oil represented about 70 to 80 percent of the GDP of the country we've been able to move the economy where that concentration is now less than 35% now we're so long way away and I think the focus now is to continue to push that number down as much as possible why do you think Dubai which is not as wealthy as Abu Dhabi is better known in some parts of the world we have a radius around us of countries like India countries like Egypt countries with uh with an immense history and we're new into this market and we don't have a Taj Mahal and we don't have the pyramids but we've what we've been able to do one Dubai particularly has been able to do was build a tourism infrastructure in terms of hotels shopping restaurants entertainment taking advantage of what we have which is the sea and the desert and by doing so we've been able to build a an influx of tourists that supersedes Egypt and India combined well let's talk about how you got to where you are you grew up in Abu Dhabi is that right yes now you're not a member of the royal families all right now to be a member of the royal family that means you're part of the family that helped to found the country correct and the royal family now in Abu Dhabi has hundreds of members competitors and members okay so you're not a member of the royal family my grandfather was essentially the the first chief justice in the UAE when the Federation was established and and my father was an ambassador so I come from all you know a family that you know as justice has diplomacy and I was you know after my father passed away I was brought up by my grandfather so at a young age and your father passed away because of something that was tragic yes he was assassinated and in France where he while he was how he was ambassador he was posted and how old were you I was six years old so you are now living in Abu Dhabi when this occurs you later go to college in the United States yeah had tops in Medford and how did you happen to pick Tufts first of all I didn't even know where Tufts was I had never been to to Boston I think I had been to the United States once I yeah the summer I graduated I went west coast that was the first time I got to actually go to the west coast it's only then that I realized that I was deeply tricked by my friends and colleagues who it convinced me to go to Boston I love Boston but the weather you know talk from a kid coming out of Abu Dhabi where temperatures in the summer are north of 100 degrees to go end up in Boston that was a tough tough trying to transition for me and I didn't know California and when I went to California after I graduate I'm like dark I should have started tough when you've got the tops that people say where's Abu Dhabi they're student friends so I dealt with two things number one nobody had any idea about Abu Dhabi the UAE second is the pronunciation of my name I have a very difficult name it's Sal dune and Shah is a pronounced pronunciation of this letter in English is challenged by most of my you know friends and the United States so I struggled with my name because people couldn't Browns ha so I became known not as I'll doing which is my name but khaldoon khaldoon is my let's say my American name so khaldoon but you actually pronounce it Sal dune again you can do that in Yiddish but not so much in the Arabic yes I found that also like with my you know friends you have opened up a museum that is the Louvre yes it's it's beautiful yes I think the art collection is remarkable but I think there's a bigger story in this you know we are trying to push out of the UAE a message of tolerance [Music] you come back after college and you looking for a job and what did you do right after college back then you come out of college you go back to Abu Dhabi and you're a you know a US graduate and you're gonna have really essentially two options either you're gonna work in oil and gas or you're gonna work in the investment field so I interviewed with both I had an offer from both and I decided to to start at the national oil company okay I worked there for for a couple years and spent a lot of time in Abu Dhabi but also spent a lot of time in Japan or not many people know that but Abu Dhabi is one of the largest producers of crude oil in the world and our largest market is Japan that was very very interesting for me and I learned a lot from that experience from there on I moved into the investment world I started at a pipeline project was the first gas project that connects three countries in them and the Middle East and it needed a company to own it so the government established a company and that company was Nevada some guada started with that project and evolved over the last 20 years to what it is today so you were asked to to run Mubadala and Mubadala today it has assets of about two hundred and twenty billion dollars hundred twenty billion dollars so you have grown it from a relatively modest company over the last three years we've been you know evolving and expanding it in different directions and maybe four years ago I've told you less than two percent of our portfolio was in China India in South America we had no presence and in these countries no exposure over the last three years we've been actively investing and and present in China actively investing in present and in India activity president investing in South America we've been opening offices around many places around the world where our operations have reached scale the bar is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi correct so who do you report to so I have a Board of Directors the Board of Directors is chaired by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed on a on the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi so we have a strong board very present board the board meets on a monthly basis now Sheikh Mohammed is the Crown Prince but day-to-day he's in charge of running the operations of the government of Abu Dhabi is that fair to say that's right sir and it's fair to say you're very close to him I've worked with him now for almost almost 17 years so I guess you are pretty close so when he comes to let's say the United States and he meets with the president United States does he ask you to go with him sometimes yes so have you met with President Trump so I've had the pleasure and honor to meet with President Clinton President Bush President Obama and now president Trump so you do this in other parts of the world as well you've got these prime ministers when the Sheikh Bahama goes yes so how much of your time is running day-to-day the moobot Allah operation and how much is dealing with government related issues so the best thing about my job David is sound actually don't I don't do anything I have an organization that one of the things I've tried to do throughout my career is always thrown myself by talented capable individuals I've been lucky I've hired well I've built a very strong team mo ba da da I have four top-notch CEOs the report to me that essentially do everything my ethos professionally has always been always try to hire the best always try to make sure that you have a strong stable of of talent around you and that allows me to do so many things and now I have a significant commitment my time working obviously for His Highness so I spend a lot of time supporting his Highness and and travelling with them many places around the world would you ever go into the government full-time or you're happy where you are you know he's honest well you've met him on many many occasions he's a person that then I think working for him is is not a job it's beyond that it's beyond that you know you know you know I what I if he asked me to do to do anything I would do it so I'm loyal to to my country I'm work to my government but above all I think just working with someone like a like Sheikh Muhammad I think as an absolute joy and I would do anything once and one of the things that the country has decided to do is to not make it a tourist center necessarily but bring more things into the country one is you have a Cleveland Clinic yes that you've opened that mu bottle has been involved with why didn't you decide to have a Cleveland Clinic in Abu Dhabi that's a that's a funny story about ya bout 10 years ago I was I was with his Highness with Sheikh Mohammed and it was it was the month of Ramadan and we had he was visiting a family and he had the breaking of the fast at this family's house and one of the members of that family had just come back from being treated in Cleveland for for a long time and they had just come back cut a long story short after the after the meal Sheikh Mohammed likes to take a walk always and many of our meetings are actually over long walks which is you know a challenge when when you have to carry documents and particularly with our weather when it's very hot some days it's believe me one of the hard parts of my job so anyways we took a walk and Sheikh Mohammed turned to me it was night it was maybe 10 o'clock at night but at that point and he said this gentleman just spent six months in Cleveland we're one of the wealthiest countries in the world we have a small population we've invested well in terms of infrastructure why don't we have a hospital of the quality of Cleveland Clinic here in the UE it's not acceptable my people deserve this quality health care and and I you know I want you to handle this project why don't you go figure out how you convey how you can build a Cleveland Clinic Hospital here and I'm gonna be so you have that now and that's what we did he said to me listen hon you know I don't want any book with bureaucracy on this you're gonna report directly to me on this project and I want it done now and I want to done it done immediately and it took me took us to cost as an organization took us about seven years to go convince Cleveland Clinic of the logic of this convince them that we would actually commit to the to the quality of the care of care and to the to the management that this need requires to deliver exactly what you have in Cleveland in abu-dhabi took us seven years to build a state-of-the-art Hospital which we have today and then that vision that he had that dream he had I think I think has been achieved let me ask about another thing you have opened up a museum that is the Louvre how is that working out well first of all I want to double check last time you came in my office and we met you made a commitment they you know visited did you do it I absolutely did and I was astounded to see some of the works of art they're here I am an American and I go to Abu Dhabi and I see whistlers mother so a great American I've painted this and actually it was in the Louvre it's part of their collection and now some people say that the most expensive work of art ever purchased is in that museum yes it will be in that museum soon okay this is a da Vinci this is the da Vinci that was purchased a few months ago I guess for about roughly 450 to 500 million dollars nobody saw so that should be a pretty good attraction you know it's a it's a young country it's a young nation we didn't have a museum of this of this magnitude in the UAE and I think this this museum represents many things yes it's it's beautiful yes I think the art collection is remarkable but I think there's a bigger story in this we are trying to push out of the UAE a message of tolerance if you go to that museum you will see that there is a curation there's one particular gallery that for me incredible in in which you see the world religions really in one gallery and you see the next to each other so there's there's there's a desert aura next to a Bible next to a Quran from the same period and you see multiple iteration of different periods where you see the the three books next to each other phenomenal now you can see that in a museum and in in Germany or or in the UK or in the United States but for a museum in the UAE to have that I think for people that are that don't know the Middle East I mean that's a massive step a massive step and a massive massive message that you will understand David and many people that know the Middle East will understand the significance of that now another thing that you've done is bring the Formula One races now you built an elaborate Formula One course I've been to the races is that working out is working out great I mean the UAE when we say we need to attract we've gone from from a country that was attracting a million tourists a year to now over 20 million tourists per year of a country that has a population of less than 10 million so over the years we've invested heavily in sporting activities and in museums and hotels etc and that's made the UAE such an attractive place for tourism but you know what's more important than all this safety and security in the neighborhood were in and in the region were in to have a country like the UAE attract that sort of number of tourists it can only be done by having a country that's safe and that's secure and that people feel both safe and secure some of the rhetoric coming out of the US government has have been of concern to people in the Middle East about Muslims know we don't worry about that I think we we have such strong links the United States we have such strong links with the people here in the United States you know we have to be able to distinguish between rhetoric and and reality and that reality on the ground is what we feel in terms of the middle-east Sheikh Mohammed is very close to Sheikh Mohammed bin Salman who is the crown prince in Saudi Arabia how did they develop this close relationship you know the crown prince of Saudi Arabia his highness Hamad bin Salman is another incredible leader I mean what he's doing and what you're seeing in Saudi Arabia I know is transformational they share a view of the future and they share a vision of the future a better place not just for their people but for the region and I think it's all these factors that make again these two very special leaders and they're very close together the president Trump has pulled out of the Iranian nuclear agreement did you support the agreement you know didn't day but it's not a big secret that we in the UAE have always had reservations over that that agreement from the beginning we live in our region we live in our neighborhood we've been dealing with with Iran and the the challenges that Iran puts on the region and the stability and security of the region it's always been our position a concern over the what that agreement was able to achieve in terms of preventing Iran from building a military nuclear capability now recently Saudi Arabia and UAE among others have had a dispute with Qatar do you see any resolution and what is the basis of that dispute the basis of this dispute is we live in all in a very challenging region national security has been at the forefront of challenges that all countries in our region face and the GCC is a block that has always tried to maintain at least a vision of how we see the future and the stability and security of that region there has been a fundamental shift or disagreement in terms of how we see the future of this region and the direction that the Khepera has has decided to go through with its decisions in terms of both its politics who which decided to support how its really in our view not done what we had hoped it would do with regards to combating terrorism combating the financing of terrorism and really sharing the vision that we have of what we feel all of us should have for the stability of our region that's really at the heart of this dispute these issues are quite deep but these issues obviously are have been going on now for months I hope that ultimately this this matter gets resolved and I hope at the end of the day we are all we're all one family you know properties in Marathi Saudis about how many Egyptians Kuwait is we are all one people some of the rhetoric coming out of the US government has have been of concern to people in the Middle East about Muslims or do you think it's political rhetoric and not something you worry about as much no I don't worry about that no we don't worry about that I think we we have such strong links with the United States we have such strong links with the people here in the United States with the government with the business community with the academic community the think tanks across all facets of u.s. Society so I think these links are deep you know we have to be able to distinguish between rhetoric and and and reality and that reality on the ground is what we feel you know I'm in Washington DC today I'm meeting with politicians I'm meeting with businessmen are meeting with you know people from all facets and no I do not feel it that doesn't work the final question I'd like to ask you about is is there anything that you'd rather be doing then you're doing that I love what I do I enjoy it both professionally and personally but if there's one thing that I'd like to do more than what I'm doing right now is spend more time with my family and you have two children I have three kids so I have a lovely wife and three children that unfortunately because of all what I'm doing I don't spend enough time with and that's that's that's my one regret okay well at least maybe they'll get to watch this interview and they can see you at some point on TV it may be like give me some credit though right baby so thank you very much the negative time to do this thank you my pleasure [Music]

Channel: David Rubenstein

Views: 323,246

Keywords: Bloomberg

Id: U7rb1j_dRKQ

Length: 24min 2sec (1442 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 27 2018