Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan stands as a coveted figure in the Middle East, overseeing vast wealth and wielding substantial political influence. Getting a meeting with him requires navigating a complex web of connections, from trusted gatekeepers to key intermediaries like Rick Gerson and Saad Hariri. From Al Maryah Island to secretive gatherings, the path to Sheikh Tahnoon involves strategic networking, authenticity, and a touch of adventure, whether it’s discussing business in a Four Seasons lobby or sharing a road bike ride through Abu Dhabi’s cycle tracks.
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By Ben Bartenstein
Abu Dhabiâs Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan is one of the most soughtâafter people in the Middle East. Money managers and financiers flying into the United Arab Emirates from Hong Kong, London or New York yearn for even a 10-minute meet-and-greet. A lucky few might get to be guests aboard his superyacht, Maryah, where he likes to play chess as the sun glistens on the Persian Gulf. Slim and sporty in his trademark sunglasses, the scion of the worldâs richest family oversees state assets and private funds that add up to more than $1.5 trillion. The opportunity to invest even a sliver of that wealth could yield plump fees and returns.
Getting to Sheikh Tahnoon is the rub. Any place in the world where valuable prizes can be won, the right introduction works wonders. In old Chicago ward politics, the line was âWe donât want nobody nobody sent.â In Silicon Valley, the path to wealth runs through the Stanford University admissions committee and venture capital incubator cliques. But the concentration of state and financial power in the UAE makes everything more personal. The sheikh, whoâs in his mid-50s, isnât only his familyâs moneyman; heâs one of the deputy rulers of the Abu Dhabi emirate, a brother of the UAEâs president and the son of the countryâs founding father. Heâs also the national security adviser. In other words, not the sort of person whose front desk you call to ask for an appointment.
One well-trod path to Sheikh Tahnoon and the money he controls runs through Al Maryah Island. The skyscraper-Âstudded community hosts Abu Dhabiâs international financial center, which Sheikh Tahnoon dreamed up two decades ago with guidance from the late US property tycoon Sam Zell. After meeting bankers in the Four Seasons hotel lobby, financiers may be directed to one of the companies the sheikh chairs: the UAEâs largest lender, First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC; his private investment firm, Royal Group; or the artificial intelligence company G42.
If things go well, youâll get to meet one of Sheikh Tahnoonâs gatekeepers, people whoâve won his trust and decide which newcomers to allow into the fold. Some donât appear on any organizational chart, so itâs not only a matter of knowing the right peopleâyou have to know the people who will even tell you the names of the right people. Bankers, lawyers and consultants trade these names in hushed tones at cafes in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. (This story is based on interviews with more than four dozen people familiar with Sheikh Tahnoonâs financial empire, including current and former employees of his companies, as well as foreign dealmakers, bankers and lawyers. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity because much of the information they shared is private. Sheikh Tahnoon didnât respond to requests for comment sent through Royal Group and the UAE government.)
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A financier wants to build a relationship with the gatekeeper best able to get deals across the finish line while not tipping off competitors to the smoothest route to the royal. âItâs a very weird social dance,â says Reza Bundy, the chief executive officer of Atlas Capital Team Inc., which helps funds navigate geopolitical shocks. Heâs met with Abu Dhabi wealth funds to discuss potential partnerships. âThe gatekeeper is just as important as the idea. If you come in with a great idea but a bad gatekeeper, it will rub people the wrong way.â
Zell discovered early on the power of having the right connections. His introduction to the royals began at the dawn of the UAEâs modern gatekeeper era. In 2005, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Sheikh Tahnoonâs younger brother, whoâs widely known as ABZ, was visiting New York, Zell recounted in a 2022 interview. The royal family had taken an interest in his Âaffordable-housing developments in Mexico, so the two men arranged a meeting. They hit it off, and ABZ, whoâd be tapped as UAE minister of foreign affairs the following year, suggested Zell fly to the Arabian Desert to pay a visit.
At the time, Sheikh Tahnoon was the only one among six full brothersâknown as the Bani Fatima, or sons of Fatima, for their motherâwho didnât hold an official government job. His father had recently passed away, making the sheikh the Âbeneficiary of significant landholdings. His Royal Group also got a large cash injection.
In the evenings, the Bani Fatima would meet at one of the Al Nahyan palaces to compare notes on who theyâd encountered that day, what theyâd learned and how to factor that information into their strategy. That group included elder brother Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whoâs known as MBZ and has been president since May 2022, along with Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, whoâs now a vice president, Sheikh Tahnoon and ABZ. Some of the familyâs brain trust of informal advisers would also attend: Khaldoon Al Mubarak, a diplomatâs son who was groomed as a finance czar, and Yousef Al Otaiba, now the UAEâs top diplomat in Washington.
Zell broke the ice with the Al Nahyans when he and MBZ rode motorcycles at midnight through the streets of Abu Dhabi, Zell says. (Parts of his visit to Abu Dhabi were first reported in a 2007 New Yorker profile of him.) Later, Sheikh Tahnoon turned to Zell for business guidance. The billionaire ripped apart the sheikhâs initial idea for a development. The Abu Dhabi royal appreciated Zellâs honesty, leading the two to cultivate a friendship. Zell hosted Sheikh Tahnoon for lunch in his native Chicago, and his first time touching a gun came on a subsequent hunting trip to Morocco with Sheikh Tahnoon and MBZ. As his relationship with Sheikh Tahnoon deepened, Zell began working closely with a UK-educated Moroccan named Sofia Abdellatif Lasky. She was the main go-Âbetween to coordinate meetings with the sheikh.
In the almost two decades since, Lasky has emerged as a quiet but important power player in UAE finance. She helps steer the day-to-day operations of the roughly $300 billion Royal Group from her ninth-floor office overlooking Abu Dhabiâs Khalifa Park. The groupâs unassuming blue building is down the street from Al Bateen Executive Airport, which caters to visitors flying in by private jet. In the early days, the team operated from an unmarked villa on a quiet stretch of road. Bankers would get handed slips of paper with the address, according to some who met with the group at the time.
Laskyâs name appears nowhere on the firmâs website, but people familiar with the business say she acts as Royal Groupâs de facto CEO and sits on the boards of dozens of its subsidiaries. Two of the more notable ones, International Holding Co. and Alpha Dhabi Holding PJSC, have ballooned to a combined market capitalization of $280 billion under her watch. Lasky didnât respond to requests for comment.
With hundreds of entities under Royal Groupâs umbrella, assets of the company grace every block of Abu Dhabi: fast-food chains, pharmacies, dental clinics, apartments, hotels, schools, malls, gyms, beach clubs, motorcycle shops, factories and telecommunications operators. The parent group employs more than 25,000 people; its IHC unit, some 155,000 more. Teachers might work for Al Rabeeh Academy, movie theater employees for Cine Royal Cinemas LLC and chefs for Ninar Restaurant & Cafeteria LLC.
As the Al Nahyan familyâs financial empire has grown, so has the network of intermediaries. Abu Dhabi, home to about 6% of the worldâs proven oil reserves, has positioned itself as the âcapital of capital,â with more than $1.1 trillion Âcombined in the sovereign wealth funds Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and ADQ, both controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon. The Bani Fatima hold dozens of government posts, leaving them little time to meet visiting executives, even as lines get longer. âThey have a lot of choices these days,â says Marcelle Wahba, who served as US ambassador to the UAE from 2001 to 2004. âNow the Wall Street crowd is also competing with financiers from China, India and elsewhere.â
Former Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has become an initial port of call for many looking to meet Sheikh Tahnoon. Those who pass the ex-premierâs smell test (often over a cup of Argentine mate) may get an introduction to Lasky for final vetting.
Hariri will often host meetings at the presidential suite of the St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort, his main residence in Abu Dhabi, where gazelles frolic outside the window along the pristine Gulf coast. (Abu Dhabi United Hospitality LLC, an IHC unit, owns the five-star hotel.) Hariri made the UAE capital his base in early 2022 after a series of crises ended his premiership. He also holds Saudi citizenship, but his relationship with that country soured after a late 2017 episode in which he suddenly announced his resignation on TV from Riyadh as Lebanese officials accused the kingdom of holding him hostage. With his political career over and family fortune in turmoilâHariri comes from Lebanonâs most prominent political dynastyâhe turned to Abu Dhabi for a chance to rebuild himself. âThis is a place investing today with the tools and ideas of tomorrow,â he says.
Bill Murray, a former UK diplomat who had postings in Amman, Muscat and Tunis, is another adviser to the Abu Dhabi royals. People familiar with the situation say Murray and Sheikh Tahnoon forged a bond during the Britâs Âassignment as political counselor in the UAE capital. He recently helped start Tau Capital, a venture capital firm backed by Sheikh Tahnoon with a focus on startups in so-called deep tech, or companies that drive fundamental scientific advancements.
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There are power players for every region of the world where the Emiratis might want to invest. Ajay Bhatia, the CEO of Sirius International Holding, a subsidiary of IHC, has been a key intermediary on India deals, including with Âbillionaire Gautam Adani, the worldâs 14th-wealthiest person, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Melissa Moncadaâformer Miss Globe Colombia, who started several fitness ventures and then a holding company backed by Royal Groupâhas become a trusted fixer on Latin American deals, including an investment alongside Colombian tycoon Jaime Gilinski. IHC board member Mohammed Nasser Al Shamsi has been an important adviser for the sheikh on African mining deals. Murray, Bhatia, and Al Shamsi didnât respond to requests for comment; Moncada declined to comment.
Deals are often built on years of relationships. Case in point: Rajeev Misra, who leaned on his vast Middle East network to raise billions of dollars, first for SoftBank Group Corp.âs Vision Fund and, more recently, for his One Investment Management. The India-born financier, whose backers include the UAE sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co. and Royal Group, says he works closely with Lasky and others in Sheikh Tahnoonâs inner circle.
That inner circle also includes Syed Basar Shueb, the CEO of IHC, and G42 CEO Peng Xiao. IHC and G42 are at the heart of the UAEâs ambitions to reshape its oil-dependent economy around finance and technology. In only a few years, IHC has risen from obscurity to become the countryâs most valuable listed company. Two years ago it plowed $2 billion into three companies that Adani owned. One of its listed subsidiaries, the tech-focused Multiply Group, has become active in the regionâs latest flurry of initial public offerings.
G42 has also risen from obscurity, becoming one of the worldâs most prominent AI firms. One of its flagship projects is the Emirati Genome Programme, which aims to map the health data of the local population in an effort to prevent and treat chronic illnesses. People familiar with the sheikhâs thinking say the push dovetails with his own interest in longevity medicine, including a dream to live for at least 150 years.
The larger aim is to turn Abu Dhabi into a global contender in finance and also Âgeopolitics, punching above its weight as the so-called Little Sparta. This ambition led Sheikh Tahnoonâs companies to consider deals to buy Standard Chartered Plc and Lazard Ltd. last year. Itâs prompted partnerships with entrepreneurs such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and spurred a slew of billionaires to set up offices in the UAE. That list includes Ray Dalio, founder of hedge fund company Bridgewater Associates; Changpeng Zhao, the crypto exchange founder whoâs pleaded guilty to anti-money laundering charges in the US; and Russian steel tycoon Vladimir Lisin. Last year finance firms representing more than $450 billion committed to establishing operations at Abu Dhabiâs international financial center.
Deals can be seen through the prism of UAE national security and how itâs tethered to economics. The tiny country has investments in everything from US tech and Chinese AI firms to Zambian copper mines and Indian solar Âprojects, extending its soft power across the globe.
Business connections can become political connections, too. Venture capital executive Rick Gerson, a workout buddy of MBZâs whoâs done business in Abu Dhabi for years, is also on the board of IHCâs Multiply. Gerson is close to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of former US President Donald Trump, and introduced him to the Abu Dhabi royal family. That paved the way for an amicable relationship between Trump and the UAE. A month after his surprise 2016 election win, the president-elect, Kushner, advisers Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn, MBZ and Sheikh Tahnoon met at the Four Seasons in New York. The sheikh was later central to the UAEâs move to normalize ties with Israel, as well as recent diplomatic detentes with Qatar and Iran. âHe wants all the countries in the region working together,â Kushner says.
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Kushnerâs post-White House career as an investment manager has been closely tied to the Middle East. His Affinity Partners got a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabiaâs sovereign wealth fund, and itâs also received investments from sovereign wealth funds in Qatar and the UAE, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the information isnât public.
Sheikh Tahnoon has leveraged his position as a big capital allocator to obtain market intelligence from Wall Street banks and the worldâs largest money managers, which feeds into his own investment strategy. But ambitious dealmakers headed to Abu Dhabi might want to pack workout clothes along with their laptop.
These days, Sheikh Tahnoon will sometimes invite visiting financiers for an intense road bike ride on one of the cityâs cycle tracks. The royal also has a black belt in Brazilian jujitsu. His love for the sport grew in his late 20s, when he spent some time training in San Diego under the tutelage of Brazilian Âinstructor Nelson Monteiro. He then recruited Monteiro to become his private trainer in the UAE. Theyâd go on to set up combat gyms across the country, many of which are overseen by Royal Group and have become known as places for financiers to rub shoulders with the sheikh and his entourage.
âInformal meetings provide a conducive environment for building trust and rapport with the Abu Dhabi royals,â says Vinay Kapoor, a veteran banker whoâs worked in the UAE for three decades. âSheikh Tahnoon values Âauthenticity and genuine connections.â Of course, as every money raiser knows, sometimes thereâs nothing informal about landing a casual Âintroduction.Â
âWith Farah Elbahrawy and Anto Antony
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