Ayoon Wa Azan (Read with me)

Investcorp is probably one of the most successful Arab and international investment banks, and I read in the summer a book in English that tells the bank’s story titled “Need, Respect, Trust: The Memoir of a Vision,” by the bank’s founder, friend Nemir Kirdar, published by the British publishing house Weidenfeld & Nicolson. My experience in economics is limited to what I learned during university, where the program compelled students of literature and political science to take a science course every year. I chose biology once to sit with girls in the lab and dissect frogs, and chose economics another time and passed thanks to my cousin the doctor, but that story is for a different time. The above means I will tackle the book lightly in reviewing it for the readers, whom I shall spare the labyrinths of economics that I would not know how to get out of. I was first acquainted with Investcorp when it acquired the prestigious American jewelry company Tiffany & Co., which I often visited in Fifth Avenue in New York. The chapter in the book about how Tiffany & Co. was purchased is fit to be a movie script. The deal wavered between success and failure, and was not devoid of amusing anecdotes, with Nemir Kirdar interrupting his holiday in Marbella to return to New York and launch a successful attempt to buy the company. I met Nemir Kirdar later, and today, our families are friends. I found him still dreaming of a united Arab nation and a glorious Arab future, and I advised him to focus on what is possible and on what he is good at. Of course, Nemir did not heed my advice, and wrote a book that I reviewed in this column titled “Saving Iraq.” But Iraq was not saved, and the situation there grew worse and the country is now effectively embroiled in an undeclared civil war. Returning to the book, the best thing I found in it was the names of friends and their roles, starting with friends Khalid al-Zayani and Abdullah Ismail, who were the first that Nemir consulted about the bank and encouraged him. Our families are friends, and the same goes for other players who had a role in the bank’s success, such as Youssef Abu Khadra, my neighbor in London whom Nemir praises at length, and Elie Hallaq, whom I have known since the days of high school, and found that his role in the business was much bigger than what I had heard, as Hallaq is shy and reserved. There was also Ziad Idlebi, Rest in Peace, Marwan Hayek, Aboud Jallad, and the great lawyer Hatem al-Zohbi and others. The book includes at the end a list of founding shareholders from the Arab Gulf, similar to what we see in Who is Who, as it includes some of the most prominent men of power, money, and business in the six GCC countries. Nemir Kirdar succeeded in founding an investment bank based on four principles, which are, as the founder explains, ownership by the largest possible number of big businessmen; meticulous organization to reassure investors about their investments; a high degree of transparency; and a deep understanding of the investment market. I pause here to present to the readers an upcoming book by colleague Adel Malik, titled “Palestine from Loss to the Arab Spring.” The author sent me a chapter about mutual letters between famed scientist Albert Einstein and Dr. Charles Malik, who once headed the General Assembly of the United Nations, and was Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lebanon under difficult conditions. Einstein needs no introduction, and Dr. Charles Malik, a professor of philosophy and a prominent thinker, is one of the most famous citizens of Lebanon. I had the good fortune to have known him over the years, and studied with him in university. I debated him at length at the home of then proctor Dr. Samuel Kirkwood, during the long strike carried out by the students in the early 1970s. We became closer when I became the editor of the Daily Star in Beirut, and Dr. Malik would write for our paper from time to time, each time carrying the phrase “please publish as is” next to the title of his article. Dr. Malik was protective with his words, treating them as though they were his children. The correspondence with Malik begin with Einstein asking Charles Malik for scientists to explain nuclear energy to people, and for this energy to be in the service of all humanity, with Einstein’s group requiring financial support to promote the understanding of nuclear energy. Charles Malik responds and donates money, and more messages follow. This is a book I am waiting for, and colleague Adel Malik is an authority on the topic, so I encourage every reader to get this book. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arab Today.