Billionaires connect with the masses

[Rahima]

December 17, 2007

 

Entrepreneurs from developing countries are spending on their poorer fellow citizens, writes Landon Thomas.

 

STUCK in a traffic jam in Istanbul in his bulletproof BMW, the richest man in Turkey lets loose with a satisfied grin.

 

Since 2000 Husnu Ozyegin has spent more than $US50 million ($58 billion) of his money, building 36 primary schools and girls' dormitories in poor parts of Turkey. Next to the Turkish Government, Ozyegin is the country's biggest individual supporter of schools - and an official from the education ministry has told him his market share is increasing.

 

"Not bad," the founder of the corporate bank Finansbank says in his gruff, cigarette-scarred voice. "If I can have an impact on 1 million Turkish people in the next 10 years, I will be happy."

 

The global wealth boom has created a new breed of billionaire in once-destitute countries like Turkey, India, Mexico and Russia.

 

Propelled by their rising economies, robust currencies and globally competitive companies, they have ridden a surge in local stockmarkets that have reached previously untouchable heights in the past five years. Now a number of them are using their wealth to bolster their standing and push for social changes in their homelands.

 

These entrepreneurs, who have made their billions in industries like telecommunications, petrochemicals and finance, are distinct from a past generation of billionaires with ties to Middle Eastern oil or valuable land holdings.

 

For these emerging economies, where loose regulation, opaque privatisation processes and monopolistic business practices abound, this extraordinary and uneven creation of wealth rivals in many ways the great American fortunes made at the turn of the 20th century.

 

While such countries have long been accustomed to vast disparities between a tiny class of the wealthy elite and the impoverished masses, the new elite shares some characteristics with counterparts in the United States.

 

And, just as Rockefellers, Carnegies and Morgans once used philanthropy to smooth the rough edges of their cutthroat business reputations - as has a current generation of wealthy Americans that includes Bill Gates, of Microsoft, and Sanford Weill, of Citigroup - local billionaires in emerging markets are trying to do the same.

 

Carlos Slim Helu, the telecommunications entrepreneur in Mexico who is worth more than $US50 billion, has pledged billions of dollars to his two foundations that will aid health and education.

 

Roman Abramovich, Russia's richest man, who has a net worth of $US18 billion, has channelled more than $US1 billion into the impoverished Arctic area of Chukotka, where he is the Governor, building schools and hospitals.

 

In India, Azim Premji, the chairman of the software company Wipro, who is worth $US17 billion, has established his own foundation that supports primary education.

 

The sums donated are relatively small in light of the pressing social needs of these countries. However, as return-driven philanthropy has gained in popularity through the efforts of Gates and others, emerging billionaires are applying similar bottom-line oriented lessons to their own countries.

 

"What we are seeing in these countries," says Jane Wales, the president of the Global Philanthropy Forum, "are people emerging from the private sector with tremendous wealth who are attracted to highly strategic philanthropy".

 

In Turkey, Ozyegin, who is 62 and has a net worth of $US3.5 billion, did not secure his wealth by buying government assets on the cheap or by belonging to a rich family that controls a monopoly.

 

"I'm first generation - that gives me satisfaction," he said. "Getting to the top is not so easy; staying there is more difficult."

 

The founder of a mid-tier corporate bank called Finansbank, he cashed in on a rush of interest by foreign financial institutions in Turkish banks last year and sold a controlling stake in his bank to the National Bank of Greece, receiving $US2.7 billion in cash.

 

Flush with money and ambition, he is doing all that he can to lift Turkish educational standards at the primary and university level.

 

Sitting in his personal conference room atop Finansbank's main office in Istanbul, Ozyegin recalls the date August 18 last year, when the sale of his 49 per cent stake officially closed.

 

"I remember that day better than my birthday," he says, leaning back in a plush leather chair. "I was not only a billionaire but the richest man in Turkey. It's a great feeling, but your responsibilities increase."

 

Like many self-made billionaires, Ozyegin has a direct, demanding manner and a day spent travelling with him does not yield much casual conversation. He carries two cell phones. Throughout a long day he juggles calls from his wife, his assistant, his son and assorted government bureaucrats, as well as the managers of his various businesses.

 

He typically works 11-hour days, not only from his suite of offices but also from his car, plane or boat, checking on his operations in Turkey as well as in Russia, Romania and China.

 

"I'm first generation, that gives me satisfaction," he said. "Getting to the top is not so easy; staying there is more difficult."

 

When Ozyegin visits a school, he is frequently met by the district's mayor, a representative from the education ministry and various other local notables. His visits, like his business meetings, are swift and to the point - a sweep through the school's halls and a barrage of questions directed at school officials.

 

At a primary school bearing his name, in a working-class district on the outskirts of Istanbul, he marches into a classroom of wide-eyed sixth-graders who jump to their feet with the spirit and alacrity of a platoon hailing its general and he exhorts them to heed their studies.

 

At another school, he upbraids an official for countenancing stained carpets and trash that lines the building's long hallways.

 

"This place is full of garbage," he says, his voice low and angry. "Do something about it. It's shameful."

 

There are touching moments, too. A newly built primary school in a village close to the border with Armenia echoes with shouts of its 360 students as Ozyegin's wife, sister and brother-in-law, who oversee the logistics of the building program, stop by for a visit.

 

Rarely do the children here attend high school. Many of them speak Kurdish as their first language and their parents eke out an existence as sheep and cow herders.

 

Clothes are frayed and toes poke through the holes of plastic shoes. But, like the fading evening light on the snowy peak of nearby Mount Ararat, there are glimmers of hope, too.

 

Danyan Kuba, a tall, nervous seventh-grader dressed in a coat and tie, is asked what he wants to be when he grows up. He shifts awkwardly, looks down at his shoes and back up again. "I want to be a math teacher," he says in a strong, clear voice.

 

For Ozyegin, becoming one of the richest men in the world has brought its own pressures. He gets many letters each day. Some ask him to erase the debt they have on their Finansbank credit cards.

 

Others are more poignant - recently he received a letter from an admirer in jail asking for a pair of shoes and a suit, a request he plans to honour.

 

Like some who have made so much, Ozyegin likes to keep score.

 

Warren Buffet may be the richest man in the world, but Ozyegin says his wealth has risen faster.

 

"My compounding is better than Buffet's, but my track record is only one-half as long," he said.

 

He is also a student of the life of J.P. Morgan: he reels off how much Morgan, who dominated the world of finance at the turn of the 20th century, left to his son, daughter and wife, as well as the salary he awarded the captain of his yacht. But Ozyegin's lack of renown on the larger global stage nags at him.

 

"I'm giving away 2 per cent of my net income every month," he says. "I don't think Bill Gates is doing that."

 

The New York Times

[Warrior of Light]

Salaam Rahima,

 

thanks, that was inspiring. Charity begins at home.

[LayZie G.]

A good read, indeed.

 

Now if only Rahima can dig into her pockets...

[Tuujiye]

^^^^^^^^ looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool ala adiga dadka kaa fakada waa duceysan yihiin.......

 

Worrior aka my Hero sister!!! were have u been yaaqee other than daaweyning some sick people but yaa!!!

 

Wareer Badanaa!!

[Rahima]

Layzie my pockets are shallow

 

Just enough space for a few coins.

 

Maybe in the future, pray that i stumble across a lots of $$$ somewhere in outback WA- they are in the midst of a mine boom after all.