The David Rubenstein Show: Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak
This is my kitchen table and also my filing system. Over much of the past three decades, I've been an investor the highest calling of mankind. I've often thought was private equity. And then I started interviewing. While I watch your interviews, Coach, I
know how to do something. I've learned in doing my interviews how leaders make it to the top. I asked him how much he wanted. He said to 50. I said, Fine.
I didn't negotiate with him. I didn't know due diligence to have something I'd like to sell and how they stay there. You don't feel inadequate now because being only the second wealthiest man in the world, is that right? People who want to see great art often go to the Louvre in Paris. But now there's another loop that's in Abu Dhabi and is about to be a Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi as well. Who's behind building these museums and other cultural attractions in Abu Dhabi? It's Mohamed al Mubarak. He's the chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi. And I sat down with him recently at his
office to talk about why Abu Dhabi wants to be a major cultural center and tourist attraction. For those people who aren't familiar with Abu Dhabi, where is Abu Dhabi? So Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. It sits on the Arabian Peninsula. We are a connecting point between east and west from present day and throughout our history. The other major city that people know in the UAE is Dubai. Yes, sir.
And so Dubai and Abu Dhabi have attracted a lot of attention in recent years because they have a fair amount of wealth and a lot of tourism attractions. So let's just talk about at the beginning what your main mission is as the minister of culture and Tourism. What are you supposed to be doing in that role? And I think what makes this job very interesting is the passion it instills in myself and all of my colleagues. We have something quite special here in Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates. What's special is that the continuous pursuit of the enhancement of quality of life. And that's not just for tourists, was
for the residents. It's for the Emiratis living here. We continuously work hand-in-hand with all our colleagues and our partners to create experiences to cater to their needs. So as you can see in Abu Dhabi and in the UAE almost every single year, there's addition of experiences, there's additions of institutions, additions of new concepts that come in and create these fantastic curated experiences for people to really cherish and enjoy. What is the population of Abu Dhabi? So the population of the UAE, slightly over 11 million people.
And Abu Dhabi is a fraction of that. Yes, it's it's the largest land bank, as I said, the capital city, you know, where a little over three and a half million people. Your position is to make sure that people come here and understand what the attractions are of Abu Dhabi.
But you're building a lot of things. So when you. How long have you been in this position? So I've been at Eldar for 20 years and at the Department of Culture and Tourism close to ten years. And, you know, I'm very humbled and lucky to be working for a government that has visionary ideas. Their vision of investing in culture and culture institutions have not just been set forth in recent modern times, but from the inception of this country. The idea of basically enhancing it with entertainment projects, projects that are theme parks, projects that are public parks, beaches, etc., has always continuously evolved through the development of the UAE, an ability for those who are not familiar with Abu Dhabi. When did it become as part of the UAE,
an independent country? So as a country, it's 1971, but it's history in the history of its people have dated back for thousands of years. And the founder of the country was Sheikh Zayed. Yes, the late founder of the country, the late father, Shahzad and Haiyan. He was a visionary man. Through his vision, you see this country being created that caters to the wants and needs of its people. And, you know, it's been his story is continued on by his son, the current president, His Highness, Sheikh Hamad bin Zayed.
When was oil discovered in Abu Dhabi? So oil was discovered prior to the formation of the country. It was discovered. And when it was discovered, it was thought of, How am I going to utilize this natural resources? Like we've always utilized our natural resources to find value, to create value for our people. I see. But before oil was discovered, the main business in this part of the world, or Abu Dhabi, was what you know, through time. We were always utilizing natural
resources, whether it's pearls, whether it's copper. You know, we've always been a trade partner. You know, our ancient trade routes, whether it were ancient Mesopotamia to ancient China, we have always traded national natural resources throughout time with what was utilized that and just like we've utilized oil, the next step is utilizing the most important natural resources, which is us people, human beings. Let's talk about some of the museums you're building or have already built. So when I want to go see the Louvre, I usually go to Paris. But now I found out you have your own
Louvre. Is that connected to the one in Paris by name, but not by curatorial intent or by mediocrity? So the Louvre. Abu Dhabi, of course, is in partnership with the Louvre. Paris, as in partnership with AFM, which was the agents France Museums. That partnership is a longstanding partnership that continues continuously flourishes. In that partnership, there is a there is
a transfer of knowledge that's being transferred on a daily basis. There's loans that come from the different French museums. That's compounded with the acquisitions that we acquire for our assets and with the team building that we have created from the opening of this museum. And they lend you some things from time to time and you lend them something. Absolutely. So are they going to lend the Mona Lisa
anytime soon? Maybe. And maybe, you know, currently we have a one of the most beautiful paintings in our museums and the Louvre. Abu Dhabi is Da Vinci is John the Baptist. And it's quite beautiful because the way
we have them use orthography of the. Well, that is quite interesting because it gives you a 1 to 1 view of everything you're looking at, whether it's a painting, whether it's an artifact. It is very sort of inept in creating a passionate inter interaction with what you're looking at. You're building another art museum of the Guggenheim now. Louvres big enough. Why do you need a Guggenheim as well,
right next door? I think it's a great question. It's I think the beautiful thing about the UAE and Libya is we live with over 200 nationalities and in doing so, they have become a part of the countries in the cities fabric. And we need to celebrate that. So we have to celebrate everybody's identity, everybody's background, everybody's heritage, everybody's history. And what's a beautiful way in doing so in these beautiful institutions, these museums are educational institutions and their community institutions. So we wanted to curate really a story where you come to Saadiyat Cultural District and you if you allow me to curate the story, you start off at the Natural History Museum and at the Natural History Museum, you get a glimpse and you get an understanding of how we came to be, how our earth came to be, how our universe came to be. From a scientific perspective. Once you leave the Natural History Museum, you go to our national museum, the seaside National Museum. There you understand the history of this
great land, not just the history of the country, but the people of this land that have been a part of this land for over 320 years. You get a glimpse of what the past and the present and the future looks like here in the UAE. From there, you maneuvered yourself to the Louvre, Abu Dhabi, which is a beautiful universal museum. It is Universal, its thematic approach. So there you basically see a part of you
on an equal pedestal with the entire world. Then you leave to the Guggenheim, which is a contemporary art museum, focusing on art from the late 1940s to today. But it looks at it at a truly global perspective. So, yes, you will see art from Pollock or Rothko or Basquiat or Warhol, but it's going to be side by side, by artists from Kenya, from Nepal, from the Philippines and all over the world. We have taken it upon ourselves to make sure that art within the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is showcased not just from a Western perspective, but a truly global South perspective. You wanted to build a modern or contemporary art museum. Why couldn't you just build one?
And why did you have an affiliation? Or why do you have an affiliation with Guggenheim? What can they do for you? So it's a mixture of things similar to the Louvre. First is a fantastic opportunity of transfer of knowledge, working side by side with that fantastic team at the Guggenheim in New York and the Guggenheim Bilbao, and working on how we can detail this museum together. Compounded by that, you know, you're taking years and blueprints of acquisition committees, of curatorial committees, music orthography committees, and you're taking them and then you're evolving them to your wants into your needs. Museums are great, and I I'm involved with a number of museums myself, the United States, but also there are performing arts parts of the cultural world. Are you involved in the performing arts as well? Absolutely. I mean, UNESCO's designated Abu Dhabi as
a city of music. Music is very close to our heart. As I said, you know, when you live with over 20 nationalities, they bring in their musical touches to the story. So, you know, our events calendar is filled with music from everything from classical music to hip hop to pop to Korean pop to dance. And the list goes on. And, you know, since COVID, where the world told us, people are not going to come to these live events, we have pretty much sold out every single live musical events, catering for all demographics. So we have built a facility for these as well. Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
And let me ask you, who is going to go to all these because their population is not that big. Do you have enough people that can fill up all these museums and and performing arts arenas and so forth? So so I think first and foremost is the way, as you rightfully said, why are we building these? So when it comes to our cultural institutions, because we truly believe that culture is the backbone of any forward thinking society. Culture has to be embedded in our DNA like it always has been. So they are not the institutions were not built for tourists. They're actually built for the residents
here and for the future generations of residents here in the United Arab Emirates. And of course, then you have the tourism story. Last year, we had a little under 5.3 million tourists we're looking to target this year, a little over 6 million tourists. Where are your tourists principally coming from, really from all over the world. But I think if I'm going to look at my five my top five destinations, you're looking at the Indian market, the Chinese market, the Russian market, the UK market, of course, the the the Western European markets, whether it's Germany or France. So they're really coming from everywhere. What about the Americans?
Are they showing up? So we have seen a double digit growth over the last two years with American tourists coming from the US. You know, I was chairman of the Smithsonian for a number of years, and very often when we had a popular museum attraction, I would get calls. People wanted free tickets, tickets for free, but they wanted access.
Do you ever get that kind of requests? Yeah. And, you know, the fact of the matter is, like I said, these museums are educational institutions. So first of all, kids go in for free, All military personnel go in for free. Anybody over the age of 60 goes in for free. And then anybody who's doing research gets this heavily subsidized aspect of their ticket.
They also get the right to basically enter all our research labs. So like I said, there are educational and community facilities. What about private equity people? They go in for free. If they sponsor.
So as we talk, there's a fair amount of turmoil in some parts of the Middle East, obviously. But what about this part of the Middle East? Is it affected by what's going on in Israel and Gaza and Syria and Lebanon or not so affected? I think first and foremost, one thing that we all as human beings look for is peace and harmony. You know, nobody wants to see devastation happening anywhere around the world, regardless if it's next to you or not next to you. The United Arab Emirates is home to over
200 nationalities from all over the world, different religions, different backgrounds. And the focus is really on how we keep our community safe and make sure that basically we work with entire diplomatic ties to make sure that we can find a solution that caters for the wants and needs of the overall world when it comes to peaceful coexistence. Now, in the United States, there's a big concern about immigration into the country as a political issue. Yes, sir.
Here you have a lot of immigrants coming in. More immigrants live here than people from the native part of Abu Dhabi, I assume. Is that a concern or is that not a problem? Not a problem, because the fact of the matter is, is that we're still a developing country.
We're still a developing city. Everything is done through a well thought out strategy. So it's not just basically this is open our doors and everybody come in. You know, you're looking for talent also, you know, teachers, nurses, doctors, engineers.
These are people that are flying in here that are helping us grow. So sometimes when populations grow quickly, you see a lot of crime. You have a lot of crime here. It is one of the safest cities in the world, one because there is a clear strategy and a plan for that.
But to everybody lives here, loves the way of life here. They want to sustain it. So everybody works hand-in-hand together to sustain that. So in Europe and the United States, you often see in major cities homeless people. I haven't seen any here, but maybe there are some. Or is homelessness a problem? So when it comes to the local population and this is where I always go back and say, you know, the government continuously works on enhancing the quality of life of the residents and the locals of the United Arab Emirates. So us as locals, you know, we have
opportunities to get free land for housing. So free housing, free Medicare, subsidized power and water and a job opportunity. So you are given the tools to succeed. What you do after these tools is really up to you. Let's talk about your own background. So where were you born? I was born in Paris. Paris? Yes, sir. Paris, France.
And moved back to Bolivia and grew up here. Had a fantastic upbringing. You know, the community society was just amazing to be a part of it. Always seeing a sense of how leadership is so close to the people. On how it always was to make sure that
the people are comfortable and happy. You know, my mother did an amazing job with my siblings and myself, and we're very close together. You know, my brother and my sisters were all a very tight knit family.
How many siblings do you have? So I have a older brother and two older sisters. So we're full of their older brother runs Mubadala, which is an investment arm of Abu Dhabi. And your sisters, are they involved in Abu Dhabi in some way like you are? So my sister, Razan Al-mubarak, she works for the environmental agency here, nobility. You know, she is an advocate of
sustainability and safeguarding the environment. My other sister is a as a as a studied lawyer. And right now, she has probably a very important job, which is focusing on her family. Now, your brother once told me that you have a big comic book collection, so you still collect that comic books and what are you going to do with them? So I have a I fell in love with comics at a very early age. You know, I grew up I remember at as
early as I can. Every time I'd find a Superman comic or a Batman comic or an X-Men comic, you know, whether it's DC or Marvel, I basically gobbled them up. I took them up and I ran up to my room and I sat in my corner and I basically just I loved the concept of creating something so imaginative, creating these worlds, you know, creating these characters that are actually so detailed, but they have so much weight to them, emotional weight to them. I love that, you know, I love the concept of storytelling. And that's what actually what my job is
all about today. It's about storytelling, whether it's curating museums with the fantastic team, whether it's curating experiences in our theme parks, whether it's curating experiences, it's storytelling in itself. Finish your own story. Did you go to college in the United States? Yes, sir. So I went to college in Boston and Northeastern University. Okay. Amazing. Four years of my life. You know, I love to study. I studied political science and
economics. Didn't study museums? No, but I was always. I was always infatuated. So when you went to college in Boston, you told people you're from Abu Dhabi. What did they say? So it was, you know, I was lucky. You know, I went to a university and they went to a place where you.
A lot of international university kids from all over the world. So they knew where you is. They know where Bobby was. But they had, you know, not a lot of information about it. The funny thing right now is every single student I went to school with has come to the abbey. And when they've come down here, they've called me, said, Oh, you remember I was with you on freshman year.
I was with you in sophomore year with you. And I said, Yeah, of course. Remember I said, You know, we've come here is amazing. They ask you for free tickets sometimes. Sometimes they do, sometimes they do. You know, I don't give my professors free tickets about the students I do. If I was going to say to you, I'm going
to leave the country in about an hour, I have to fly back to the United States. I've got an hour to visit something. What should I visit in my one hour due to our infrastructure, I what I believe you can do in an hour. Uh, you being a cultural enthusiast, I would probably recommend you. You visit the slide mosque, and you see, it's this beautiful mosque, and it's one of the greatest mosque in the world. Absolutely. And it's just. It's architecturally stunning.
You get there, you get an understanding of this beautiful space, maybe spend 20 minutes there, and then if you have an hour and then it's a around 8 to 10 minute drive to Castle Hassan, the oldest standing fort here in Abu Dhabi. It's in the center of the city. You also get a view of the entire sort of city. Spend 20 minutes there and then you shoot out. 8 minutes later, you are at the Louvre,
Abu Dhabi, and then you're off to the airport. And currently at the Liverpool lobby, we have an amazing post-Impressionist exhibition if you got a chance. It's amazing. So amazing. Van Gogh's So you tick the box. The future really lies on the idea that we have to stop. We don't have to stop. We have to continuously evolve.
We have to continuously be better. We have to continuously cater to the needs of what our future generation wants to. So Abu Dhabi is part and the UAE is part of what's called the Gulf Cooperation Council, which a number of countries that are blessed with having some oil, I would say most of them have a fair amount of oil. They include Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. So are these other countries. Shell is saying, hey, don't bring all
these tourists just to your country because we want to have some tourists, too, because they don't have anything quite like you have. Do they ever mention this to you? You know, on the contrary, you know, we've we've heard sort of press outside press talk about, for example, of competitiveness between even able to be in Dubai. But the fact of the matter is, is we all are complementary, similar to what we see in places like the US or even Europe just because of the size of the US. But we will fly to the US. You know, they're bucket list just to go to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, New Orleans.
And the list goes on. Same thing in Europe. It's Paris, it's London, it's Rome, it's Milan. And the list goes on. When it comes to this region, like I said, it is widely connected. It is in close proximity to each other.
So the tourists in reality will go to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Doha. So we are really all complementing each other with different experiences. Let's talk about another side of your life, which is building hotels or refurbishing hotels or apartment buildings, residential and so forth. So this area has grown so much that it has seen that some parts some people in Dubai are saying that there's not enough residential properties anymore for people who want to live here and work here.
Are you building more residential properties in Abu Dhabi and is this a real problem? Absolutely. It is a problem. It's a good problem to have. You know, you look at basically the growth story of a company like Eldar. You know, in 2008, we were launching 2 to 3 developments a year.
Fast forward to this year have launched 14 new developments. So the scale is significantly larger. Our our market cap has grown five folds. So your company is a publicly traded company? Yes, sir. One of the things that is you talk about the development aspect. So our development pipeline has grown
eightfold. If you look at just from a numbers perspective, you know, you going to say who who's buying here In 2021, 11% of my portfolio. What international buyers? 2024 close to 30%. And these buyers are coming from all
over the world, predominantly coming from Southeast Asia, Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe. And you might say, why now? Why is to me is a very easy a very easy question, because they're coming to a place where there is, like I said, a continuous pursuit for quality of life, one of the safest cities in the world where safety comes first, Medicare comes first, the investment of government in education, Medicare, infrastructure, public safety is always front of mind. It's a place where it is continuously evolving to create policies to cater for the needs of the investor, cater for the needs of the buyer of the homeowner. You look at all of our sort of sovereign
funds, the Mubadala, as the IHS sees the ADCs of the world, the edges of this world. Not only are they investing outside, but they're also investing within in very important sectors agritech, A.I., education, infrastructure, logistics that is creating massive job opportunities in the UAE. And people from all over the world are taking these opportunities. So I almost look at the UAE today is is
a place that is the land of opportunity. People are coming here and they're buying apartments. You don't have to be a citizen of Abu Dhabi to buy an apartment. No, sir.
And when you buy a part an apartment here, can you become a citizen here? How hard is it to be a citizen or you don't need to be a citizen to live here, so you don't need to be a citizen to live here in terms of your acquisitions. There's new policies that have been added. So long term residences, golden visas for you and for the entire family household, short term residency visas. And also at the same time, there's opportunities for naturalization. You have no plans to do something else in government. Are you going to stay in the private sector completely at some point? What are your what is your future? The future really lies on the idea that we have to stop.
We don't have to stop. We have to continuously evolve. We have to continuously be better. We have to continuously cater to the needs of what our future generation wants. And that's what makes the job special, because you're always thinking about the future. This is what makes the UAE special, is what's next for us. Let's suppose you were to summarize what
you would like the average person in the world to know about Abu Dhabi. What would you say is the message you want to convey to people about this country? Seeing is believing. You know, the fact of the matter is, I think we hear a lot of things. But in reality, you know, take a step further. You know, do your research and come because once you see what's happening here, it is very, very special. It's it's a place that is really a a
place of belonging, a place of connectivity, a place of understanding. And everything we are doing is for the next generation and the duration after that. So I would love for everybody to be a part of that with us.
2024-12-07 05:02
