COVID-19 MASA’S LAST LAUGH? BILLIONAIRES WITH ARAB ROOTS SOCIAL WORDS FROM THE SUPER-RICH INITIATIVES EARNING THEIR STATUS MAY 2020 ISSUE 93 Egypt Nassef Sawiris $5 billion Algeria Kuwait WORLD’S Issad Rebrab Kutayba Alghanim $4.2 billion $1.3 billion RICHEST ARABS 21 Arab billionaires with total wealth $47.3 billion Egypt Oman Mohamed Mansour Suhail Bahwan $3.3 billion U.A.E. $2.1 billion Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Ghurair $3.7 billion When a CMA speaks, decision makers listen. 103 People trust experts. So become one. Get your Certified Management Accountant credential and you’ll have the kind of analytical mind that offers true insights. That’s because you’ll have mastered the 12 most critical practice areas in management accounting. To get started, visit imamiddleeast.org/cma-me or contact +971 4 4296017 and help the decision makers make better decisions. FORBESMIDDLEEAST.COM MAY 2020 8 I Sidelines Billionaires Feel The Pinch By Claudine Coletti 10 I Fact & Comment Less Can Be More—Much More. 1 By Steve Forbes I LEADERBOARD 12 I Billionaires With Arab Roots 16 I Notable Arab Billionaire Drop-Offs 20 21 C O N T E S I COVID-19 SOCIAL INITIATIVES 18 I Meet The Middle East Billionaires Funding The Fight Against COVID-19. 19 I Emirati Business Tycoon, Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, Launches Fund To Support Refugee Education 20 I Alwaleed Bin Talal Donates $30 Million To Help Battle Combat COVID-19. 21 I MENA Masterminds. 12 22 I Hydroponic Farming Amid COVID-19: How Majid Al Futtaim Is Raising Food Security In The U.A.E. I LEADERSHIP DURING COVID 19 30 I CEO Advice: How Should Business Leaders Communicate In A Crisis? By Jason Lasardo I TECHNOLOGY 44 I COVID-Tech: Economic Technological Transformations In The Post-Coronavirus Era By Khuloud Al Omian I THOUGHT LEADERS 49 I Google Has Joined The Video Chat War – Which 17 I Applying A Gender Lens To COVID-19 Platform Will You Choose Now? By Violette Khairallah Safadi By Jamila Gandhi 43 I Preventing Corporate Fraud In The Middle East By Michael Armstrong I FORBES LIFE 58 I Family Business Disputes And The Fall Of Legacies 96 I World's Richest Cities By Rana Shashaa From Singapore to New York City, more than 26% of the world’s 2,095 billionaires live in just 10 cities on three continents. 71 I Regulators Are Facing Tough Challenges When It By Giacomo Tognini Comes To Crypto Assets 100 I Thoughts On COVID-19 By Paul Kayrouz FORBESMIDDLEEAST.COM MAY 2020 I BILLIONAIRES 77 I 10 Richest Self-Made Billionaires 84 I Earning Their Status 85 I Notable Global Billionaire Drop-Offs 2 86 I Family Fortunes 87 I Success Amid The Storm 88 I Meet The World's 10 Youngest Billionaires 90 I The 20 Richest American Billionaires 92 I India’s 10 Richest Billionaires C O N T E S 93 I The 10 Richest Russian Billionaires 94 I The 10 Richest Chinese Billionaires 52 Zoom Kaboom! Eric Yuan is helping millions of people survive social distancing by giving away his videoconferencing tool, Zoom, for free. When the pandemic has passed, the billionaire’s business will be better than ever. But can his app withstand a 610% spike in traffic and primetime scrutiny? By Alex Konrad 72 The Billionaire’s Startup The world is awash in streaming services, and Meg Whitman already had her fortune—but then Jeffrey Katzenberg came calling with a mobile-focused startup. With nearly $1.8 billion raised and America on lockdown, consumers may have no choice but to try Quibi. By Dawn Chmielewski 74 Masa's Last Laugh? Between the WeWork debacle and the coronavirus, the markets have deemed Masayoshi Son’s $100 billion Vision Fund largely 88 worthless. But the legendary investor has other Softbank assets, a track record—and a plan. Cover photos: Nassef Sawiris Bloomberg / Bloomberg via Getty Images; Mohamed Mansour Image from Man Capital; Kutayba Alghanim, Issad Rebrab, By Alex Konrad Suhail Bahwan and Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Ghurair Images from Source FORBESMIDDLEEAST.COM MAY 2020 3 FORBESMIDDLEEAST.COM MAY 2020 6X_CABIN_205x265_Forbes_uk.indd 1 14/04/2020 10:43 MAY 2020 ISSUE 93 • INSIDE • 4 WORLD’S RICHEST ARABS 2020 C O N T E S 34 FORBESMIDDLEEAST.COM MAY 2020 5 FORBESMIDDLEEAST.COM MAY 2020 MAY 2020 ISSUE 93 6 Dr. Nasser Bin Aqeel Al Tayyar President & Publisher [email protected] Khuloud Al Omian Editor-in-Chief Forbes Middle East, CEO - Arab Publisher House [email protected] Claudine Coletti Managing Editor Ruth Pulkury Senior Vice President - Sales [email protected] [email protected] Fouzia Azzab Arabic Editor [email protected] Jamila Gandhi Reporter [email protected] Philip Alexander Senior Sales Manager Samar Khouri Online Editor [email protected] [email protected] Waleed Hmidan Video Journalist [email protected] Fiona Pereira Senior Sales Manager FORBES MIDDLE EAST FORBES Amany Zaher Quality Assurance Editor [email protected] [email protected] Research Team Jason Lasrado [email protected] Karthik Krishnan Sales Representative Ahmed Mabrouk [email protected] [email protected] Nermeen Abbas [email protected] Soumer Al Daas Head of Creative [email protected] Julie Marquez, Sinnate Yafa Graphic Designers Social Media Team Sally Hoteit, Thoraya Abdullahi Daniyal Baig Conference Director [email protected] Kashif Baig Event Producer [email protected] Lizan-Mari Gray Events & Editorial Coordinator [email protected] Tabarek Jouini PR & Communications Executive [email protected] Juweyria Hersi Editorial Assistant [email protected] Habibullah A. Qadir Operations Manager [email protected] Mrinalini Vijay Head of Human Resources [email protected] FORBES US Chairman and Editor-In-Chief Steve Forbes CEO and President Michael Federle Copyright© 2019 Arab Publisher House Copyright @ 2019 Forbes LLC. All rights reserved. This title is protected through a trademark registered with the US Patent & Trademark Office Forbes Middle East is published by Arab Publisher House under a license agreement with Forbes Media LLC. 499 Washington Blvd, 10th floor, Jersey City, NJ, 07310 Founded in 1917 B.C. Forbes, Editor-in-Chief (1917-54); Malcolm S. Forbes, Editor-in-Chief (1954-90); James W. Michaels, Editor (1961-99) William Baldwin, Editor (1999-2010) ABU DHABI OFFICE Office 602, Building 6, Park Rotana Office Complex, Khalifa Park, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. – P.O. Box 502105 Tel +9714 440 8975, Fax +9714 440 8976 [email protected] Dubai Office Office 302, Al Attar Business Avenue, Al Barsha 1,Dubai - U.A.E. P.O. Box 502105 Tel +9714 3995559, Fax +9714 440 8976 [email protected] [email protected] Egypt Office 3rd floor, 25 Wezaret Al Zeraa St., Al Dokki, Giza Governorate, Egypt Tel: +202 33385845 - 33385844 Ahmed Mabrouk +201 225681325 Email: [email protected] Queries: [email protected] For Production Queries: [email protected] FORBES MIDDLE EAST IS PUBLIC RELATIONS LEGALLY REPRESENTED BY Abdullah AlHaithami Advocate & Legal Consultants P.O.BOX 95561 DUBAI - UAE [email protected] TEL: +971 4 886 8535 www.intlawfirm.com FORBESMIDDLEEAST.COM MAY 2020 7 LUXURY REDEFINED FORBESMIDDLEEAST.COM patchi.comMAY 2020 Sidelines 8 Billionaires Feel The Pinch ith the world still grappling with the impact of a global pandemic, no-one is being FORBES MIDDLE EAST left untouched, whether by changing working practices, physical restrictions, or Wturbulent stock markets. Even the world’s richest people—the global population of billionaires—have not been left unscathed. This month we release our annual list of the World’s Richest Arabs, derived from Forbes’ 2020 ranking of the World’s Billionaires. There are three fewer Arab billionaires in 2020 than there were last year. One sadly passed away this year—Saif Al Ghurair, founder of the Al Ghurair Group. And three others saw their wealth plummet due to fluctuations in the stock markets, which for a couple of them was caused at least in part by the ongoing saga and sad decline of NMC Health, which has devastated its investors. In total, the wealth of the 21 Arab billionaires this year declined by 21.5% from $60.3 billion in 2019 to $47.3 billion in 2020—a drop of $13 billion. Of course, when you’re that wealthy, you can probably weather the storm without too many worries. And indeed, some billionaires have actually found themselves still making money. Of Egypt’s six billionaires, four have seen their net worth rise, as has Algeria’s only billionaire, Issad Rebrab & family, founder and CEO of Cevital. The year’s biggest winner so far is Egyptian Mohammed Mansour, head of the Mansour Group. His net worth grew an impressive 43.4% to $3.3 billion from $2.3 billion. International billionaires too have seen variations. At the time the Forbes 2020 list was calculated on March 18, there were 2,095 billionaires in the world, and 51% were poorer than they were in 2019. Their collective wealth was down $700 billion from last year. Even the untouchable Jeff Bezos, though still the richest person in the world with a net worth of $113 billion, had dropped $18 billion from last year’s calculation of $131 billion. Of course, the ever-resilient Bezos has since more than recovered—his real-time net worth on May 3 was $138.2 billion. These figures and net worth calculations are changing all the time, but in the current environment there’s no way of knowing whether the figures will edge up or fall down. Some big names are making big decisions. As I write this, Warren Buffett has announced that Berkshire Hathaway has dumped its stocks in America’s four biggest airlines—and it chose to do so at a loss.