ABU DHABI // Car fanatic Faisal Abdullah Al Sahlawi will swap his racing gloves for a kitchen checklist this weekend, making sure the catering facilities at the Formula One track are up to scratch.
The role may seem unlikely for the manager of the Yas Marina racing school, but the 28-year-old Emirati used every possible connection to get the chance to work at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
He joined Abu Dhabi Motorsport Management, which manages Yas Marina Circuit, in April 2009, only seven months before the track was unveiled to the world.
"Of course I remember my first day," he says. And it was a world away from where he sits now, where two-seater Formula One cars, a fleet of Yas 3000 racing cars and fully primed Aston Martin Vantage GT4s greet him every morning as he walks to his office.
The first office was a villa in Karama. "The circuit didn't exist and it was a huge construction site. I didn't know if we'd have a track but Aldar pulled it off."
Mr Al Sahlawi knew all about the challenges of construction after spending two years working for a property developer.
"I decided I wanted a job I'd enjoy. I am a petrolhead. I would not let this Grand Prix go through without having anything to do with it. I have always been a car freak," he says.
For six months, he tried to find a job at Yas. "I applied directly, then applied through some friends in the company and got hired. I exhausted all my channels."
He started in the ticketing department, and before the inaugural race he moved into the commercial side as a business development officer. His role during the first grand prix weekend was in the Paddock Club, making sure everyone knew where and where not to go.
"There are a lot of suites there and you will not get anywhere without a pass. You have to be in the middle and hustle your way around to get the passes," he says.
Last year, he shadowed the commercial director. "I got to know the people in Allsports Management and the FIA," he says.
This year is different again, as he was promoted to the racing school manager in January.
His job the past few days has been overseeing the display stands in the Oasis areas behind the stands that promote the driving school. However, his main interaction was with Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority (ADFCA), who he worked with to ensure all the catering companies met food safety standards.
"I took ADFCA around all the kitchens in the whole circuit. They inspected everything and I've made sure they have the passes they need," he says.
He is the middleman between ADFCA and the catering companies that arrive with the Formula One teams. His main task is to iron out any problems that arose last year and make sure they do not happen again.
"A lot of the time the problems are just miscommunication between them and ADFCA," he says. His job is to make sure everyone knows the rules.
"Each type of food has to be frozen or stored at a certain temperature and each fridge must have the perfect temperature all the way too. You can't use the same surface to cut meat as you cut fish on - its all mainly about hygiene," he said.
He does not mind juggling different jobs throughout the event. "The special thing in a grand prix is everyone multitasks. One day you're meeting top level people, the next day you're carrying boxes. Whatever it takes to get the job done, every one does it," he says.
For Mr Al Sahlawi the event does not finish when the chequered flag waves on Sunday.
"Once the last guest leaves, I can go home."
eharnan@thenational.ae
Hamilton interview, s4-5
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'Panga'
Directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring Kangana Ranaut, Richa Chadha, Jassie Gill, Yagya Bhasin, Neena Gupta
Rating: 3.5/5
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
