Al-Waleed bin Talal
Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud is a component of the Saudi Royal Family and was born on March 7, 1955. This international investor and entrepreneur has amassed great wealth through his investments in the stock market and in real estate. With a net worth of $13.3 billion, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal was included in this year’s Forbes annual rich list. He was also dubbed as the Arabian Warren Buffett by the prestigious Time Magazine.
In 1979, Al-Waleed bin Talal obtained his bachelor of science degree in business administration from the Menlo College. Later on, he was able to follow that up with a masters in social science in 1985 at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University. To top it all off, the University of Exeter awarded Al-Waleed bin Talal with an honorary PhD.
Al-Waleed bin Talal has chosen to stay out of Saudi Arabia’s political core despite him being the nephew of King Abdullah. Instead he went on to build his own massive international corporation, the Kingdom Holding Company. The Prince started his career in the business sector right after his graduation from Menlo College. During the 1990s, Al-Waleed bin Talal had purchased a considerable tranche of shares in Citicorp. He placed a start-up investment of $550 million in order to bail out the firm. Aside from that, Al-Waleed bin Talal had also made investments in several large companies including the MCI Inc. Motorola, AOL, Apple Inc., News Corporation Ltd as well as other prestigious media and technology companies.
Aside from being one of the world’s most prominent investors, Al-Waleed bin Talal also involves himself in several charitable activities. He mainly supports a variety of educational initiatives that bridges the gap between the Western and Islamic communities. He supports the centers of Islamic studies in several western universities as well as centers for American studies and research in a number of Middle Eastern universities.