SimplyAbuDhabi XXXVII

042 | SIMPLY INFLUENTIAL MM: So, it’s interesting. It was about four years ago, we published a study called ‘Drink Differently’ and it showed that two soft drinks a day shorten your life by four and a half years, if you haven’t had another mutation event four and a half years. And the leadership that the country has shown. Mexico also put a tax at a lower level. Let’s switch a little bit here to the, your responsibilities at Mubadala. Formed in 2002, its mandate in 2002, under your leadership, the role it plays today, its responsibilities to the citizens of the UAE and Abu Dhabi, but also the potential role it can play by bringing in partners in leadership for other sovereign wealth funds around the world. or other investors. One of the things that has struck me is the lack of turnover of the leadership and the quality of leadership that you’ve been able to have, and whether it’s venture capital or whether it’s infrastructure or whether it’s public equities. It is quite unique in the world. Many other countries have aspired to create these entities. They’ve hired people and they’ve left, but you’ve been able to keep and attract talent. So, one, what is the mission, two, what do you see your capable of doing for others around the world? And three, how have you been able to maintain and attract and to keep with you many of the world’s greatest investors? KKM: Well, Mubadala has changed a lot over the years. And we have a big responsibility. We’re managing the future wealth of the nation. Mubadala, throughout its history, has had a very successful record in building its sovereign funds. ADIA (Abu Dhabi Investment Authority), as many of you know, has been one of the most successful sovereign funds in the world. It’s a fantastic institution, and it’s an institution, it’s been built over many years, and it’s deep. The other sovereign funds, Mubadala being one of them – there were three actually, that we have just completed a year ago the consolidation of these three, Mubadala, IPIC (International Petroleum Investment Company) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Council into one, recognising that skill and efficiency of having one sovereign fund – one from the three – is a more optimal way for Abu Dhabi to manage this wealth. Mubadala started with a mission of diversifying our economy, of investing both in the UAE and outside of the UAE. In the UAE, our mission was to develop industries, that help in that economic cycle. We are not here to compete with the private sector. We’re not here to go into sectors that are well developed in the UAE. Our job was to bring in new sectors, such as renewable energy, we started a company called Strata in the aerospace industry… we started a company called Yahsat in the satellite and telecommunications sector, building an industrial giant to compete with our oil and gas sector, which is Emirates Global Aluminum, EGA, which is now one of the largest producers in the world and one of the largest employers in the UAE. Building a high-quality healthcare sector such as the Cleveland Clinic, the diabetes clinic, et cetera. These are all sectors that we’ve targeted as Mubadala, as investment sectors, with a rate of return and with the objectives of a financial mandate, but at the same time a direct social impact that helps the development of the country and helps diversifying the economy of the country. But of course, given our size, we cannot concentrate all our investment in the UAE, more than 80 per cent of our investment is international, because at the end of the day, the economy cannot handle the size of investment. SIMPLY INFLUENTIAL | 043 “We’re managing the wealth of the nation.”