Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Alsaud as One of the Worlds Wealthiest Men - Essay Example

The paper "Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Alsaud as One of the World’s Wealthiest Men" is a great example of an essay on biographies. HRH Prince Al Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud is a member of the Saudi Royal family. He was born on March 7, 1955, in Saudi Arabia. A business investor by profession, he has been named ‘The Arabian Warren Buffet’ by The Times magazine. He is the largest individual foreign investor in the US. Prince Waleed’s father prince Talal was the son of King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud the founder of Saudi Arabia. His mother Mona El-Solh was the daughter of first Lebanese Prime Minister Riad El-Solh (MobileReference, 2007).

     Prince Waleed became the CEO of his company at the age of 14 and he has turned it into a multibillion-dollar empire. In the beginning, he wasn’t immediately successful. When he started investing, he burned through a $30,000 gift from his father within no time. He went to various companies asking for a loan, but he was rejected flatly. Among those companies were Citigroup, Riyadh. But he remained consistent and acted as a liaison between foreign investors and construction companies. By doing so, he managed to accumulate millions and established the Kingdom Holding Company. He is a self-made businessman. He officially started his career in 1979 and since then there has been no turning back. In the early 90s during the gulf war, the largest investment bank in America, Citicorp was going through a financial crisis. It lost half of its worth in less than a year (Briody, 2010). This is the moment where prince Waleed shone on the international investment horizon as a very bright star. He bought the financially troubled firm Citicorp with an initial investment of $550 million. Citicorp now has a worth of over $1 billion. Moreover, his real estate investments are in hotel chains and Four Seasons, Plaza Hotel and Savoy Hotel are a few big names that hold Prince Waleed’s investment (Annual Review, 2007).

     Prince Waleed is praised for his own hard work and business intelligence. He used very little of his inherited fortunes to make it to the list of the world’s wealthiest men. According to Forbes magazine, the net worth of Prince Waleed is $19.6 billion. Up to this day, Prince Waleed is the largest shareholder in Citicorp. Moreover, he had announced $500 million in GMs IPO. He is also holding 40% share-power in the Kingdom’s Group which is due to building the world’s tallest building in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia ("Prince Alwaleed bin," 2011).