Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, a Self-proclaimed “Warren Buffett of Arabia” was born in 1955. He is the nephew of King Salman of Saudi Arabia.
A business magnate and investor, Prince Alwaleed studied at Menlo College and Syracuse University in the US.
He is the founder of Kingdom Holding Company, a Riyadh-based publicly traded conglomerate.
His first contract was to advise a Korean company building an officers’ club at a Riyadh military academy. Later chose to invest the profits in local real estate.
Prince Alwaleed invested $590 million in struggling Citibank (now Citigroup) in 1991; stake is now worth billions.
He has stakes in Disney, 21st Century Fox, News Corp, Apple, GM, Twitter, and a string of hotel chains and luxury hotels, including New York’s Plaza Hotel and the George V in Paris.
Considered Westernized and progressive on most issues, Prince Alwaleed champions women’s rights as most of his staff are women. He has financed the training of Hanadi Zakaria al-Hindi to become the first Saudi woman commercial airline pilot and has stated on her graduation that he is “in full support of Saudi ladies working in all fields”.
He owns a 371-room, 42,700 sq m (460,000 sq ft) palace in Riyadh, a Boeing 747-400 and an A380, and an 85m super yacht.
Prince Alwaleed established Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundations across world to offer valuable humanitarian, educational and social assistance.
The first wife of Prince Alwaleed was Dalal bint Saud, a daughter of King Saud. They have two children: Reem and Khalid. They later divorced. His second wife was a young woman Ameera al-Taweel, but later divorced.
In an interview recently, Prince Alwaleed had said: “Yes, I announce it through Okaz/Saudi Gazette for the first time. I have officially separated from Princess Ameera Al-Taweel, but she remains a person that I have all respect for.”
