A walk on the wild side in Borneo proved a life-changing experience for a Danish expat who now heads an NGO dedicated to protecting the natural habitat of the UAE.
ABU DHABI // After four weeks of tracking an orang-utan family in the Sumatran jungle, Ida Tillisch wondered whether she would ever continue the business career she had planned to pursue.
She was in her twenties and well into the world of business and finance when she went on the trip that changed her life, eventually leading her to become the head of the Emirates Wildlife Fund – World Wildlife Fund (EWS-WWF).
Through her work at the non-profit organisation, Ms Tillisch helps to reduce threats to the UAE’s natural environment, from making conservation plans for sea turtles in the Gulf to reducing carbon emissions through policy work. She also runs environmental education programmes in schools.
After university in the United States, she took a “really boring” job in Denmark developing a storage system for a company. It was then that her life changed.
“One day, a friend of mine living in Singapore called to ask me if I wanted to go hiking with them on Mount Kinabalu,” she says. “My father came that day for dinner and he said, ‘Why don’t you go?’”
Ms Tillisch was surprised at the advice from her father, who had encouraged her to pursue a more conventional path, such as going abroad on a US high school exchange programme and attending one of Europe’s most competitive business schools.
So she went.
With a small suitcase and a quick call to work, she was soon en route to Borneo, summiting Malaysia’s highest peak.
The mountaineering adventure prompted her to take part in an expedition in the Sumatran jungle to follow the orang-utans. She spent the next four months travelling in Asia.
Ms Tillisch says that formative period in her life has given her a lifetime of passion in the race to preserve wild habitats and species around the world, particularly when many are threatened.
“That moment of my father encouraging me to do something completely crazy was probably the same feeling I had when I turned down a nice job opportunity and decided to work for an NGO paying a lot less,” she says.
Ms Tillisch says every day she cherishes her decision to work in the so-called “third sector”, excited to work with the EWS-WWF’s 44-person team in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Fujairah.
She has learnt the importance of happiness and cultivating a curiosity about one’s place in the world – a lesson she hopes to pass on to her eight-year-old daughter, Margaux, and six-year-old son, Axel.
“So many people come to the UAE and don’t experience the real life here. They don’t create a home for themselves,” she says.
“For me, the reason why I am so passionate about my work is because I care for the UAE as if it was my home country.” By building relationships with the local members of the EWF-WWF board, but also local friends and colleagues, the Dane says she has grown emotionally invested in the UAE, and formed an affinity to the country’s natural habitat and dedicated work ethic towards its protection.
“It’s made a huge difference to feel welcome and almost adopted. I’m lucky to have people who are willing to enlighten me and are inspiring me with a deeper understanding of the UAE history and culture and encouraging me that what I am doing for the country is important,” she says.
“Many expats live here for years and don’t have the great opportunity to experience that kind of feeling of home.”
nalwasmi@thenational.ae
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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.”
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