Man in the News: Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani

When Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund pulled out of its bid for J.Sainsbury, the UK supermarket group, bankers dismissed the state investment authority’s chances of making its mark on the City of London in the foreseeable future. Six months later, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, the Qatar Investment Authority’s chief executive, is back.

Qatar has invested more than £2bn ($4bn, €2.5bn) for a stake of up to 10 per cent in Barclays, the British bank, as part of a plan to put $15bn (€9.6bn, £7.6bn) into financial blue chips. The QIA, which is estimated to control $40bn-$60bn in assets, this week also lured NYSE Euronext to invest in Doha’s stock exchange. Qatar is building up its financial centre in fierce competition with the established international hub of Dubai.

Sheikh Hamad will be feted at the top tables of international finance as hundreds of billions of dollars of surplus gas revenues flow into the investment vehicle that aims to keep this tiny Gulf state one of the wealthiest in the world long after its prodigious gas reserves run out.

His marriage of political power and commercial nous has made him one of the richest men in a region of very rich men. He has been foreign minister since 1992 and was also recently promoted to prime minister. The emir of Qatar is said to have quipped of his longstanding ally: “I may run this country, but he owns it.”

Long before investments raised him to prominence, Sheikh Hamad’s idiosyncratic foreign policy and backing of the free-speaking al-Jazeera satellite channel had already attracted attention. He talks openly of “his friends” in Israel, having forged relations with the Arabs’ historical foe in the 1990s. At the same time, the Doha offices of Hamas, the militant Palestinian group, receive Qatari largesse. The deserts south of Doha host the largest US base in the region, yet Sheikh Hamad is more critical of Washington’s foreign policy than his neighbours.

In some ways, these positions reflect the split personality of Qatar, which follows the conservative Wahhabi Islam of neighbouring Saudi Arabia but is also banking on tourism.

Last month Sheikh Hamad’s pragmatism gave Qatar its greatest diplomatic coup to date when he halted Lebanon’s descent into another civil war by brokering a truce. Pro-western Lebanese had perceived him as too favourable to Iran and Hizbollah, the Shia group, but in the end his contacts with Syria helped him to succeed. By the fourth day of the talks at Doha’s Sheraton hotel his casual but determined style had won over Lebanese critics.

Born in 1959 in Qatar, Sheikh Hamad’s studies took him to Lebanon but he perfected his English in the UK, starting his government career at the office of his uncle before becoming minister of municipal affairs and agriculture in 1989. Three years later he became foreign minister, making him one of the main powerbrokers in what was then a sleepy, underachieving emirate failing to invest its oil revenues for the future. As the current emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, plotted against his father to speed Qatar’s reforms, he found a willing ally in the foreign minister, who supported his cousin in a successful 1995 palace coup.

Sheikh Hamad’s love of long Cuban cigars may fit the stereotype of the billionaire sheikh,but he is also a connoisseur of gourmet cheeses. Indeed, the former agriculture minister is fascinated by the technology behind food production. He is now leading Qatar’s drive to invest in Pakistan and east Africa to clinch corporate farm investment deals in order to secure food supplies as global food inflation bites.

He divides his time between Doha and abroad, travelling often on foreign ministry or QIA business. His lack of protocol is also reflected in his management style. A quick decision-maker, he is also attentive to ideas from the small but growing team he is building at the QIA.

He has an extensive personal property portfolio, including, it is said, London’s most expensive apartment at the Candy Brothers’ One Hyde Park development, as well as other London area homes and hotels. In Qatar, his interests span the plush Four Seasons hotel in Doha and fast-growing Qatar Airways. His wealth has also generated envy. Sheikh Hamad is more likely than other leaders to stir quiet criticism from the loyal ranks of the Qatari populace. Qataris generally describe him as shrewd.

Sheikh Hamad had uncomfortable exposure in 2001 and 2002 when trust funds he controlled in Jersey were investigated by the island’s authorities over payments made to them by a number of European arms makers, including BAE Systems. BAE has denied wrongdoing.

The case ended when the Jersey authorities closed it in 2002 on the grounds of public interest. At the same time, Sheikh Hamad paid the island’s authorities £6m to compensate for any damage “perceived to have been caused” by the investigation and he continued to deny any wrongdoing.

The lines between the wealth of the Gulf states and their ruling families are blurred. Sheikh Hamad leads the QIA’s investment strategy but often invests his own wealth in similar deals to the QIA’s. This week’s investment in Barclays included a tranche of his own money.

If his wealth is an issue for some Qataris, so are his reformist politics. Sheikh Hamad is a lightning rod for criticism from vested interests threatened by reforms the government is introducing as its increasing exposure turns the glare of international scrutiny on to its inner workings.

He often raises awkward questions about the need for Qatar’s pampered citizens to play a more productive role in the economy. He has also likened the feudal system of sponsoring foreign workers, which forces most expatriates to seek permission if they want to leave the country, as approximating to slavery.

Once one of the main proponents of democratisation, he has cooled on prospects for expanding the electoral system beyond municipal councils, fearing the rise of Islamist sentiment and ruefully watching the political paralysis in the Gulf’s most democratic state, Kuwait.

Outside foreign policy, Sheikh Hamad has enough on his plate as he builds the QIA’s assets into an endowment that can one day cover the emirate’s budgetary outlay, currently heading above $20bn a year. “I think if we invest it right, we can secure Qatar for a generation,” he told the Financial Times last year.

Some in the region would wish him ill in his endeavours, but few would bet against him.