If I could have your attention, please.
Can you hear me? Is that on? Your Royal Highness;
Your Excellency; My Lord;
Ladies and Gentlemen, it's a huge honour to be able to host this memorial event for a much missed colleague and friend, Nemir Kirdar.
In this building, the Investcorp building; in this centre, the Middle East Centre; at this college,
St Anthony's College, with all of which Nemir was so closely associated over so many years.
This evening gives us the chance to remember and give thanks for all those associations and many more associations.
And to hear from those who knew him best.
So on behalf of everyone here this evening, I would like to start by thanking our guest of honour,
His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain, for joining us here today.
And we look forward to hearing from you, Sir, later.
I would also like to thank Lord Rosslyn, Master of the Royal Household, who is here to represent His Majesty, King Charles III.
I think that's the first time I've ever said that in public. His Majesty has sent his apologies that he could not be here in person
and has written very warmly to Mrs. Kirdar and the family, extending his condolences and sharing his own fond memories of Nemir.
Nemir Kirdar was born in Baghdad on the 28th of October 1936, and he passed away in Antibes in France on the 8th of June 2020.
He had a long association with St Anthony's,
where he was elected as an Honorary Fellow in recognition of his remarkable leadership and support in the development of the Middle East Centre.
And I mean remarkable support. The College's Middle East Centre comprises two buildings:
The 1887 building next door designed by the Victorian architect H.G.W. Drinkwater,
which is now called the Kirdar Building; and the 2015 building
we're in, here, today, designed by the remarkable architect, Zaha Hadid, called the Investcorp Building.
Investcorp's gift of £11 million for this building is the largest gift the College has received in its whole history.
Nemir himself made a further personal gift of £3.5 million.
Their combined support for the project of £14.5 million not only allowed us to fully cover all the costs to construct the building,
but also provided the basis of an endowment fund for its maintenance and has given us that dream of all institutions: A brand new,
iconic and totally debt-free building.
You'll understand, therefore, why I feel so privileged to hold this event, where we feel so privileged to hold this event here today.
And why, as Master of Ceremonies, I'm so honoured to be able to introduce our speakers.
Our first speaker is Mr. Mohammed Mahfoodh Alardhi
Mr. Alardhi is Executive Chairman of Investcorp and he leads the firm's activities across it's global network in New York,
Riyadh, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Mumbai, Singapore and London.
He is a graduate of the Royal Air Force College in Bracknell and holds a Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School in Harvard.
He joined the Royal Air Force of Oman in 1978 and subsequently, subsequently was appointed as Chief of the Omani Air Force,
retiring with the rank of Air Vice Marshal.
Somehow in this incredible career, he also found time to write three books: Arabs Down Under, Pearls from Arabia, and Arabs Unseen.
We thank him for sharing a few thoughts with us today.
Thank you very much, indeed.
Your Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain;
Distinguished Guests; Ladies and Gentlemen,
it's wonderful to be with you tonight in this heart of learning, to celebrate a man who truly deserves to be celebrated.
I could not think of anyone more befitting of this title, Man of Principles and Vision.
If there is anyone who I have had the pleasure to work with in my career journey, namely at Investcorp,
it's Nemir Kirdar. He was a maverick in the true sense of the word.
Someone unafraid of taking a calculated risk.
Someone who dreamt big and delivered bigger.
Someone who put people at the heart of his business.
All traits that anyone lucky enough to call Nemir a colleague, a friend, a father and a husband can vouch for.
Wherever he went, whoever he met,
Nemir offered lessons for everyone, whether he meant to or not:
Whether in appearance (tying a Windsor knot and picking out a matching pocket square);
whether in business (negotiating a big deal with patience and perseverance);
or whether in our industry (eaving a legacy of iconic deals in the history of private equity);
we all learned from him. Nemir's vision and nose for entrepreneurship led him and others to greatness. As far back as the eighties,
he saw the Gulf as the Middle East's unrealised Silicon Valley, a region that offered a huge amount of potential waiting to be tapped.
He saw it as a place where ideas could become new realities;
at pace and scale. He believed that the family businesses operating then would appreciate and believe in well-thought-through business ideas.
He pitched his vision to 250 investors in 1982, and each of them committed capital to Investcorp,
when it was just an idea and five people burning the midnight oil in a hotel room in Manama.
They trusted the vision, the principles and the ethics he put forward.
And they were right to, because he delivered on every part of his plan.
The roots of this plan were formed and grew in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
We will always deeply value the role that Bahrain played and continues to play as the home of Investcorp.
We're tremendously grateful to the Nation's leadership for creating a place where businesses can thrive and prosper at the intersection of the globe.
A place that has developed robust fundamentals for business growth, an agile regulatory framework, and a hub of skilled local talent.
A place that continues to attract investors from all around the world to its shores.
Bahrain was, and is, true to Nemir's vision.
The perfect launchpad for Investcorp's growth journey. At the centre of Nemir's plan for an alternative investment based out of Bahrain,
were the Company's values: Empathy, boldness, resilience and agility.
For Nemir, they provided the organisation's North Star, inspiring the way forward.
These values combined with Nemir's singular, driven, futuristic,
unfocused mindset saw him accomplish whatever he set his mind to. In 40 years
the brand we built together has become a successful, diversified global company.
Today, Investcorp is competing at the highest level of the finance world.
We are operational across three continents with 13 international offices,
and we are heading towards a long range plan of becoming $100 billion AUM company.
And as we look forward to the years ahead, I can think of no better way to honour and perpetuate Nemir's legacy than delivering on this goal.
This is our vision for Investcorp, and I know he would be truly proud of what we achieved together and what we aim to achieve in the future.
Beyond financial success, at Investcorp we also want to honour Nemir's passion for education.
And that's why we are launching a global internship program in his name. The Nemir Kirdar
Internship Program will bring together the top performers from the global markets where we operate today to enhance their knowledge,
expertise and professionalism with a stint at Investcorp.
Through this program, we hope we can live up to his high standards of mentorship and support for those who share his vision.
Enabling talent and education was an endeavour very close to Nemir's heart.
In fact, it was his belief in the ability of education to break barriers and bridge divides
that built the Middle East Centre in the United Kingdom right here at St Antony's,
at Oxford University. I recall when he presented the idea of the Investcorp Building in Oxford to us,
members of the Board of Directors, in the wake of the global financial crisis.
The idea certainly stimulated a lot of debate in the boardroom.
Nemir simply replied that this would be great for the future of Investcorp,
for future generations of young people from the West and the Middle East and for society.
And of course, he was right. The bridges that Investcorp built through the Centre were not just cross-border educational opportunities,
they also connected cultures and civilisations at a time when bridges needed building.
Nemir was also a man of great taste, with a refined eye for the elegant, especially design and aesthetics.
For him, there was no one else who could be commissioned to deliver on this project than the late world-renowned Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid.
Nemir loved the design of the building. He thought it would drive Oxford into the 21st century.
For him, it was a perfect meeting of form and function, something he always strove to achieve in and out of the boardroom.
This vision, these principles, this conviction to continuously grow and learn will live on at Investcorp.
They will stay with me forever. And for that, I'll be eternally grateful.
So to my dear friend and mentor, Nemir Kirdar,
thank you, and may you rest in peace.
Thank you. Thank you very much indeed.
Our, our second speaker is Margaret MacMillan. My only real personal claim to fame in life is that I somehow managed to be both
Margaret's immediate predecessor and immediate successor as Warden at St Anthony's,
and you can work that out if you go onto the website. Margaret is one of the world's best known contemporary historians and one of its best
commentators on the historical roots of so many of the world's contemporary challenges.
I don't actually know exactly how many books she's written. I doubt whether she knows exactly how many books she's written.
But amongst the best known are: Peacemakers; Nixon in China; The War that Ended Peace;
The Uses and Abuses of History; History's People; and most recently, War,
How Conflict Shaped Us, based on her extraordinary 2018 Reith Lectures.
Margaret, thank you very much indeed. Your Royal Highness, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
and my predecessor and successor, thank you for that very nice introduction.
It is an honour, of course mixed with sadness to be here at the memorial for Nemir Kirdar,
an Honorary Fellow and Benefactor of the College and its Middle East Centre.
And it is a pleasure to see so many of the Kirdar family here, including his widow, Nada,
and his daughter Serra and Rena, as well as so many friends and members of the Centre.
And here we are, as is fitting in the building which would not exist without Nemir.
It was his vision and his support that made it possible.
From the time it was first conceived and commissioned in the first decade of the 21st century,
through the groundbreaking in 2013, a happy occasion which I remember well to the equally happy gala opening in 2015.
One of the nicer parts of my job as Warden was getting to know the College's supporters.
And to me, he was, quite frankly, one of the most pleasant and thoughtful donors I've ever encountered and a true friend to the College.
One day I may write my memoirs about the other sort. He understood the academic world.
Indeed, I think if he had not chosen the career of a banker, he could have been an equally successful academic.
And he knew how important the Middle East Centre was as a place where scholars and students from
the region and the rest of the world could meet and exchange ideas. In his own life and career
he too moved between several different worlds. In his autobiography, he kindly gave me a copy, which I read with great interest and enjoyment,
he told of a life that had started in an Iraq where his family had occupied a trusted and respected position for generations,
and of how the Revolution of 1958 and the troubled years that succeeded
it, had upended his life and that of his family.
When Iraq became impossible and dangerous for him and his family, he had to embark on a new career in the United States.
While he did not dwell on those years and was surprisingly without bitterness,
his account of them shows the determination,
his essential decency and the business acumen that was to make him a pioneer in bringing together the growing
funds being accumulated in the Middle East as oil profits rose and the opportunities for investment in the West.
And it also shows how much his extraordinary partnership with Nada and his family meant to him.
Nemir would have been a leading businessman and a benefactor to society wherever he lived: In Iraq, in Turkey or in the United States.
But it was Britain's great, good fortune and us here in Oxford that he and Investcorp developed such strong ties with this country.
Wherever his career took him, he had a profound and continuing interest in the Middle East;
felt sorrow at his problems; and continued to hope for a better future,
as his book among other things, Saving Iraq, demonstrates yet again. I remember well when I first met him:
I had just become Warden of this College, and we met in his office in London,
where Zaha Hadid was showing her plans for what was to become this building,
and in my view, one of the finest pieces, one of her finest pieces of work.
Nemir once told me that he remembered her running about as a little girl.
Hard to imagine someone quite so formidable as a child. And he had followed her career and thought she was the right architect for the project.
And of course, he was absolutely right. He took an interest, intense interest in her design as it developed and the work started.
His hope, sadly cut short by his illness, was that he would become even more a part of the scholarly community at the College and work in the study
which had been created for him in the Centre.
He wanted to work on the problems and challenges before the Middle East and its relations with the wider world.
And I think, I reflect yet again how we could use his wisdom today.
I wish he were here today to see for himself what he has set in motion.
Many and profound thanks Nemir Kirdar and salutations to you.
Thank you, Margaret. That was lovely. If anybody needs an introduction to our next speaker, they may actually be in the wrong room.
Our next speaker is Eugene Rogan. He has been a Fellow of the College and of the Middle East Centre for, for over 30 years.
And he, as Director of the Middle East Centre, together with his colleagues here,
has steered the Centre to the pre-eminent position that it finds itself in today.
He's the author of The Arabs, currently available to my last count in 18 different languages; and the Fall of the Ottomans.
He's just returned from a sabbatical leave and we're hoping he'll be unveiling his
latest book on Damascus in the very near future. On behalf of the Middle East Centre
Eugene, I invite you to say a few words. Your Royal Highness;
Your Excellency; My Lord; Ladies and Gentlemen; Warden, for those kind words of introduction, good to know you've got my back;
and looking at the photograph, it was good to know that Nemir had my back.
There was something larger than life about Nemir Kirdar.
Seen from a distance he was almost unapproachable,
and yet up close, Nemir was one of the warmest and most engaging of men.
These qualities engendered lifelong friendships and deep loyalties.
Just look at those of us who've gathered this evening in Oxford from such varied backgrounds.
Investcorp colleagues, welcome; Kirdar family, honoured by your presence;
lifelong friends; and Oxford scholars. Each of us has been marked by our contact with this man, this great man.
I first met Nemir Kirdar, through his daughter Serra while she was a student at Oxford.
He addressed the Oxford Middle East Society while Serra was still just an undergraduate.
My wife, Ngaire and I were invited to a massive London celebration of Investcorp's 20th anniversary, 20 years ago this year.
Lovely to be hosting this event with Investcorp, marking the 40th anniversary of the House that Nemir built.
We were welcomed to incredible family occasions when the other guests included crooners and royalty, from Britain through to the Middle East.
I've never met anyone who moved with more comfort in high society than Nada and Nemir.
Yet it wasn't until Serra took her doctorate in 2004 that I had my first real conversation with Nemir.
Graduation lunches are a family affair at St Antony's, far from the glitzy social scene in which I had previously encountered Nemir and Nada.
Students in flash gowns pose with proud parents for photographs taken in the College quad before
moving on to the shabby gentility of the College Hall for a buffet lunch. On my home turf
I finally had the chance to sit and talk at length with Nemir and Nada; and what a wonderful experience that proved to be.
Nemir's deep culture, his knowledge of history, his deep Ottoman family roots, the warm humour, that humour that he shared with Nada.
The hours raced by in their captivating company. As they prepared to leave, Nemir took me aside.
"Serra tells me you have plans for the Middle East Centre. I'd like you to come to my office to discuss them with me.
We might be able to do something together."
The ever irrepressible Serra had long given me grief over Middle East Centre facilities. A centre of excellence founded by Albert Hourani in 1957,
Serra was forever accusing us of being deeply stuck in the 19th century.
She dismissed our cherished Victorian premises as a dump and at the dawn of the 21st century,
challenged us to bring the Centre at least into the 20th century.
I told her she was impertinent. But I recognised she had a point.
We needed to raise our game.
We had long since outgrown the confines of our cherished Victorian vicarage and as our Centre approached its 50th anniversary,
we entered into discussions with a local Oxford architectural practice to provide us
with expanded modern facilities to bring our Centre at least into the 20th century.
I followed up on Nemir's invitation and called on him in Investcorp's offices on Grosvenor Street shortly after his Oxford visit.
The wood-panelled walls, leather-bound books, fine art -
a look I would very quickly learn to associate with Investcorp and with Nemir
Kirdar. It felt impressive and inspired confidence.
Nemir himself came down to Reception - very modest - to usher me into his upstairs office,
where we took lunch in a perfectly appointed dining room just off his office.
And we moved very quickly from small talk to the future of Oxford's Middle East Centre.
I laid out my stall, unrolled some architectural drawings,
and pitched a vision.
I don't think Nemir was impressed in particular by anything I said, but he seemed to have decided I was someone he could work with.
"I would like to do a building with you", he said at the end of my spiel.
"But not that building", he said, pointing to the modest architectural plans.
His friend, Lord Foster had just done a remake of Asprey's Jewellery shop in New Bond Street.
And Nemir suggested I go on a little field trip after our meeting to go and see
what a signature architect might be able to do to transform Victorian settings.
Now the Asprey building is magnificent, but if we were going to approach a signature architect, the obvious choice for a Middle East Centre was Zaha Hadid.
She knew us. We had been introduced by her brother Foulath Hadid, who was a stalwart of our community,
who persuaded his celebrity architect sister to give our big annual lecture in 2004.
A lecture that left our entire audience entirely confused by her architectural vision.
Given her brother's ties and her own familiarity with our community,
I thought the increasingly famous Zaha would perhaps get even more deeply and personally involved in designing a building for us
than would the great Norman Foster. I raised the suggestion with Nemir.
Of course he knew her well. Both were Iraqis and Nada's father had been Zaha's paediatrician.
Nemir had followed Zaha's rise with interest and admiration.
If she were interested in the commission, Nemir would be interested in talking with her.
And so began a project that established a very special friendship that I was privileged to enjoy
with Nemir and Nada Kirdar over the course of the decade it took to realise that project.
Once asked, Zaha was quick to accept the commission.
We signed agreements and Nemir very generously agreed to pay the very high architect's fees for the first stage of development.
This was all a brave new world for me. I was not used to concluding six figure contracts with cultural icons like Zaha Hadid.
But for Nemir, this was second nature.
I took my cue from my mentor and we set the project in motion. Zaha's idea for the building, in a site constrained by two Victorian houses and a
giant redwood tree, was a double curved sculptural feature that swelled at either end, narrowing at the centre to go around the protected redwood.
She called it a dumbbell. We discouraged that language:
Academics don't go for anything with the word dumb in it!
And we rebranded it a softbridge. With its fluid form and state of the art systems for our library, archive and lecture theatre,
the Softbridge was propelling the Middle East Centre from Victorian Times, as Mohammed Alardhi has suggested, deep into the 21st century.
At last Serra Kirdar would be satisfied. The year of developing the building was punctuated with regular meetings in Investcorp,
such that Margaret MacMillan has referred to, where Zaha and her team would brief Nemir
on the project to secure his approval to proceed to the next stage of development.
Eventually, we reached the critical point where we were ready to proceed to planning permission.
You would think that Oxford City Council would celebrate the prospect of a major landmark by a global leader like Zaha.
But you must remember just how conservative a city Oxford is.
A stroll through the city centre with historic buildings going back to the 11th century is a lesson in architectural conservation.
Half the city thought a major new 21st century building by a leading architect was precisely what North Oxford needed.
The other half thought our project violated all the fundamental rules of the
conservation area in preserving greenspace and in protecting Victorian heritage.
By the time we went for planning permission, we had already spent hundreds of thousands of pounds in architectural fees; entirely Nemir's money.
The stakes could not have been higher for if the Council rejected our plans:
The building would not be built, and we would have wasted Nemir's money and violated his trust;
the Softbridge relegated to a large stack of failed projects collectively known as Unbuilt Oxford.
I sat with the architects in the meeting of the Planning Committee to hear how they would rule on our application.
Each councillor gives their views openly and then expresses their vote.
It's open democracy at its most fundamental and it's a gut wrenching experience when things are in the balance.
Each councillor spoke. One for. One against.
Two against. Three against. Another one for.
This was getting excruciating. In the end, it came to an entirely divided committee: Four in favour and four opposed.
Fortunately, the Chair was in favour and he gave the casting vote in favour and we secured our planning permission,
by the slimmest of margins. The architects called Zaha.
I called in Nemir. "We got it." I said, in a shaking voice.
"I knew you would", Nemir replied with far more confidence than I'd ever felt.
We had our planning permission.
But our story took another dramatic turn with, as Mohammed Alardhi has mentioned, the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008. In 2007
Nemir was really talking about retirement and had envisioned taking place in his office
in our building to write a number of books he had in mind: About the future of Iraq;
his autobiography; the History of Investcorp. All books he wrote, but not from our premises
alas. The financial crisis proved the most serious in Investcorp's 25 year history at that point.
For the first time ever, the chairman had to write to investors to explain why they would not get the standard
profits that had been the hallmark of Investcorp's relations with its clients.
And Nemir went to work raising the funds to recapitalise the company.
His success was a reflection of the remarkable trust his investors had in Nemir's integrity. While he was rebuilding Investcorp,
Nemir was in no position to proceed with the Oxford building. Over those intervening years
ties between Nemir and Nada and Oxford only deepened. The Kirdars received the Vice Chancellor,
Andy Hamilton; the Warden of St Antony's at the time, Margaret MacMillan;
along with Zaha, with their remarkable hospitality and flair,
and kept the hopes for the project alive all the way through the hard times of the financial crisis.
And we knew the project would come to fruition as soon as we came out of that crisis.
So it was with tremendous joy that we finally went to contract and broke ground on the Softbridge in January of 2013.
Nemir and Nada came to a formal ceremony in College where shovel in hand,
they literally turned the first spade of soil, marking the beginning of construction.
Nemir made a point of coming to Oxford to follow the progress on the building at firsthand, right through the, right through the project.
I remember one occasion with a high vis. vest and hard hat on head,
we marched Nemir to the edge of the very precipice, overlooking a seven metre hole in the ground as we were digging our foundations,
only to learn at that point just what a fear of heights Nemir had.
But he joined us at every stage of the works.
As from that deep hole, a new, uniquely innovative building began to emerge. A 21st century landmark for Oxford's architectural history.
Many of you in the room today were with us in May 2015 when we celebrated the completion of the Investcorp Building,
Transforming the Softbridge into its new identity.
Named in recognition of the transformative gift of Investcorp to St Anthony's in honour of their founder, Nemir Kirdar.
Our guest of honour on that occasion was Sheikha Moza of Qatar, with memorable addresses by both Nemir Kirdar and Zaha Hadid to crown the ceremony,
speaking from this very podium. How were we to know that we would lose Zaha just a year later, in 2016,
and that the Investcorp Building would prove the last of her buildings she would ever see completed?
And that four years later we would lose the dynamic Nemir.
But we were to have one more celebration in College in 2018 when we named our Victorian vicarage, The Kirdar Building,
in honour of this remarkable family and their deep ties to our Centre, our College and our University:
Rena, Serra, as graduates of Oxford; Nemir as an Honorary Fellow of St Antony's and a Fellow of the Chancellor's Court of Benefactors.
But for me, the enduring memory is of a special friendship cultured over a decade in which Nemir and I shared a project.
To have been accepted by this great man as one of his friends was the honour of my lifetime.
It's why our ceremony today is so important. To do honour to the memory of a man who so richly influenced all of our lives.
As I look out over you all, all of our lives. In Oxford his memory lives on, as it does in Bahrain,
in London, in New York and in all of you.
Thank you. Thank you, Eugene.
Thank you for reminding us of the, the history of the founding of this building.
And thank you particularly for making sure it was never known as the dumbbell.
Our next speaker is Mr. Yousef Abu Khadra, who has been a close friend of the Kirdar family for many years.
He holds a BBA from the American University of Beirut and an MBA from Michigan State University.
His career in banking spans over almost 40 years, half of which was with Nemir and Investcorp,
where he served on the management executive committee. He was a close confidant and a friend of Nemir,
and we're very grateful that he's agreed to share some of his thoughts with us today about a remarkable man.
Yusef. It's an emotional day for me.
So if you don't mind, I'm. Your Highness, Distinguished Guests,
it is an honour to be here today standing in front of you.
And I, for one, I represent Investcorp people who are here and who were former colleagues of mine and Nemir Kirdar for many years.
We heard about this, the story of this building, but I wasn't going to talk about the story of Investcorp House in Bahrain.
You know, some of, some of my colleagues here know, know the details.
This was a residential building in, in, in, in Manama in Bahrain.
And Nemir saw the potential of turning that building into an office building.
You know, and he said, "Yusef, you take care of the project."
I said, "Nemir I'm a banker, I've been all my life, you know, in banking,
I have no idea where to put the electric plug, where to put a nail, where to put a switch.
I don't know." He said, "No, you would learn, you would learn, you know, it's your project."
I said, "Fine." You know this, this was, I hardly was with Investcorp for more than a month when this started. So I started kicking out the tenants.
You know, that's the first job, before we started, you know, bringing walls down.
So most of the tenants evacuated.
Some with screaming, shouting; some with a handout; some with, you know, just moved out.
There was one tenant, Toronto-Dominion Bank in the basement, on the ground floor for those who remember those days.
And I met with the general manager and said to him "We want you out".
He said "No, I'm not leaving". I said "But we are turning the building into an office."
"No, I'm not leaving." So I went back to my, to my desk.
It was July, I turned off the air conditioning. I said, you know, this could push him out. Instead of pushing him out,
half an hour later, one hour later, the police comes to the site.
"Who's responsible here?" Everybody said "He is." Alright.
"Yes, what can I do for you?" "You've turned off; this is illegal,
come with us." So I went to the police station for interrogation.
And for some, you know, "Why are you doing this?" and I said, "Fine".
"I will give them back air conditioning." Two weeks later, I turned it off again.
The police came and I went back and, you know, they were really threatening me with a prison term if I don't give them what they want.
I said "No, I promise we will give them air conditioning".
I went down to the man, to the general manager of the bank, said, "How much is your annual income?"
"How much you make out of this branch?" And I wasn't talking to Nemir,
I wasn't consulting Nemir. He said, "You know, we're doing something like, you know, 50,000 dinars" or something like this.
I said, "I'll give you half of it. Leave." And went to Nemir and said "Nemir, this is
what I did, I just spent 25,000 dinars to get them out of the building because they're delaying us."
And on the other hand, we had a deadline with Sheikh Khalifa coming for the inauguration.
So we really had to work double, double, you know, double hours, you know, to get the building ready.
So it was done, accomplished. And we moved into it.
And, you know, it was, it was a fantastic building. Still, it's one of the most beautiful buildings in Bahrain til now.
So this is the story of my, of my architectural experience with, with Nemir.
But before I go any further, I would like to differ slightly over the name of this event.
This event has been called Memorial.
For me, this is not a memorial. For me, this is celebrating a great man.
And so let's, let's, you know, I don't want to talk about a memorial.
We are celebrating his life, we are celebrating his achievement.
You know, I, I joined Nemir in 1981.
And I left Investcorp in 2014 or something like this.
So for over 20 years we were together. We've done deals together; we, we travelled together;
we, we had lunches and dinners and parties and all sorts of things.
And during, during this time, you could, you could see Nemir and you could see,
you know, what, what kind of person he is; what's, what's the material that he's made from?
Let's start with the simple things: Nemir is a loving husband.
Nemir is a loving father to his daughters; and he's a loving grandfather to his grandchildren.
But but he is, he's a friend of many, many, many people.
I mean, there are at least, I could count, looking at the faces here, there are at least 50
who can call Nemir a friend, you know. But I know his, his rollercoaster of friends is, is much longer than this.
Nemir is a man of the world. A true universal man.
And wherever, wherever he goes, he is always at ease.
I mean, you don't see him upset; you don't see him mad;
you don't see him losing control of things.
The man is always in control. You know, and it's funny because we, in high finance, you know, you cannot be in control
24 out of, you know, out of the hours of the day.
But the man was always in control.
You know, maybe, maybe in the 40 years I've been with him, I saw him lose temper, you know,
no, no more than a handful, a handful of times. He was a philanthropist.
He, he, he loved to, to help people.
And I've, I've been in more than one meeting where he was a generous contributor to things in Iraq or things in London or,
you know, the man was, was always, he's a giver.
You know, he's not a taker. He's a giver. And, you know, he will always do things with a big smile on his face.
With Nemir, no matter what you see, is what you get. There is no hidden agenda.
You know, the man doesn't have a double face. You know, that's him.
You know, he says "Yes", yes. He says "No", no. You know, the end of, end of story.
With, with me personally,
you know, after completing the build, the building, he took me under his wing.
He really took me under his wing and he showed me things that, you know, my parents had not shown me, you know,
how to, on how to live, how to, how to enjoy life, how to be successful in what you're doing.
He gave me an opportunity to grow and to be a better person.
And thanks to him, I think I have grown and thanks to him, I am a better person.
You know, my wife might disagree. For over 20 years we travelled together.
And I want to tell you a couple, couple of stories about travelling with Nemir.
Nemir, if he is determined on something: He wants it.
I mean, don't try to argue with him, try to convince him that this is not worth it,
let's do this. No. No. "This is what I want and this is what I will get."
So the building is an example of this. But,
it's, so I,
I, what, what I learned from him is really to be a doer, not to hesitate, you know, listen to your conscience,
listen to your subconscious, and do what you think is right, even if some people disagree with you.
We travelled together, and I have hundreds of stories about Nemir and travel.
But, you know, I will only mention one of them.
This was, I think, in Abu Dhabi, Dubai or somewhere in the Gulf.
And it was a long day. We'd had dinner and we sat on the balcony of his, of his suite room and he was having a drink.
And he said, "Have one". I said, "No Nemir, I've had enough today." "Have one." I said, "No I've had enough".
He took a cigar, lit it and said, "Have, have a cigar"
I said, "No Nemir, no I don't smoke". "Have one."
"No Nemir I don't smoke". He looked at me and he said, "You know, Yusef, you're going to live longer than me, but I'll be happier
man." Well, he, he was, he was a philosopher, really,
he was a philosopher. Sitting together in meeting, he has this principle of go round the table, go round the room.
And when you have a management committee of 28 people, going around the room and everybody making a five-minute comment, that takes the whole day.
So we will, we will go round the table and somebody will say something that will disagree with the other sitting on the other side.
And we have to go round the table one more time. You know, it didn't bother him, that, you know, we missed lunch,
you know, we're going to miss afternoon tea and it's almost dinner time.
He wanted to accomplish what the meeting was all about.
The meeting was to, to, to finalise X-Y-Z
and we're going to stay in this room till we finalise it.
Hook or crook. You know, "Don't, don't look at me." So that,
that was him. That was one of his, his strengths. And he wouldn't,
it wouldn't matter what time he was meeting.
I was once in Bahrain, still living in Bahrain, when the phone rang at about 10:00, 10:30 or something like this, late. "What are you doing?"
I said "Nemir, I'm getting ready to go to bed." "No, no, no. Get dressed and join me."
"Where?" "Just, please." "Okay? Why?" I went there and you know, he was there,
Mike Meritt was there, another partner of ours.
[inaudible name] was there, another partner of ours. And we sat to discuss something.
At 11:00. I mean the restaurant was, was empty.
Nobody there. The waiters wanted to go home. And, you know, we just have to finish this point.
So it didn't matter whether it was lunchtime, dinner time,
morning, evening. You know. He has something on his mind,
you know, he needs his, sort of lieutenants, to be around him to discuss and come up with a solution for this problem.
Nemir was a visionary. When he bought, when we bought Tiffany,
I remember without naming names that many people on our board of directors, were against buying Tiffany. Luxury? Jewellery?
And we were at the same time buying a company called Dellwood, which sells milk in the US.
And everybody is saying, you know, we buy jewellery? But what about milk, everybody needs milk.
He said, "No, it's the jewellery." And he insisted.
We ended up buying Tiffany and as you all know, we made a bundle on the transaction.
And I tell you, one of the side benefits of Tiffany and this story I heard it from Sheikh Al Khalifa.
Nemir and I were visiting him, Mohammed, and he said "Thank you Nemir for getting Bahrain recognised,
people start asking about Bahrain." and we said "How?" He said "Because a friend of mine..."
A friend of the Prime Minister was in New York on a visit and he got in a taxi and the taxi driver asks him "Where are you from?"
"Bahrain." "Oh, Bahrain, this is where the company that bought Tiffany, is there"
You know, so Sheikh Al Khalifa was saying, you know, Tiffany has turned out to be a good deal for, for Investcorp,
but at the same time, it put, you know, in a small way, it put Bahrain on the map with the taxi driver in New York.
Nemir had a fun side which many people sitting in this room know.
He loves to sing, but his voice is awful.
Really. I can do, I can do better than him. But he loves to sing.
He loves friends, he loves to, he loves life.
You know, this is a really, the summary, you know. But, but he loves life
always surrounded by his friends, you know? I know he, he loves his daughters and wife and grandchildren and they go skiing, etc., you know,
but Nemir finds himself more maybe with, with us the guys, you know that we share his common interest.
And one, one last thing.
You talk about this Centre. Nemir wanted to do something like this in the Arab world.
And I remember we used to sit together and he would say, you know, we need to create a centre like this centre in the Arab world to help education.
He was very strong, very high on educating women. Really,
this was one of one of his agendas, but unfortunately circumstances and other things, he couldn't, he couldn't finish that project. But.
But as we gather here today, I want to remember Nemir as a friend.
He is, his memory is never really gone.
He lives in my heart and he lives in my mind.
And I'm sure many of our colleagues in this room, we share my, my love to this man.
Thank you very much. Yusef.
Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing that,
sharing that with us. Our next speaker, Dr. Serra Kirdar, I've always thought the ultimate St Antony's Alumni.
She's a global citizen in a community of global citizens.
She completed her thesis at St Anthony's on education,
gender and the cross-cultural experience with reference to elite Arab women, a thesis contracted subsequently by, by Bloomsbury,
and she has combined a rigorous academic career and interest in education and women's empowerment in the Middle East with involvement with many,
many philanthropic ventures. She sits on the board of the New Leaders Group at the Institute of International Education;
the International Advisory Council of the Asian University for Women;
and of course, she chairs the Advisory Board of the Middle East Centre here.
She's a staunch supporter of the arts and a patron of the University of Arts of London and Art Dubai and of the British Film Institute.
And she is, of course, Nemir's daughter, Serra.
Thank you, Roger. Does this work? Well, this is an emotional day.
Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, Esteemed Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen and my beloved family, today is an exceptionally special day.
Firstly, on behalf, on behalf of my family,
we would like to give a very warm thank you to St Anthony's College and the Warden for graciously hosting this event.
And a very special thank you to Eugene, who was so determined to host a memorial in this very special place to remember
our father and who has been spearheading this over the last few months.
Your Royal Highness, it is a great honour to have you here with us today.
My father loved you, loved your family, and, of course, Bahrain. A country he called home
and was so welcoming to him and to all of us. Taking time from your very busy schedule to be here in Oxford is a huge privilege for us.
We are also incredibly honoured to have, to have Lord Rosslyn on behalf of King Charles III with us this evening.
My parents shared a very special friendship with His Majesty and some very wonderful memories over the years.
I would also like to thank my dear family members and close friends for making the trip to Oxford,
many of whom have come and travelled from the US and the Middle East.
So really a very big thank you to everybody. Nemir Kirdar was a pioneer, a visionary, a man with a mission.
He was also our father. His values were clear to all who knew him.
He was kind and gracious, but he was also larger than life.
A true leader. His values are what drove him throughout his life and what he made sure to hammer into us as we were growing up.
He coined them: Be needed, be trusted, be respected.
Big shoes to fill, but words that have guided us through our, throughout our lives.
Education was the cornerstone of what he believed to be the guiding light.
"Girls, the most important thing is to invest in your education.
It is the only thing no one can take away from you". And how right he was.
I would not be standing here today had it not been for his incessant encouragement and deep commitment to my own educational path.
Oxford was my home for eight years, and through those years Daddy was so keen to see how he could add value to this formidable
institution. That was such a part of who he was, always asking how he could help,
what role he could play. He wanted to leave his mark and create value for the next generation.
He always talked of the future and saw what many could not see.
So, given that both his daughters were Oxford graduates and home was London for our family,
it made perfect sense. Then and there I knew I had to introduce Eugene to my father.
Given that the Middle East Centre at the time was simply 68 Woodstock Road and I had many,
many discussions with Eugene as a student about how to "Up your game",
it was a match made. With vision, commitment and a blossoming friendship between Eugene and my father,
a plan was made to put the Middle East Centre on the map. A very ambitious plan.
Again, a signature trait from a man who dreamt big and made things happen.
But here we are. Our father wanted us to go to Oxford.
I remember when applying to university, my school asked me to apply to several like normal people.
But he wasn't having any of it. Neither Rena or I, nor I, had backup plans.
It was Oxford and that was it. So better get on with it because Daddy didn't have a plan B, there was only A or A.
He also made no distinction on gender. Though he might have secretly wanted a son,
we never felt it and he always said, "I may not have sons, but I have daughters, and there is no difference in my eyes."
In fact, he encouraged us to be independent-minded and assertive and always brought examples of impressive women when wanting to inspire us.
And really, there is no better proof of this than in the woman he chose to be his life partner.
In fact, the Nemir Kirdar you all know, attributed so much of who he became and the accomplishments he achieved, because of his life partner,
his wife, our mother, Nada. My mother and father were a team.
She was his co-pilot for 50 years. He had the ability to see potential when others didn't.
Be it potential in a business, in a piece of property or in people.
When he met our mother, she was only 19 years old in Baghdad.
He immediately knew he wanted to spend his life with her and even orchestrated a party via his cousin,
Aunty Nemin, who's here with us this evening, so they could meet.
He had vision. He had a plan. And he knew what he wanted.
Together, they built their lives for over 50 years. Our mother was not simply a wife or a homemaker or a housewife.
She was his co-pilot and his partner.
He encouraged Mommy to learn, to evolve, to follow her interests, to travel alone, to make her own friendships, to forge her own identity,
never feeling that it would overshadow him, diminish his sense of authority, or threaten his ego.
He wanted his wife to be an independent, strong woman.
And I think we can all agree that Mommy, you do not disappoint.
In fact, I know at many times having Mommy, Rena and I proved to be quite a handful and quite a challenge for him.
But rather than try and control us, he allowed us all to grow.
Daddy was our rock, our guiding light.
We are eternally grateful for his kindness, his humanness, his decency and overarching love and deep sense of commitment to us.
There are no words that can possibly do justice to express just how much my family and I miss him.
As I am sure many of you share this sentiment. The void is there.
And not a day passes when he is not deeply missed.
We are living in an ever-changing world where the values he so vehemently subscribed to do not always seem so apparent around us.
He had the ability to cut out the noise and focus on what was important.
He did not sweat the small stuff. I often would go to him, overwhelmed and lost, and in a matter of moments he would calm me down,
reset my perspective, and send me on my way with a clear strategy.
His ability to convince you to do what he wanted without, without so much as making you feel it was anything less than your idea was legendary.
Nemir was a gentleman through and through. His appreciation and recognition of talent, culture, reading, curiosity had no bounds.
He brought Rena and I up to understand the importance of education, both formal and informal.
He would wake my sister up at early hours as he would be more stressed about her upcoming exams
than she was. Something, I have to say, both Rena and I are very guilty of doing with our own children now.
But how right he was to do so and how grateful I am for his guidance, his commitment to his family and his unwavering sense of duty.
Nemir was a leader, a CEO, a friend, a brother, a colleague, a husband, a father and a grandfather.
He took each of those roles seriously and believed he had an obligation to honour each one through and through.
He had time for anyone and everyone. Although he worked around the clock, Nemir had a deep appreciation for the quality and beauty of life.
We often joked that he was a frustrated decorator. His creativity was endless.
His attention to detail was second to none.
Whether it was him stopping the car in the middle of the road because he, his eye had spotted an antique in a window
or meeting with decorators to explain his vision for a new addition to something he wanted to further develop.
He was always full of energy, vision and creativity. He loved art, music, antiques, walks in the park and the finer things of life.
In fact, he often carved out time to meet our mother for weekend breaks: Somewhere to relax,
to eat well and take in the beauty before heading back on his gruelling travel schedule.
He had a joie de vivre, and I remember on one occasion he had just landed from L.A., came home,
showered and took Mommy and friends out dancing till 3 a.m. and then went to work the next day.
Big shoes to fill. He had his work, but he also knew he had his role to play as a husband and a father.
He was a man of sheer determination who simply did not take no for an answer.
There was always a solution and always a way to make it happen
as many of us here know firsthand. Nothing was impossible.
He was our real life superhero. The legacy he has left us is invaluable.
We feel privileged to call Nemir Kirdar, our father, and for our children to have him as their grandfather.
He was our lighthouse
and his legacy, his values, his memories, endless hours of heart-to-heart talks continue to guide both Rena and I in our most difficult of times.
Once again, on behalf of my mother, Nada, his lifelong partner, my older sister Rena, my nieces Liana and Talia, and my son Saif
I thank you all for being here this evening to join us in remembering Nemir Kirdar and to
Eugene and Roger and esteemed Oxford colleagues for making this evening a night to remember.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Serra, for that. I am very honoured to welcome as our final speaker His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa,
the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
His Royal Highness is a graduate of the American University in Washington and he undertook
his postgraduate work at a university we often pretend we've never heard of in Oxford,
called the University of Cambridge. His Royal Highness was appointed as Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain in November 2020,
a particularly challenging time in the history of any country.
But he led team Bahrain in its national coronavirus response,
establishing one of the world's leading vaccination programs commended by regional and international organisations alike.
He has kindly agreed to share with us some of his memories of Nemir.
Your Royal Highness. Thank you. Good evening.
Kirdar family; Excellency;
my Lord; Warden; Ladies and Gentlemen, it is truly an honour to be here tonight.
I wouldn't have missed it. But there is no thanks needed.
Nemir was a very special man, and he had a very special place in my heart.
I am here because I am grateful to him.
I am here because Bahrain is grateful to him.
His impact was not only felt in, in my country.
It was felt globally. And sitting here, Investcorp legends, you know, you guys are rock stars.
You need to know that, you know, the world knows that.
And in the same breath that we talk about Blackstone's or KKR or the Nabisco deals, we talk about Investcorp.
Nemir was a titan. He was a founding father of the investment bank business.
He started in merchant banking, I think, when he was at Chase, and he saw a niche and an opportunity.
And he didn't believe in bulk, bulk deals. He believed in quality.
This I know because he told me. He said, you know, I'm not interested in mass market products,
you know. Now the whole world of investment banking has changed and it is about size and it is about scale,
but Nemir believed in the Rolls-Royce philosophy.
If he didn't want to own it, he didn't, was not personally interested,
it wasn't worth owning. In my opinion, at least that's the way he lived his life in many things.
And as you've heard, he's a visionary or was a visionary. Is a visionary because his legacy is still going.
And he was a great optimist.
I think one thread that comes through everything that we've heard tonight was his optimism.
He used to spend endless hours talking to me about how he imagined or hoped the world would be.
As if he could will it into existence just by his sheer force of character.
He would express his opinion, which I often felt was, you know, maybe idealistic or, you know, you know, to, um, not not too ambitious,
that's the wrong term, but maybe not achievable in current circumstances.
And he'd look at me and say. "Well, if you don't dream it, it won't happen." Fair enough.
And he left an incredible, incredible memory and legacy with me, because, you know, you talk about the Softbridge, this building that we're in.
Well, Nemir was a bridge between East and West.
He was a bridge between young and old. And he was a bridge between modern, modernity and tradition.
When I talk about the bridge between East and West, he could move in circles that nobody could.
You know. Who, who could get Prime Minister Thatcher to come and speak at a, at an event or Colin Powell or George W. Bush, I believe, John
Major, John Major it was, John Major. And you know the,
I guess it was the shareholder meetings, they were legendary. Because you would, there would be Nemir,
telling world leaders from all over the place what he thought of them. Usually it wasn't very much and insisting that, you know, there was a better way.
And we were so lucky because it did put Bahrain on the map.
Yusuf, you are so right. When I was growing up and maybe I'm, you know, we've, we've heard from the professional view:
Mohammed, a lovely, lovely speech. You know, we've heard from the family;
we've heard from the friend; we've, we've, we've heard from the colleague who worked; we've heard from many of you who, who have known him,
and you will, I think, see that he could, he could bring people together like nobody else could.
He really could. And putting Bahrain on the map in such a way made us all proud.
So growing up, Investcorp was, was a shining beacon.
Everybody wants to work at Investcorp. And he was always saying to people, "Go away, get some work experience."
Usually at Chase. Yes, and,
"and maybe you will join us one day when you are, you know, ready."
And he was a great believer in empowering people and keeping the organisation quite flat really.
It wasn't, you know, he didn't govern by, you know, himself with his ideas and what he thought. He,
he genuinely governed in a way that was participatory, used the participation of all.
So, thinking of all of those things,
you know, when you, when you think of the man, the legacy he leaves behind,
the one thing I can ascribe him is that he wanted, well, the thing he left with me is he always made me want to be better.
He wanted me to be, or I wanted to be better at my work;
I wanted to be better at my education; I wanted to be better in,
and I'm sort of stronger and bolder in my ambition.
And yet with all of that - we've talked about, we've talked about his vision, we've talked about his optimism,
we've talked about his role as an educator - his humility.
That's one thing that was also extremely special, and he left that with me as well.
So along with his great power, reach, wisdom and access, he left behind
a legacy that I think still I carry today.
And when I think of Investcorp, I will always fondly smile.
Investcorp is something we are extremely proud of in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
It is now Gulf wide. Mohammed you have done a fantastic job and I think you have taken it to the next phase of its evolution.
And we still continue to hold you in extremely high regard,
and you are one of our crown jewels, if I may say that, in the, in the banking community.
But he left behind a way to live; a way to learn;
and a way to work. More than that, I think, I would certainly not wish for more.
So may he rest in peace; thank you for inviting me;
and it has been a great honour and a privilege to be here with you tonight, because all of us really owe the late Nemir Kirdar a great debt of thanks,
and I'd like to give him a big round of applause, please. Thank you so much, Your Royal Highness, and thank you to all our speakers.
I think everybody would agree it's been a very moving, a very moving event.
So just before we finish, I would like to just say a few words of thanks to all of those who have made today's event possible
behind the scenes and apologies in advance if I have actually forgotten somebody when I, when I do this.
But can I just thank Suzie Garas at Investcorp, who's been very helpful.
Can I thank the College staff: The Domestic Bursar, Steward, Chef, and all of their team for making the Middle East Centre look better.
I have to say better than it's ever looked before and for hopefully the hospitality that is to come, I'm sure it will live up to its normal standards.
My colleagues at the Middle East Centre that's Stacy Churcher and Caroline Davis for all their work and special, special thanks to you,
Nada, to Rena and to Serra for making this event possible and for letting us actually have this event
at St Antony's,so a huge thanks to the three of you. This is actually the end of the formal part of the evening
but can I ask you to perhaps remain in your seats just a minute or two so that His Royal Highness and his party would be allowed to depart?
And then can I invite you all to come and join us at a reception which will be held in the upstairs gallery and in the marquee,
and who knows what the weather will be like when we go up there and find out.
Fingers crossed. But thank you to everybody indeed for your participation this evening.