It’s not very often you see two of the world’s top businessmen and philanthropists together. However, on a recent visit to Chicago, Illinois, two of the Arab world’s best-known businessmen held an ad hoc meeting. Khalaf Al Habtoor, Chairman of the Al Habtoor Group and Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud caught up at the ‘Four Seasons Hotel Chicago’ where they discussed cooperation between their Groups.
HRH Prince Alwaleed, a businessman and investor, is Founder and CEO of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), one of the world’s top international holding companies.
They also talked about the economic growth in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the booming tourism sector in the GCC. Both Al Habtoor and Prince Alwaleed are heavily invested in the hospitality industry. KHC owns stakes in several hotel management companies including the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Movenpick Hotels & Resorts and Fairmont Raffles Holdings International, while the Al Habtoor Group has owned and managed hotels in the GCC since the early 1980s.
Following the meeting Al Habtoor said, “I am honoured to know Prince Alwaleed in person. He is an internationally acclaimed business leader, and as Arabs, we should all be proud of his achievements.”
Prince Alwaleed and Al Habtoor are both heavily involved in philanthropic efforts. Alwaleed founded the ‘Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundations’ in the late 1990s, and Al Habtoor launched the ‘Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor Foundation’ (KAHF) in 2013.
At the end of the meeting, HRH gifted Al Habtoor with his biography ‘Alwaleed: Businessman, Billionaire, Prince’ by Riz Khan. In return Al Habtoor presented to Prince Alwaleed a copy of his award winning autobiography, which was released last year, ‘Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor – The Autobiography’.