Nicolas Berggruen
Nicolas Berggruen
Nicolas Berggruenis a philanthropist and investor. A dual American and German citizen, he is the founder and president of Berggruen Holdings, a private investment company and the Berggruen Institute, a think tank that works on addressing governance issues as well as the cultures and philosophies behind political systems. Through the Berggruen Institute he is also a co-founder with the Huffington Post of The WorldPost, a media publication dedicated to global issues...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth10 August 1961
CityParis, France
CountryUnited States of America
Commodity exchanges have a lot of advantages. One, you are helping transparency. Two, they are not political. It's institutional building. It can survive any environment, in theory.
In my teens I was interested in photography. Then I decided that I should learn something about the world of commerce. And I came to America at age 17 to escape Europe. I went to NYU - nothing better than being 17 years old and coming to New York.
L.A. is very special to me, so far away from my world on the East Coast, Europe, Asia. It's a bit of an island for me - less intense, less busy; because of time difference and location, it has a calming effect. At least it used to be all that.
Most countries in Africa have the capacity to be great agricultural producers, but they do only subsistence production. So a family will produce for themselves and nothing more. Why? Because of the systems: The markets are not there to go beyond.
California has something which not every place in the world has: It has what I would call a sunny side, and I don't mean just physically, but the sunny side is a future. California's worth saving, to put it bluntly.
I wish I was a great writer or a great journalist or a great scientist or a great artist; I'm not.
Singapore has been incredibly well-managed. It was created out of the swamp, with a strong emotional idea: a safe place for mostly Chinese, but accepting other cultures and other races.
I don't get that much enjoyment out of saying 'I own it.'
I don't have a house, and I don't have a lot of time for socializing, so every year I have a party for all of my friends.
Brunch is boring, but that's part of the charm of it.
I can drive. Let's just say you don't want to be in the passenger seat.
If you erased New York, I hate to say it, if you erased Frankfurt, even London, the world would not have changed.
I felt I was owned by possessions.
Luckily the whole world is not like me, or else, there would be no world.