Nicolas Berggruen
Source: Businessweek
What do you think of when you hear the word “billionaire?” Fancy cars? Enormous mansions? Homelessness? If you thought of the third, then you would probably be thinking of Nicolas Berggruen. Aptly dubbed, “the homeless billionaire,” Nicolas Berggruen is yet another interesting billionaire. The 52 year old is valued anywhere between $2 billion to $2.5 billion (Forbes).
He is not what you would call a “rags to riches” story. Berggruen’s father was a German-Jew who fled Nazi Germany and befriended Pablo Picasso, later becoming one of the greatest collectors of Picasso’s works. Nicolas Berggruen was kicked out of a Swiss boarding school for being wild and “insubordinate” (mirror.co.uk). After his family moved to Paris, Nicolas refused to learn English, which he claimed was the “language of imperialism.” However, he eventually attended NYU to study finance (mirror.co.uk).
About 12 years ago, Berggruen got bored with parties and money, so he sold his apartment in New York and his private island mansion. Nowadays, he keeps his few possessions either in storage, or with him in a paper bag. He only owns some clothes and a private jet, which allow him to move from one luxury hotel to the next, dining with interesting people and spreading his ideas.
Berggruen is often seen at parties with beautiful women!
Source: Business Insider
How did he come into this enormous fortune? Berggruen turned a €150,000 loan from his father into an empire of businesses. He recently bought an €881 million stake in Burger King, which thrust him into the limelight. He also amassed his money by co-founding the hedge fund Alpha Investment Management (mirror.co.uk). He is also known for having bought multiple struggling companies, turning them around, and selling them for enormous profit (businessweek).
What Berggruen does with his money is even more interesting. He is mostly interested in spreading his ideas. He hired two UCLA professors to teach him philosophy and four political science professors to discuss Eastern and Western governments. This private education eventually led to the birth of his political policy think tank, the Berggruen Institute on Governance. Their mission is to eliminate political gridlock caused by politicians simply trying to get reelected (berggruen.org). To do so, he believes that making political decisions behind closed doors, much like autocratic governments do, that conflicts of interest involving reelection can be circumvented. Recently, he has been testing out his ideas in California, a state notorious for such political strife by the Think Long Committee (Berggruen.org). In Europe, he is attempting to form a council to save the EU and prevent France and Germany from controlling the entire region. While his policies seem almost dictatorial in theory, he claims Europe needs more democracy, as it is “incredibly dysfunctional” (businessweek.com). From a purely philanthropic point of view, Berggruen is part of a group of billionaire who have pledged to donate at least 50% of their wealth.
Overall, Nicolas Berggruen is yet another interesting person with extreme wealth. However, most of his exploits are in benefit of others, setting an example other wealthy people would do well to follow.
For more information and further reading on Nicholas Berggruen, follow these links:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-27/deep-thoughts-with-the-homeless-billionaire#p1
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-07/the-homeless-billionaire-to-the-rescue-in-newark
http://www.forbes.com/profile/nicolas-berggruen/
http://berggruen.org/councils/think-long-committee-for-california
