From this post: Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence - start of a series on the Technocrats, Jeffrey Epstein connections and the coronavirus simulations
He is listed on the guest list here: Guest List - Maria Abramovic Satanic Celebrity Cannibal Party / Kreëmart at the MoCA Annual Gala 11-12-11 https://voat.co/v/pizzagate/1495670
At the age of 58, Nicolas Berggruen is both a discreet investor and a regular at the glossy glossy press. There is Dorian Gray in this son of a great collector of modern art merchant who dreams of exporting the "Californian model" to Europe. In the photos, the “erudite billionaire”, as the Californian press calls him, likes to pose with Claudia Schiffer, Arianna Huffington (founder of the Huffington Post ), or Ursula von der Leyen (the new president of the European Commission). He did not hesitate to appear in a bathrobe on his bed, with fluff in hand, for the Wall Street Journal in 2011."It is an explosive mixture of daddy's sons, European idealist and finance shark," whistles an old man of the European Parliament. He readily claims to be a George Soros, but the latter has never been an heir and remains much more consistent. "
..Nothing annoys him more than the heir label. The son of the great art collector Heinz Berggruen (see box p. 48) prides himself on having built his own fortune (1.6 billion dollars according to the latest Forbes ranking, against 2.3 billion in 2010) in finance. After secondary studies at the Alsatian School in Paris, he was dismissed from the Swiss Le Rosey pension for indiscipline and passed his baccalaureate as a free candidate. Passionate about French history, he devours the biographies of Napoleon and the Sun King. In 1979, he studied finance at New York University. His first weapons, he made them in real estate at Bass Brothers Enterprises, before founding his own hedge fund, at 23 years old. Three years later, he launched Alpha Investment Management, a fund of funds, with Julio Mario Santo Domingo Jr, son of the Colombian magnate shareholder of the brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), which they resold in 2004 at Safra bank.
Over the years, Berggruen Holdings juggled the assets with more or less happiness: after trying to save them, it had to resell the German department stores Karstadt, in the midst of a collapse. It was on this issue, in 2013, that he met Ursula von der Leyen, then Federal Minister for Labor and Social Affairs, appointed President of the European Commission last June ... In May 2013, he invited her to a conference on the future of Europe which he is organizing at Sciences-Po Paris, in the presence of Pascal Lamy, Wolfgang Schäuble, then German Minister of Finance, and a certain ... Emmanuel Macron, then Deputy Secretary General of the 'Elysium.
Faced with Karstadt's persistent financial setbacks (26,000 employees), he turned against the German unions who accused him of
“With Karstadt, he made a big mistake. It was an absurdity, but he wanted so much to return to Germany ” , summarizes a close one of the Institute. On the other hand, the latter is full of praise for Martin Franklin, the "dazzling" British partner with whom Nicolas Berggruen took control of Prisa, the Spanish press group (owner of the left-liberal daily El Pais ), through SPAC (company specifically dedicated to an acquisition) Liberty Acquisition Holdings in 2010.
..A big declared fan of Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau for their "New World" side, the man remains ideologically cautious. His brother, the art historian Olivier Berggruen, was one of the first individual donors (up to 8,000 euros) of Emmanuel Macron's campaign in February 2017. He remains more reserved on French politics and rather prides itself on "wanting to build bridges between Asia and the West" .
His claimed models have long been George Soros or Michael Bloomberg. "He sees himself a bit in" Stateless Statesman "[stateless statesman, Editor's note] in Soros: it is his fantasy" , explains Alain Minc, member of the circle of advisers of the Berggruen Institute in France, with Jacques Attali, Pascal Lamy or Luc Ferry. “Soros is very politicized: I feel closer to the Bloomberg Foundation model. We campaign for the success of Europe which is neither left nor right ” , nuance Nicolas Berggruen.
..In Governing the xxi th century, the middle way between East and West - his last book written with Nathan Gardels (co-founder of the Institute) - face the "crisis of industrial democracies" , Nicolas Berggruen is campaigning for a "New system of intelligent governance" capable of organizing the delegation of power and of "really involving citizens in the decision-making process" . He shares most of the diagnosis of economist Thomas Piketty on the explosion of inequalities and the capture of wealth by the "owners", but not his tax proposals: "Instead of taxing robots, everyone must become the owner of the robots. "
More than a think tank stricto sensu, he prefers to speak today of an "independent foundation". “We don't get a penny from governments. " " Bipartisan ", his Institute rakes rather broad in terms of advisers: from economists Nouriel Roubini or Joseph Stiglitz, who sat on its Committee on the future of Europe alongside Jacques Delors, former Commission President, Mario Monti , former Italian Prime Minister, or Tony Blair, former British Prime Minister, up to the former Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger who was part of his Think Long Committee of California, with the former secretary of state Condoleeza Rice . His address book is truly dizzying. Since he decided to put his affairs on the back burner, he has multiplied the branches of his think-tank, often called "mini-Davos", and willingly enlists former heads of state or bosses of multinationals. Nicolas Sarkozy, Tony Blair, former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso or ex-Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, sat on the boards of his Institute or the 21 th Century Council. Twitter, Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk (Tesla), or Eric Schmidt (ex-boss of Google).
...Last tocade of the philosopher billionaire: entrust to Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, the architects of the Tate Modern, the construction, on the hills of Santa Monica, north of the Getty Center, of a “secular monastery” intended for the researchers. To better turn the Goulard page, Nicolas Berggruen has already announced the next winner of his annual prize for philosophy (better endowed than a Nobel) which will be awarded on December 16 in New York. She is the dean of the U.S. Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 86, a true anti-Trump muse. The jury wanted to reward a “pioneer of human rights and gender equality” . "It's an extraordinarily smart choice", opines Alain Minc. Cautiously, "Notorious RBG", as its supporters sometimes call it a nod to rapper Notorious BIG, has announced its intention to donate the entire price of $ 1 million to a charitable organization.
ITS MAIN INVESTMENTS...
International Education Corporation (IEC) Management of around twenty campuses and educational services in California and Florida.
Car Club Car rentals and taxis in 75 Indian cities.
Berggruen Residential Company Luxury real estate in Israel with Hagag Group.
TLC Companies Professional employer organization specializing in transportation based in Minnesota.
NBP Capital Commercial real estate in Portland and Seattle.
GSCF (Global Supply Chain Finance) Company working for financial institutions and industrial players based in Zug, Switzerland.
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You might want to post this on Twitter too, and ping @xeni. She is an expert re the Edge Foundation and Epstein.
@kestrel9, please see OP.