Peter England is the chief executive of RAKBank. The 53-year-old, from Australia, moved to the UAE in September last year to take up the post after previously working as a senior banker at Malaysia’s CIMB Group. He has an 11-year old daughter called Charlie and a seven-year-old son called Lewis.
What are your favourite things to do on the weekend?
Where to start? The family and I have a water ski boat up at Umm Al Quwain yacht club, so that is a regular weekend activity and a great way to spend time with the family and friends and when it’s cool enough we will camp up there at the yacht club. During winter I also am an avid car racer, so I race in the UAE Touring car championship which runs at the Dubai Autodrome and a few rounds at Yas Marina Circuit. Since my son is into go-karting, I try to take him to the track when we can find the time. I’m also usually out on the Al Qudra cycle track before the sun comes up to try to do 40–50 kilometres to keep fit. So the weekends are almost as busy as weekdays.
What do you consider to be your favourite hobby?
I’d have to say my motor racing. It’s absolutely addictive. I’m also a keen cyclist, which is certainly great for your health, but nothing can really match the adrenalin rush of racing. When I lived in Malaysia up until last year I used to race a 1980s Ford Capri and a late 1980s Porsche 944, which I still own. These might sound like quite pedestrian old cars, but these are purpose-built race cars which are incredibly fast around a racetrack. In Dubai I race something a bit more modern, but to me purpose-built classic racing cars are the ultimate.
What can’t you live without?
My wife and children. At the end of the day, family is really what matters. We can all get hung up with the material trappings of life, but when it’s all said and done what’s the point if you don’t have loved ones to share your life with you?
What do you consider the secret to your success?
For me it’s working my way up from the absolutely bottom of this business. My first job was making up boxes to file papers in a bank branch. I think this makes you much better at understanding the needs and wants of your team, and customers as well. Too many senior executives are completely detached from what really goes on in their organisation.
What advice would you offer others starting out in your business?
Be creative and take risks to achieve what you want. Always try to work for someone that inspires you to greater heights. If they don’t, stay only as long as you need, particularly if they think that ruling by fear is true leadership. Focus on making sure you achieve results rather than your rank in the organisation and the success will come to you.
How do you achieve a work-life balance?
This one is tricky. My wife is very good at keeping me in check and making sure that I don’t become too consumed in my work, especially on weekends. My two relatively young children also help make sure I stay grounded.
How do you relax after the working day?
It’s probably more before the working day with either my personal trainer or a midweek very early bicycle ride at Al Qudra. Some evenings I’ll get out on the bicycle as well after the children are in bed and my wife and I generally go out for dinner (just the two of us) at least once a week.
If you weren’t chief executive, what else would you be doing?
Being the CEO of a great bank like RAKBank really is my dream job so there isn’t anything else I’d rather be doing. We have incredibly supportive shareholders, an exceptional chairman and a very strong team from board level down, so what more could you want? I guess though if I was 30 years younger and had more talent I would have wanted to be a professional motor racer. If I ever get around to retiring I’d like to restore classic cars from the ‘70s and ‘80s.
arayer@thenational.ae
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A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
Power: 450hp
Torque: 700Nm
Price: From Dh450,000, Autograph model from Dh510,000
Available: Now
MATCH INFO
Mainz 0
RB Leipzig 5 (Werner 11', 48', 75', Poulsen 23', Sabitzer 36')
Man of the Match: Timo Werner (RB Leipzig)
Six large-scale objects on show
- Concrete wall and windows from the now demolished Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in Poplar
- The 17th Century Agra Colonnade, from the bathhouse of the fort of Agra in India
- A stagecloth for The Ballet Russes that is 10m high – the largest Picasso in the world
- Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930s Kaufmann Office
- A full-scale Frankfurt Kitchen designed by Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, which transformed kitchen design in the 20th century
- Torrijos Palace dome
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Why seagrass matters
- Carbon sink: Seagrass sequesters carbon up to 35X faster than tropical rainforests
- Marine nursery: Crucial habitat for juvenile fish, crustations, and invertebrates
- Biodiversity: Support species like sea turtles, dugongs, and seabirds
- Coastal protection: Reduce erosion and improve water quality
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
