Victor Siriani moved to Dubai nine years ago from Canada after visiting and falling with the city. Satish Kumar / The National
Victor Siriani moved to Dubai nine years ago from Canada after visiting and falling with the city. Satish Kumar / The National

Business

Off hours: Intellectual property boss has love of Dubai and getting to the office at 4am

Victor Siriani, is an avid music fan who would happily trade places with Morrissey.

Lucy Barnard

May 05, 2016

Victor Siriani is the managing partner of Avid Intellectual Property, a boutique agency with eight offices in the region.

The 47-year-old Canadian has more than 15 years of experience in intellectual property and the legal industry. He moved to the UAE nine years ago from Montreal after making a work trip to Dubai and falling in love with the city’s fast-paced vibe. Mr Siriani is passionate about his job and often starts his working day in the office as early as 4am. His work motto is: “always try to achieve perfection in everything you do, but keep in mind that you will never achieve perfection, so you must constantly try to reach it”.

How do you spend your weekend?

As much as I would like to say that I totally turn off from work mode on the weekends, that usually doesn’t happen. I usually put in a few hours, but I make sure I spend the rest of the weekend meeting friends and engaging in some outdoor activities. Sailing has become a new passion of mine as I have just finished the first level sailing qualifications and I am looking forward to starting the second qualification level.

How did you become a managing partner?

I’ve been involved in the legal and IP industry for some time and when the time was right to branch off on my own, I started my own firm, which is something I had been planning to do.

What is your go-to gadget?

My mobile phone never leaves my side. It’s glued to my hip. Second to that is my iPod.

What was the lowest point of your career?

There are always challenging points through any career, however, each point can be a valuable lesson to learn from and I see all those points as a path that leads to where one is at present. So I cannot say that they are low points per se.

What advice would you offer others starting out in your business?

Everything you do has a degree of risk associated with it and that is more true when starting a business. Do not let the fear of failure stop you from following your goals. But make sure that when you decide to follow the dream that it is not solely based on a “gut feeling”, but more of a calculated and analysed plan, and seek guidance and input from friends and associates. They sometimes know more than you think they know.

What is your most indulgent habit?

I love to eat good food. The way to my heart is through a cheese fondue, Hungarian goulash or Ossobuco.

What do you have on your desk at work?

My laptop, a lot of papers, many coffee mugs and a bottle of multivitamins, which I, somehow, seem not to notice most of the time.

What can’t you live without?

Music. My iPod is always with me, and whenever I have some time, I always listen to my ­music, especially when driving. I also love to play my guitar any chance I get, but it has been hard to find the time to pick it up recently.

How do you achieve a work-life balance?

To be honest, the balance is skewed more towards work. I enjoy what I do and it seems to have become rewarding at this point. So, why stop? However, my wife and friends do push me to enjoy life’s moments. Travel is another passion and I tot­ally live up the city I’m in when travelling. It’s a great feeling to wander around and feel the vibe and culture of a totally different place.

If you could swap jobs with any­one, who would it be and why?

This is a tough one. But given my love for music, I’d maybe trade places with Paul Banks, the lead singer for Interpol, one of my favourite bands. And I have always been jealous of Morrissey’s unbelievable talent and voice, so I would not mind trading places with him also.

lbarnard@thenational.ae

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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.”