Jennifer Gates and Egyptian showjumper Nayel Nassar got engaged during a skiing holiday in January. Instagram / Jennifer Gates
Jennifer Gates and Egyptian showjumper Nayel Nassar got engaged during a skiing holiday in January. Instagram / Jennifer Gates
Jennifer Gates and Egyptian showjumper Nayel Nassar got engaged during a skiing holiday in January. Instagram / Jennifer Gates
Jennifer Gates and Egyptian showjumper Nayel Nassar got engaged during a skiing holiday in January. Instagram / Jennifer Gates

‘He’s incredibly supportive’: Jennifer Gates opens up about her relationship with Egyptian showjumper Nayel Nassar


Katy Gillett
  • English
  • Arabic

Jennifer Gates, the eldest daughter of Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, has opened up about her relationship with American-Egyptian showjumper Nayel Nassar in an interview with Sidelines magazine.

The pair got engaged back in January, during a romantic ski trip.

The Stanford graduate, 23, announced the engagement on Instagram, writing: “Nayel Nassar, you are one of a kind. Absolutely swept me off my feet this past weekend, surprising me in the most meaningful location over one of our many shared passions. I can’t wait to spend the rest of our lives learning, growing, laughing and loving together. Yes a million times over.”

Both attended Stanford University, but at different times. They met through a shared love of horses and were friends for a “very long time” before they started dating.

“Everything happened organically,” Gates, a trainee doctor, told the equestrian-focused publication in the interview. “We had discussed spending a future together, which I think is very important, but I was surprised – happily surprised – by the proposal.”

She said it was a moment she will cherish forever.

Jennifer Gates and Nayel Nassar celebrated their engagement with a Florida party. Instagram / jenniferkgates
Jennifer Gates and Nayel Nassar celebrated their engagement with a Florida party. Instagram / jenniferkgates

Now, she can’t wait until the pair tie the knot, although she’s still learning to straddle the worlds of horse riding and medicine in the meantime.

She went on to say she wouldn’t be able to do any of it without her support system, which includes Nassar.

“Nayel always reminds me to believe in myself, which is so important,” she said. “I’m so lucky to have him as a partner. He’s incredibly supportive, humble and loyal, and someone that I look forward to building a life with.”

Nassar, 29, was born in Chicago, but grew up in Kuwait, where members of his family still live. In 2009, he moved back to California, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in economics.

Instead of entering the world of finance, however, he carved out a successful career in showjumping.

He is ranked 35th in the world, and qualified to represent Egypt in the sport at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which will now take place in 2021, because of the coronavirus pandemic.

When they got engaged, Nassar also posted an announcement on his own Instagram account, saying: “I’m feeling like the luckiest (and happiest) man in the world right about now.

“Jenn, you are everything I could have possibly imagined ... and so much more. I can’t wait to keep growing together through this journey called life, and I simply can’t imagine mine without you any more. Love you more than you can possibly imagine, and thank you for making every single day feel like a dream to me. Here’s to forever!”

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Name: Tratok Portal

Founded: 2017

Based: UAE

Sector: Travel & tourism

Size: 36 employees

Funding: Privately funded

In the Restaurant: Society in Four Courses
Christoph Ribbat
Translated by Jamie Searle Romanelli
Pushkin Press 

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Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government

Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council

Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south

Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory

Intercontinental Cup

Namibia v UAE Saturday Sep 16-Tuesday Sep 19

Table 1 Ireland, 89 points; 2 Afghanistan, 81; 3 Netherlands, 52; 4 Papua New Guinea, 40; 5 Hong Kong, 39; 6 Scotland, 37; 7 UAE, 27; 8 Namibia, 27

The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:

Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.

Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.

Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.

Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.

Saraya Al Khorasani:  The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.

(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)

Dubai Bling season three

Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed 

Rating: 1/5

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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.”

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