Purple and powerful: the out-of-this-world car collection of Dubai social-media star Natalia Itani


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When it comes to motoring preferences, some things are just in the blood. Being born in Italy is pretty much a default birthright in terms of a love of glamorous sports cars, which probably goes a long way towards explaining Natalia Itani's longstanding amore for all things fast and four-wheeled.

Raised in Beirut, the half-Italian, half-Lebanese businesswoman, who is currently based in Dubai, and her husband have owned a veritable garage of expensive metal that reads like a checklist of essential contemporary cars: a Ferrari 488 Spider, a McLaren 570S Spider, an Audi R8, a Lamborghini Aventador SV, a Porsche GT3 RS and – her favourite – a purple Lamborghini Huracan.

That last eye-catching model shows off her personal colour of choice – purple, she says, symobolises "royalty", and her 224,000 followers on Instagram will have also seen the shade adorning some of her other cars, although the Huracan the most regularly featured. The non-standard tones are a clue to one of her two commercial concerns: luxury car-wrapping company Gulffoil, whose website landing page does indeed feature a purple Huracan; the other is high-end hire business Parklane Car Rental, which offers an array of supercars and everything from Range Rovers to Rolls-Royces.

“Foiling a car”, she says, lends it “a personal touch and a personal preference, but I’m more into modifying the engine and making it look unique with a specific body kit”.

“Ever since i was a teenager, I always had an eye for sports cars,” Itani, now 33, recalls. When she bought her first car, in 2006, it was suitably swift: a BMW M3.

It has also been 12 years since Gulffoil and Parklane began life, and Itani, who moved to Dubai that year to take a job in an investment company after graduating with a master's from the Lebanese American University, admits that her hectic lifestyle isn't all glamour. There have been some bumps in the road to navigate en route.

“We have been running them ourselves – [it's] basically a lot of effort, but mostly importantly [to] owning a business is being a great risk taker,” she says of Gulffoil and Parklane. “It’s not always profit, sometimes it’s also losses, and we have to bear the consequences.”

She juggles those twin enterprises with family commitments and, most visibly, her burgeoning social-media profile.

“I try to post daily, but I’m more focused on making money,” she explains. “I don’t think social media could work as a profession for me, [it's] more like fun. I have a family and I am a mother of two. Basically, [I'm] trying to balance everything.

Despite that casual description of her social-media status, however, she has become something of a celebrity, both in the Emirates and farther afield, thanks to her Instagram page.

“I always get recognised in malls and even when I travel,” she says. “I love my fans and I always give them time, and love to speak to them and know about them, too.”

Her love for Lambos, meanwhile, has lead her to become part of the Italian marque's recently established worldwide Female Advisory Board, alongside contemporaries such as Emirati car enthusiast Maha Mubarak Al Shamsi.

“I am beyond proud and honored being part of FAB, selected among many ladies,” she says. “I can’t wait to show you what FAB has in store.”

She is also an active member of Dubai's high-profile Supercars Majlis club, which holds regular meets across the UAE featuring dozens of multimillion-dirham motors that are almost always Instagram gold.

“I try to attend all their events,” she says. “They are fun and, most importantly, organised. With about 250 members overall and at least 80 members showing up with their super- and hypercars at every event, it can be quite hectic, but it’s always under control, being escorted by the police.

Such organised events give Itani the chance to show off her driving skills, which is an opportunity that she clearly relishes.

“Passion doesn’t have a gender,” she says of operating in a male-dominated sector. “The most challenges I get is when I’m mostly the only girl on the track [at events] and I find it funny, but it’s also challenging myself.”

Like almost every petrolhead, Itani has already planned her next petrol-powered purchases – a Lamborghini Huracan Performante, a McLaren 720S and the latest Mercedes-AMG G 63 are on her wishlist. It seems like her and her husband's aforementioned garage will require the construction of another wing rather soon – and it seems logical that at least one of those new buys will be resplendent in purple.

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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi

From: Dara

To: Team@

Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT

Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East

Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.

Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.

I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.

This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.

It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.

Uber on,

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  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
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  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
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The biog

Place of birth: Kalba

Family: Mother of eight children and has 10 grandchildren

Favourite traditional dish: Al Harees, a slow cooked porridge-like dish made from boiled cracked or coarsely ground wheat mixed with meat or chicken

Favourite book: My early life by Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, the Ruler of Sharjah

Favourite quote: By Sheikh Zayed, the UAE's Founding Father, “Those who have no past will have no present or future.”

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Label: Warner Records

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Rating: 4/5