Scandal-tainted college football star Jameis Winston was handed the daunting task of reviving the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after being chosen as the top pick in the NFL draft on Thursday.
The Heisman Trophy-winning Florida State quarterback was widely expected to be chosen by the Buccaneers, who are desperate to halt a slide in fortunes that has seen them fail to reach the playoffs for the past seven seasons.
The Buccaneers have also failed to win a postseason game since their memorable triumph in the 2002 Super Bowl, and finished last year’s National Football League campaign with a dismal 2-14 record.
Winston will be saddled with the responsibility of forging a franchise-changing upturn in the club’s fortunes, but the 21-year-old, who did not attend Thursday’s event in Chicago, comes with baggage.
Winston, the youngest winner of the Heisman Trophy in 2013, has already faced his fair share of controversy.
He was accused of sexually assaulting a college student although he was never arrested or charged, and also courted controversy when he was accused of shoplifting crab legs from a supermarket.
He was banned for one game last year for shouting a sexually explicit obscenity after climbing onto a college campus table.
With player conduct the dominant issue in the NFL over the past year following a series of domestic violence scandals, the Buccaneers carried out extensive checks on the player’s character before the draft.
However the likelihood he would be chosen by the Buccaneers was all but guaranteed in March when general manager Jason Licht spoke glowingly about the player’s qualities after meeting him.
“He’s lively, he’s engaging, he’s incredibly smart, he confirmed all the things we thought about him going into this process,” Licht said.
The Buccaneers owners, the Glazer family, who also own English Premier League giants Manchester United, were also reported to be enthusiastic about recruiting Winston despite his off-the-field record.
Buccaneers veterans had also signalled that they would crack down on Winston in the locker room if he stepped out of line, suggesting they would take a dim view of his brash style.
“If we draft him and he comes into the locker room, we have some veteran guys that will pull him to the side and make him understand that there’s a role here he has to play and sometimes he may have to tone that down,” star linebacker Lavonte David told The Tampa Tribune.
First round of the NFL Draft (pick number, team, player, position, college):
1. Tampa Bay Buccaneers — Jameis Winston, quarterback, Florida State
2. Tennessee Titans — Marcus Mariota, quarterback, Oregon
3. Jacksonville Jaguars — Dante Fowler, Jr., defensive end, Florida
4. Oakland Raiders — Amari Cooper, wide receiver, Alabama
5. Washington Redskins — Brandon Scherff, offensive tackle, Iowa
6. New York Jets — Leonard Williams, defensive tackle, USC
7. Chicago Bears — Kevin White, wide receiver, West Virginia
8. Atlanta Falcons — Vic Beasley, defensive end, Clemson
9. New York Giants — Ereck Flowers, offensive tackle, Miami
10. St. Louis Rams — Todd Gurley, running back, Georgia
11. Minnesota Vikings — Trace Waynes, cornerback, Michigan State
12. Cleveland Browns — Danny Shelton, defensive tackle, Washington
13. New Orleans Saints — Andrus Peat, offensive tackle, Stanford
14. Miami Dolphins — DeVante Parker, wide receiver, Louisville
15. San Diego (from San Francisco) -- Melvin Gordon, running back, Wisconsin
16. Houston Texans — Kevin Johnson, cornerback, Wake Forest
17. San Francisco (from San Diego) -- Arik Armstead, defensive end, Oregon
18. Kansas City Chiefs — Marcus Peters, cornerback, Washington
19. Cleveland Browns (from Buffalo) -- Cameron Erving, centre, Florida State
20. Philadelphia Eagles — Nelson Agholor, wide receiver, USC
21. Cincinnati Bengals — Cedric Ogbuehi, offensive tackle, Texas A&M
22. Pittsburgh Steelers — Bud Dupree, linebacker, Kentucky
23. Denver Broncos (from Detroit) -- Shane Ray, defensive end, Missouri
24. Arizona Cardinals — D.J. Humphries, offensive tackle, Florida
25. Carolina Panthers — Shaq Thompson, linebacker, Washington
26. Baltimore Ravens — Breshad Perriman, wide receiver, Central Florida
27. Dallas Cowboys — Byron Jones, cornerback, Dallas
28. Detroit Lions (from Denver) -- Laken Tomlinson, guard, Duke
29. Indianapolis Colts — Phillip Dorsett, wide receiver, Miami
30. Green Bay Packers — Damarious Randall, safety, Arizona State
31. New Orleans Saints (from Seattle) -- Stephone Anthony, linebacker, Clemson
32. New England Patriots — Malcolm Brown, defensive tackle, Texas
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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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