Daniel Creighton feels at home in the Radio 1 studio, and hopes his listeners feel the same way.
Daniel Creighton feels at home in the Radio 1 studio, and hopes his listeners feel the same way.

How Danny Cee found his radio voice



DUBAI // His voice may be the one most 25-to-34-year-olds in the UAE tune in to each morning, but that does not mean Daniel Creighton likes hearing it. Creighton, 27, better known to his fans as Danny Cee, is a weekday co-presenter on Radio 1's breakfast show from 6am to 9am.

"Even now, if I listen back to my show I hate the sound of my voice. But I realised a long time ago although you can never change your tone, how you feel about yourself comes across," he says. "Confidence changes the way you sound, so I have to have faith in myself." According to the 2009 Ipsos MediaCT radiometry survey, which tracks listening trends across the region, 21 per cent of listeners in the UAE prefer Emirates Radio 1 and its sister station Radio 2. Radio 1 was also the favourite for the 25-44 category.

Creighton may rule the airwaves now, but he says his confident - sometimes arrogant - on-air personality took time to nurture. He moved to Dubai from Market Harborough in Leicestershire, England, at 18, with dreams of following in the footsteps of his uncle, Mark Creighton, who was a presenter on Radio 1's The Big Breakfast under the pseudonym Marky Mark. But he needed to gain experience, so he worked as a DJ in a local club at nights and spent all his spare time during the day with his uncle in the Radio 1 studio.

"Every time I got the chance I'd leave the nightclub and go and sit with my uncle," he says. "Eventually I began recording demos but compared to Mark's smooth and composed style, I felt pathetic. I can't tell you how many times I recorded a demo but didn't submit it. I didn't have any confidence in myself." His first break came in 2004, when he entered a competition called Jock Idol at Sharjah's Sahara Centre - the prize was a spot on Radio 1.

Although Creighton did not win, the station contacted him later to do voiceover work, and subsequently offered him a once-a-week afternoon slot. Eventually, he earned the 2pm to 4pm slot, two months later picking up the coveted "drive time" slot from 5pm to 7pm before moving on to mornings. "I never really sat back and thought 'Yes, I've made it'," he says. "I was really just getting through one show to the next. I was always up against something and thinking about the next thing - the ratings, the competitions, the regular spots. I didn't have time to reflect."

Creighton's schedule was gruelling. Holding down a job as a nightclub DJ and a morning radio presenter was exhausting. "I would get to the club around 9.30pm to prepare for my set," he says. "I wouldn't finish until about 4am and I'd have to go straight to the radio station for the breakfast show, which went on air at 6am. Once I was done at 9am I still had to prep for the next day's show. It was the kind of lifestyle I couldn't maintain."

Radio 1 asked him to quit his DJ job, matching his salary and taking him on full-time. After a few shuffles, a change in ownership and a break back in the UK, where he briefly considered a career change and leaving the UAE for good, he was back on the breakfast show. "I like the attention," he says, grinning. "Plus, I realised how much the UAE offered me. You can come here and do things that you could never do in the UK professionally. It is a newer industry, there is more chance, more opportunities and you can work your way up quickly."

On air, Creighton does his best to make the show natural and spontaneous. He often does not brief his co-host on some of the more outrageous quizzes or tests that he writes for the show. "I want their reactions to be genuine," he says. "So I will spring it on them without warning." Surina Kelly, Creighton's co-host since January, says: "You can relax and be yourself in the studio, which means we have a lot of fun. The listeners really respond to that. I've co- hosted with a few people in the past but this was the best experience ever. What you hear is what you get."

Creighton values his interaction with his listeners as well. "If I get a text or an e-mail where someone is trying to get to me I will read it out straight away," he says. "For example, if someone says I am pathetic I want to address it. I think that straightforward attitude makes us popular. "Also, the music I play is important. We are given set playlists, but if I hear something that needs playing I will go to the music schedulers and discuss it."

His tastes run towards popular music from the international charts, with a leaning towards the urban genre. In his own rise up the charts, Creighton says a desire for self-improvement has proved invaluable. "Every day I learn something about my job," he says. "I always want to get better." @Email:aseaman@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.”

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Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry 

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