Word: adnan
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Khashoggi's problems are in keeping with the way he operates. In an age of ubiquitous M.B.A.s and computer transactions, Adnan Khashoggi is a wily and gracious trader, an exemplar of the Arab-Islamic values of daring, cunning, loyalty and generosity. For him the deal is the thing, the only thing. Business, love, politics, diplomacy -- they are all forms of dealmaking. He proudly admits that he dissembles, uses women, flaunts his wealth to get an agreement. "When I am trying to broker a deal," he says animatedly, "in diplomacy or business, I don't tell the truth to both sides...
...Khashoggi says, he learned the difference between compassion and realism, as well as the value of giving as a prelude to receiving. Khashoggi recalls that one oppressive summer afternoon when he was eight, he discovered a beggar asleep on the front steps. Knowing of Islam's emphasis on charity, Adnan brought the man inside, gave him some food and said he could sleep in the hall. When his father returned that evening, Adnan expected great praise but got a lecture instead. "You've ruined this man's life," Dr. Khashoggi said. "He'll never be able to sleep...
Saudi Arabia was then a poor and barren desert kingdom, lagging far behind the West in development. But Dr. Khashoggi was determined to give his son a modern education. Through a timely investment, he was able to send Adnan to Victoria College, a British-run school in Egypt that was the cradle of leadership for the elite of the Middle East. Khashoggi's classmates included two princes who would become Kings, Faisal II of Iraq and Hussein of Jordan. There Khashoggi learned the rudiments of dealmaking. He found out that a Libyan schoolmate's father wanted to buy sheets...
...Lockheed alone paid Khashoggi $106 million in commissions. During this same period, he is said to have collected hundreds of millions from other corporations. Khashoggi, says Max Helzel, then vice president of Lockheed's international marketing, "became for all practical purposes a marketing arm of Lockheed. Adnan would provide not only an entree but strategy, constant advice, and analysis." His commissions started at 2.5% + and eventually rose to as much...
...wisecracking American-born British subject operating out of Alexandria, Va., who is unabashedly -- though so far unsuccessfully -- negotiating to peddle on the world market some $5 billion worth of U.S. weapons left behind when America pulled out of Viet Nam. The most prominent of all, of course, is Adnan Khashoggi, the sybaritic Saudi Arabian whose jet planes, opulent yacht, lavish parties and glamorous companions seem intended to promote his image as the world's richest...