Word: aga
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Raising cash was no problem for the Aga Khan's illustrious grandfather, Sultan Sir Mahomed Shah Aga Khan. He simply let followers hoist his 243-lb. frame onto a scale and then match his weight in diamonds or gold -- a quaint practice that lapsed long ago. The present Aga Khan, Prince Karim, retains the reverence that goes with his heritage: he is the spiritual leader of the 15 million Ismaili Muslims, who regard him as a direct descendant of the prophet Muhammad. But even though Prince Karim has long been ranked as one of the world's richest...
...humiliation was particularly painful because the Aga Khan, 57, has long been regarded as a conscientious and sober-sided businessman. Unlike his playboy father, best known in the West for marrying actress Rita Hayworth, the Harvard-educated Aga Khan has kept a low-key image while raising Thoroughbred racehorses and amassing holdings that include resorts, newspapers and airlines. He spends most of his time overseeing a personal secretariat outside Paris that manages his Ismaili religious foundation and its 16,000 worldwide employees. The philanthropies fund dozens of clinics, orphanages and schools controlled by his followers in Asia, Africa...
...Aga Khan's business empire began to wobble in the late 1980s when the Ciga hotel group embarked on a spectacularly ill-timed expansion. The goal was to build on its world-famous string of $400-a-night hotels such as the Grand in Rome and the Danieli in Venice. Just as the global economy was about to falter, Prince Karim began piling up debt to pay for costly renovations and the purchase of more than a dozen new hostelries, including the Palace in Madrid. Banks remained eager to put up the money because Ciga could pledge real estate worth...
...Aga Khan, who has always been something of a loner on the clubby Italian business scene, lacked financial alliances within the country and had nowhere to turn for help. His longtime friend Fiat chairman Giovanni Agnelli was preoccupied with the financial woes of his own scandal-tainted automotive empire...
...aga C. Hill, director of the affirmative action program, says despite the federal government's interest in Harvard's affirmative action efforts, the University is also not strictly accountable to the government for fulfilling its goals, which she distinguishes from enforced quotas...