Shashi Tharoor finds new worlds to conquer

INDIA-ABROAD

AZIZ HANIFFA

in Washington, DC

Shashi Tharoor plans to join the corporate world.The former United Nations under secretary general has accepted a position as chairman of

Afras Ventures, a new company based out of Dubai that seeks to promote foreign investment in India, specifically Kerala,

While he has obtained legal residency in Dubai, Tharoor will shuttle between New York , Dubai. and India,

"I will keep my place in New York, but I am a legal resident now of Dubai - that's wh re I am officially residing, " Tharoor told India Abroad.

"I will also be spending a lot of time in India. I expect to be living out of a suitcase. So, I will remain an NRI [non-resident Indian]."

Explaining how he came to be chairman of the company, Tharoor said, "There is another company, Afras Limited, which is the principal activity of my partner, that is one of the world's leading suppliers of pipes for the oil and gas industry- he gets them from European manufacture: and sells them to the Saudis, the Omanis and others."

He said Afras Ltd Managing Director Nandakumar Radhakrishnan - a fellow Keralite whom Tharoor had not met before but was apparently a distant relative of his - had been one of many peopIe in the private sector, think tanks and universities who tapped him to join their company or organization.

After a visit to Dubai and meetings with Radhakrishnan and reviewing his concept of this new company to promote investment in India, Tharoor decided to accept the offer.

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"This gentleman, who had family connection, got in touch with me and told me what he has been doing in Dubai and that he had made a success with Afras Ltd," Tharoor said. "And if I wouId be willing to come in with him in this new venture in a 50:50 partnership and try seriously to focus on India." .

"His argument was 'Why can't we contribute to the development of our country while at the same time making some money in the process through the private sector of the world?" Tharoor, who served for 29 years at the United Nations, continued.

"I thought about it and it struck me - I would be chairman, there would be profit participation, but there was also the dimension of actually making a contribution."

"So, one of the first things I did, after I wrapped up at the UN, turned in my diplomatic passport and got an ordinary one, got my visas and all of that, I went off to Dubai, spent 10 days there, spent some time in this company. Then we traveled to Kerala together," Tharoor added.

In Kerala, both he and Radhakrishnan met the chief minister, the finance and education ministers and several senior government officials and discussed investment in the further development of the state. .

Tharoor said Afras Ventures would promote investment "from wherever we can get it - it can be the United States, it can be the Gulf countries, whatever. The idea is to see whether we can do something for development The private sector frankly now is the engine of development - so 1 want to see what 1 can do in that area."

He spoke of how "when 1 lost the race [for the UN secretary general's post as the government of India's nominee], 1 found myself receiving an astonishing number of calls from a bewildering, wide rang of prospective employers. What startled me first of all was that this has happened. Let us face it, for 29 years [his tenure at the UN] 1 haven't even looked for a job.

"Suddenly, 1 found myself inundated and they came from a wide variety of areas. 1 was approached by a couple of very . distinguished think tanks - they were solid offers - and 1 was approached by a couple of universities. One or two of them reopened closed shortlists to put me on it."

Tharoor said all of this had happened so fast "I almost sleepwalked into a university. And to be quite honest because 1 was initially reeling from a prospective change in my life, 1 kind of said yes to everybody who called and suddenly 1 began to think seriously when 1 became a finalist for a position - which 1 was privately told was pretty much mine if 1 wanted it."

When it dawned on him that this university facu1ty position was about to be his, "I got to ask myself what I really wanted to do - because those [teaching at a university] are the kinds of things in some ways 1 can conceivably do at a later state of my life.

Right now, I still feel 1 am mid-career, but, like a good computer that's crashed, I need. to re-boot.

"So in my re-booting, 1 figured out having spent a lifetime in public service, that 1 shou1d do something that I've never done before - that wou1d stretch me a little bit," Tharoor continued. "The one thing that 1 would have to admit short of winning the secretary generalship, I had reached a stage where nothing that came across my desk at the UN surprised me or challenged me anymore. I mean, I was the guy who knew all the precedents of how things are going to be done pretty much. So, for me, it was a challenge to do something different."

"Amongst those who came calling were the private sector. 1 did get some calls from fairly well known corporations - it wou1dnot be po'lite to name them - but I didn’t quite fancy going from being Mr. UN to Mr Corporate. You know, as a kid, when I was leaving college, I could have gone into business management, but it has never been my motivation - I went on to Fletcher [School of Diplomacy] instead; and . international affairs.

"But at the same time the private sector did attract me," he acknowledged. . Jt's much more of an engine of development than it ever was because the private sector today accounts for far more capital flow to the developing world than governmental assistance ever does."

Thus, Tharoor said, for him it became a case of reflecting on "what can we do in the private sector that can make a difference? And, also having spent a lifetime in public service, it wouldn't be a bad idea to do well and do good at the same time. So I figured, let me look at that."

While being chairman of Afras Ventures will be his full-time job, he has also been signed up by the Washington-based Leading Authorities Inc, one of the country's most prominent speakers bureaus, which represents some of the most highprofile political, business, media, and entertainment figures.

Tharoor will be paid anything from $20,000 to $30,000 per speech on the East Coast and $30,000 to $50,000 per pop on the West Coast, which is what some of LAI's stable of celebrities garner.

"I am taking the thali [a multi-course Indian meal] approach. I want to do a number of different things. They'[the LAI] approached me and I said, why not? So I'll be speaking - as writing and speaking are my passions. "

Mathew R Jones, senior vice president, LAI, told India Abroad the reasons they signed Tharoor were several-fold.

"Obviously, his experience at the UN he's a very articulate gentleman, superb speaker," said Jones. "We sought him out - it, was sort of a combination. A mutual friend put us in touch, but we were very aware of him," Jones added.

While declining to disclose how much exactly Tharoor would be paid per speech, Jones said he would be right up there with several high-profile speakers on the political and diplomatic speaking circuit." The demand for him is in line with people of similar experience in terms of politics and diplomacy, and we are very excited about working with him," Jones said.

"We signed him on as soon as his term with the UN ended," Jones added, and acknowledged that his speech at the US Chamber of Commerce last week was his debut as one of the speakers the LAI presented.

Tharoor, asked if he was disappointed that the government of India had not offered him a senior position and if he would still consider a post if Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were to call on him, diplomatically sidestepped the question, responding with a laugh. "As peopIe learnt to say in this business, there is no point commenting on the hypothetical," he said.

Beyond his job as chairman of Mras Ventures and on the speaking circuit, he said he had consultancy offers from three private equity firms in New York, and would shortly decide on the one he would go with.

Tharobr said he would also be involved in "a couple of causes. I'll give a little bit of time - 5 percent to' 10 percent - to a friend who is interested in tiger conservation. There's the human rights group, Breakthrough; they've asked me to join their board and I am going to do that. There's the Virtue Foundation, which I've agreed to join."

"So I'm going to be trying to spread myself as thin as humanly possible," he continued. "I've got a book coming out towards September. It's based on my columns, and it's called The Elephant, theTiger, and the Cell-phone, which is a compilation and a reworking of my op-eds, articles and essays over the last half-a-dozen years about India in the 21st century."

He said he had targeted to have it out August 15 on the 60th anniversary of India's independence, since his book Midnight to Millennium had been published 10 years ago on India's 50th anniversary. "But with all of the stuff going on in my life, I couldn't do it."