Davos (Romansh: Tavau, Italian: Tavate) is a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland.

It is located on the Landwasser River, in the Swiss Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Range. At , it is the highest city in Europe.

Davos is host to the World Economic Forum (WEF), an annual meeting of global political and business elites (often referred to simply as Davos) and the home of a huge ski resort in Switzerland. At the end of every year it is serving as the site of the annual Spengler Cup ice hockey tournament, hosted by the HC Davos local hockey team.

History

The current settlement of the Davos area started back in High Middle Ages with the immigration of Rhaeto-Romans. The village of Davos is first mentioned in 1213 as Tavaus.

In the "natural ice" era of winter sports, Davos, and the Davos Eisstadion was a mecca for speed skating. Many international championships were held here, and many world records were set, beginning with Peder Østlund who set four records in 1898.

Subsequently, Davos became a famous ski resort, especially frequented by tourists from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. After peaking in the 1970s and 1980s, the city settled down as a leading but less high-profile tourist attraction.

Pronunciation

English-speaking broadcast journalists covering the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting, along with many speakers at the meeting itself, commonly pronounce the town's name by emphasizing the first syllable and shortening the o to make the word rhyme with "moss", i.e., . The local pronunciation is .

Geography

Davos has an area, , of . Of this area, 37.1% is used for agricultural purposes, while 19.7% is forested. Of the rest of the land, 2.2% is settled (buildings or roads) and the remainder (41%) is non-productive (rivers, glaciers or mountains).

, the gender distribution of the population was 49.1% male and 50.9% female. The age distribution, , in Davos is; 1,102 children or 9.7% of the population are between 0 and 9 years old and 1,435 teenagers or 12.6% are between 10 and 19. Of the adult population, 1,733 people or 15.2% of the population are between 20 and 29 years old. 1,897 people or 16.6% are between 30 and 39, 1,806 people or 15.8% are between 40 and 49, and 1,498 people or 13.1% are between 50 and 59. The senior population distribution is 902 people or 7.9% of the population are between 60 and 69 years old, 677 people or 5.9% are between 70 and 79, there are 318 people or 2.8% who are between 80 and 89 there are 49 people or 0.4% who are between 90 and 99.

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 36.3% of the vote. The next three most popular parties were the SVP (30.1%), the SP (23.1%) and the CVP (7.4%).

Weather

Davos has an average of 126.7 days of rain per year and on average receives of precipitation. The wettest month is August during which time Davos receives an average of of precipitation. During this month there is precipitation for an average of 13.6 days. The month with the most days of precipitation is June, with an average of 14.2, but with only of precipitation. The driest month of the year is April with an average of of precipitation over 13.6 days.

Sport

The six main ski areas are:

Parsenn / Gotschna

Jakobshorn

Pischahorn

Rinerhorn

Schatzalp

Madrisahorn

Events

On 14 March 2003, Winterjam was held and famous bands played during the event such as, Sum 41, Crazy Town, and Guano Apes. Hosts annual meetings of the World Economic Forum.

In popular culture

The town was featured in an episode of Viva La Bam, where they were visiting cities around Europe.

Heritage sites of national significance

Davos is home to seven sites that are listed as Swiss heritage sites of national significance. These heritage sites include the Town Archives, the Kirchner Museum, the Grosses Jenatschhaus (a type of charity house known as a Pfrundhaus) and the Forest Cemetery (Waldfriedhof). Several hotels and spas are also included on the list. The three hotels or former hotels are; Berghotel Schatzalp, the former Grand Hotel Belvédère and the Zürcher Höhenklinik von R. Gaberel.

See also

Lake Davos

Schwarzsee (Davos)

World Economic Forum

Davos Man

List of ski areas and resorts in Switzerland

References

External links

Davos.ch - Official website tourism information

The Junkerboden under Snow in Davos from Kirchner, in YOUR CITY AT THE THYSSEN, a Thyssen Museum's project on Flickr

Pictures Davos

Municipality of Davos - Official website

Category:Cities in Switzerland Category:Municipalities of Graubünden Category:Ski areas and resorts in Switzerland Category:Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Graubünden

Name	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Nationality	Turkish
Birth date	February 26, 1954
Birth place	Istanbul, Turkey
Signature	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Signature.svg
Party	Justice and Development Party
Spouse	Emine Erdoğan (m. 1978))
Religion	Islam
Alma mater	Marmara University
Spouse	Emine Erdoğan (m. 1978)
Children	Ahmet Burak, Bilal, Esra and Sümeyye
Party	Justice and Development Party
Signature	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Signature.svg
Signature alt	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Website	Prime MinistryRecep Tayyip Erdoğan
Order	Prime Minister of Turkey
President	Ahmet Necdet SezerAbdullah Gül
Deputy	Cemil ÇiçekBülent Arınç
Term start	March 14, 2003()
Predecessor	Abdullah Gül
Order2	Mayor of Istanbul
Term start2	March 27, 1994
Term end2	November 6, 1998
Predecessor2	Nurettin Sözen
Successor2	Ali Müfit Gürtuna
Order3	Leader of the AK Party
Term start3	August 14, 2001

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (; born February 26, 1954) is the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey and a former mayor of Istanbul. He is also the chairman of the Justice and Development Party (AK Parti), which holds a majority of the seats in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

Erdoğan graduated in 1981 from Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Commercial Sciences. He was involved in politics from the age of eighteen. Erdoğan was also engaged in the sport as a semi-professional football player from 1969 to 1982.

Erdoğan was elected Mayor of Istanbul in the local elections of March 27, 1994. He was banned from office and sentenced to a prison term because of a poem he recited during a public address in the province of Siirt on December 12, 1997. The poem was quoted from a book published by a state enterprise and one that had been recommended to teachers by the Ministry of Education. After four months in prison, Erdoğan established the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on August 14, 2001. From its first year, the AK Party became the largest publicly-supported political movement in Turkey. In 2002, the general elections resulted with the AK Party winning two-thirds of the seats in parliament, forming a single-party government after 19 years.

As prime minister, Erdoğan implemented numerous reforms within a period of time. After 45 years, the negotiations for Turkey's accession to the EU started during Erdoğan's tenure. Parallel to this, inflation, which had for decades adversely affected the country's economy, was taken under control and the Turkish Lira retrieved its former prestige through the elimination of six zeros. Interest rates for public borrowings were pulled down; per capita income grew significantly. The AK party won the elections of 2007 making it the first time in 52 years that a party in power has increased its votes for a second term.

Personal life and education

Erdoğan was born in the Kasımpaşa neighborhood of Istanbul to a family that moved from Rize Province. When he visited Georgia on August 11, 2004, he said I'm a Georgian too, my family is Georgian family, migrated from Batumi to Rize. But retired high school teacher and historian Cezmi Yurtsever claims that his family descends from the family of Bagatlı Recep, a large Muslim Turkish family that was settled around Trabzon after Mehmed II's conquest of the city. "Bagatlı Recep" (meaning Recep from Bagat), died in 1916 fighting against the invading Russian and Armenian forces. The family returned to Istanbul when Erdoğan was 13 years old.

In his youth, Erdoğan played semi-professional football in a local club. The stadium of the local football club of the district he grew up in, Kasımpaşa S.K., a team which is currently playing in the Turkish Süper Lig, is named after him.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan married Emine Erdoğan (née Gülbaran) (b. 1955 in Siirt), whom he met during a conference, on 4 July 1978. The couple has two sons (Ahmet Burak, Necmeddin Bilâl) and two daughters (Esra, Sümeyye).

After the 1980 military coup, Erdoğan followed most of Erbakan's followers into the Welfare Party. He was elected to parliament in 1991, but barred from taking his seat.

Mayor of Istanbul, 1994-1998

In the local elections of March 27, 1994 Erdoğan was elected Mayor of Istanbul, one of the biggest metropolitan areas of the world. He received 25.19% of the popular vote. Many feared that he would impose Islamic law. However, he proved to be very pragmatic in office. Erdoğan tackled many chronic problems of Istanbul, such as water shortage, pollution and traffic chaos. The water shortage problem was solved with the laying of hundreds of kilometers of new pipelines. The garbage problem was solved with the establishment of state-of-the-art recycling facilities. While Erdoğan was in office, air pollution was reduced through a plan developed to switch to natural gas. He changed the public buses with environmentally friendly buses. The city's traffic and transportation jams were ameliorated with more than fifty bridges, viaducts, and highways. Erdoğan also prohibited the sale of alcohol in city services. After a period, this measure was reversed. While taking precautions to prevent corruption, Erdoğan took measures to ensure that municipal funds were used prudently. Erdoğan paid back a major portion of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's two billion dollar debt when he took office and meanwhile invested four billion dollars in the city.

Erdoğan initiated the first roundtable of mayors during the Istanbul conference, which led to a global, organized movement of mayors. Because of his works, a seven member international jury from the United Nations unanimously found Erdoğan deserving the UN-HABITAT award.

He was given a prison sentence after he had read poetry regarded as a violation of Kemalism by judges. It included verses translated as "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers...."

The poem was quoted from a book published by a state enterprise and one that had been recommended to teachers by the Ministry of Education.

Prime Ministership, 2003-present

In 2001, Erdoğan established the moderate Justice and Development Party with former Fazilet Partisi and Anavatan Partisi members. The AK Party won a landslide victory in the 2002 election, taking two-thirds of the seats. However, Erdoğan could not became prime minister right away, as he was still banned from politics by the judiciary for his speech in Siirt, and deputy leader Gül thus became the prime minister instead. In December 2002 the Supreme Election Board canceled the general election results from Siirt due to voting irregularities and scheduled a new election for February 9, 2003. By this time, party leader Erdoğan was able to run for Parliament thanks to a legal change made possible by the opposition Republican People’s Party. The AK Party duly listed Erdoğan as a candidate for the rescheduled Siirt election, and he won, becoming prime minister after Gül subsequently handed over the post.

Domestic policy

Democracy

Erdoğan's pro-EU government instituted several democratic reforms. He gave the European Court of Human Rights supremacy over Turkish courts, reduced the powers of the 1991 Anti-Terror Law which had constrained Turkey’s democratization, and abolished many restrictions on freedom of speech and the press. He also passed a partial amnesty to reduce penalties faced by many members of the Kurdish terrorist organization PKK who had surrendered to the government.

The government planned several times to replace the Turkish Constitution of 1982 with a so-called more democratic "civil constitution", but the main opposition party CHP did not want to participate.

In 2009, the Turkish government under Prime Minister Erdoğan announced a plan to help end the quarter-century-long conflict that has cost more than 40,000 lives. The government’s plan, supported by the European Union, allowed the Kurdish language to be used in all broadcast media and political campaigns, and restore Kurdish names to cities and towns that have been given Turkish ones.

Such measures, many of which have been required for entry to the European Union, were inconceivable in the early 1980s, when aggressive state policies prohibited use of the Kurdish language and other cultural and political rights for the Kurds.

“We took a courageous step to resolve chronic issues that constitute an obstacle along Turkey’s development, progression and empowerment.” Erdoğan said regarding the issue.

Since 1961 Turkey has begun 19 IMF loan accords. Erdogan's government satisfied the budgetary and market requirements of the two on his watch and received every loan installment, the only time any government has ever done so. Erdoğan inherited a debt of $23.5 billion to the IMF, which has been reduced to $7 billion in 2009. He decided not to sign a new deal. Turkey’s debt to the IMF will be completely paid off in 2013. Unemployment rate decreased from 10.3% to 9.7% in 2007. Along with the global economic crisis of 2008, Turkey’s unemployment rate jumped to a record high of 16.1 percent in the January–March period of 2009. In the April–June period of 2010, the unemployment decreased again to 11.0%, compared to 10,0% in the eurozone.

In 2002, the Turkish Central Bank had $26.5 billion in reserves. This amount reached $72.5 billion in 2009. In the same period, inflation fell from 34,9% to 5,7%, the lowest in 39 years. The public debt as percentage of annual gross domestic product declined from 74% in 2002 to 39% in 2009.

The World Bank praised Erdogan for the couragous reforms and the economic stability in the country.

Justice

On March 2006, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) for the first time in Turkey's history held a press conference and publicly protest the obstruction of the appointment of judges to the high courts for over 10 months. It claimed Erdoğan wanted to fill the vacant posts with his own appointees which Erdoğan was accused of creating a rift with the Turkey's highest court of appeals (the Yargıtay) and high administrative court (the Danıştay). Erdoğan claimed that the constitution gave power of assigning members to his elected party.

In May 2007, the head of the high court in Turkey asked prosecutors to consider whether Erdoğan should be charged over critical comments regarding the election of Abdullah Gul as president. The Turkish parliament agreed to reduce the age of candidacy to the parliament from 30 to 25 and abolished the death penalty in all instances, including war time.

Health care

On April 2006, Erdoğan unveiled a social security reform package demanded by the International Monetary Fund under a loan deal. Erdoğan claimed that the move, which was passed with fierce opposition, was the one of the most radical reforms. Turkey’s three social security bodies were united under one roof, bringing equal health services and retirement benefits for members of all three bodies. Under the second bill, everyone below the age of 18 will be entitled to free health services, irrespective of whether they pay premiums to any social security organization or not. The bill also envisages a gradual increase in the retirement age. Starting from 2036, the retirement age will eventually increase to 65 as of 2048 for both men and women. The government unified three systems of hospitals and insurance for different professions that were criticized for offering unequal benefits and reserving the best hospitals for civil servants while others waited in long queues.

On January 2008, the Turkish Parliament adopted a law on a complete prohibition of smoking in most public places. The Prime Minister himself is an outspoken anti-smoker.

Demographics

In 2008 Erdogan commented that to ensure that the Turkish population remains young, every family would need to have at least three children. He has numerous times repeated this statement. The Centre of Family Planning in Başkent University disputed Erdoğan's claims with a scientific report, and expressed concerns over Erdogan's proposal given Turkey's relatively high maternal and infant mortality rates.

Foreign policy

Armenia

In 2005, international airspace between Armenia and Turkey was reopened. Between May 2005 and October 2006, the Turkish Ministry of Culture financed the restoration of an old Armenian church. The restoration had a stated budget of 2 million New Turkish Lira (approximately 1.4 million USD)

During Erdoğan's Prime Ministership, Abdullah Gül became the first Turkish head of state to visit Armenia, when he made the trip to Yerevan to watch a FIFA World Cup qualifying match between the countries. Erdoğan also met numerous times with the President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, the latest such meeting taking place during the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C in April 2010.

On August 31, 2009, Turkey and Armenia signed protocols in Zurich to improve relations between the two countries.

European Union

Erdoğan was named by the European Voice Organization "The European of the Year 2004" for the reforms in his country. Erdoğan said in a comment that "Turkey's accession shows that Europe is a continent where civilisations reconcile and not clash."

On 3 October 2005, the negotiations for Turkey's accession to the EU formally started during Erdoğan's tenure as Prime Minister.

Greece and Cyprus

During Erdoğan's Prime Ministership, relations with Greece have been normalized. Political and economic relations are much improved. In 2007, Prime Minister Erdoğan and Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis met on the bridge over the Evros River at the border between Greece and Turkey, for the inauguration of the Greek-Turkish natural gas pipeline, linking the longtime Aegean rivals through a project that will give Caspian gas its first direct Western outlet and help ease Russia’s energy dominance.

Turkey and Greece signed an agreement to create a Combined Joint Operational Unit within the framework of NATO to participate in Peace Support Operations.

Erdogan and his party strongly supported the EU backed referendum of Cyprus, 2004 to reunify the island.

Iraq

Under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Prime Ministry, Iraq and Turkey signed 48 trade agreements by the Iraqi-Turkish Strategic Council in Baghdad. Agreements signed included sectors of security, energy, oil, electricity, water, health, trade, environment, transport, housing, construction, agriculture, education, higher education, and defense.

Turkish government also warmed up relations with Iraqi Kurdistan by opening a Turkish university in Arbil, and a Turkish consulate in Mosul. Abdullah Gül became the first Turkish head of state to visit Iraq in 33 years, on March 23, 2009.

Israel

Erdoğan describes Israel as "the main threat to regional peace" and has called for Israel's nuclear facilities to come under IAEA inspection. Erdoğan accuses Israel of turning Gaza into an "open-air prison".

At the 2009 World Economic Forum conference, the debate became heated in relation to the Gaza conflict. The Israeli President Shimon Peres was heavily criticized by Erdogan (sitting beside him) over the handling of the conflict as response to Peres' strong language. Erdoğan also accused the moderator of giving Peres more time than all the other panelists combined.

Following the Gaza flotilla raid, tension between the two countries dramatically mounted, when Erdogan strongly condemned the raid, describing it as "state terrorism", calling for Israeli leaders responsible to be punished, and concluding his speech by saying that "we are sick of your [Israel's] lies".

Syria

During Erdoğan's term of office, the diplomatic relations between Turkey and Syria have significantly improved. In 2004, President Bashar al-Assad arrived in Turkey for the first official visit by a Syrian President in 57 years. In late 2004, Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan signed a free trade agreement with Syria. The visa restrictions between the two countries have been lifted in 2009, which caused an economic boom in the regions near the Syrian border.

United States

during the G-20 Seoul Summit, November 2010.]] When Barack Obama became President of United States, he made his first overseas trip to Turkey in April 2009.

At a joint news conference in Turkey, Obama said: "I'm trying to make a statement about the importance of Turkey, not just to the United States but to the world. I think that where there's the most promise of building stronger U.S.-Turkish relations is in the recognition that Turkey and the United States can build a model partnership in which a predominantly Christian nation, a predominantly Muslim nation -- a Western nation and a nation that straddles two continents," he continued, "that we can create a modern international community that is respectful, that is secure, that is prosperous, that there are not tensions -- inevitable tensions between cultures -- which I think is extraordinarily important."

Elections and Referendums

General elections

The elections of 2002 were the first elections in which Erdogan participated as a leader of a party. All parties previously elected to parliament failed to win enough votes to re-enter the parliament. The AK Party won 34.3% of the national vote and formed the new government. Turkish stocks rose more than seven percent on Monday morning. Politicians of the previous generation, such as Ecevit, Bahceli, Yılmaz and Çiller, declared to resign from their role as political leader. The second biggest party CHP received 19.4% of the votes.

The stage of the elections of 2007 was set for a fight for legitimacy in the eyes of voters between his government and the country’s kemalist opposition. Erdoğan used the events at that took place during the ill-fated Presidential elections a few months earlier as a part of the general election campaign of his party. In the night of 22 July 2007, it became obvious that AK Party had won an important victory over the opposition, garnering 46.7 percent of the popular vote. July 22 elections were only the second time in the Turkish Republic's history whereby an incumbent governing party won an election by increasing its share of popular support.

On 14 March 2008, Turkey's Chief Prosecutor asked the country's Constitutional Court to ban Erdoğan's governing party. The party later escaped a ban on 30 July 2008, a year after winning 46.7 percent of the vote in national elections, only receiving a removal of 50% share of their public granted funds.

Presidential elections

On April 14, 2007, an estimated 300,000 people marched in Ankara to protest the possible candidacy of Erdoğan in the 2007 presidential election, afraid that if elected as President, he would alter the secular nature of the Turkish state. Erdoğan announced on April 24, 2007 that the party had decided to nominate Abdullah Gül as the AK Party candidate in the presidential election. The protests continued over the next several weeks, with over one million reported at an April 29 rally in Istanbul, tens of thousands reported at separate protests on May 4 in Manisa and Çanakkale, and one million in İzmir on May 13. Early parliamentary elections were called after the failure of the parties in parliament to agree on the next Turkish president. The opposition parties boycotted the parliamentary vote and deadlocked the election process. At the same time, Erdoğan claimed the failure to elect a president was a failure of the Turkish political system and proposed to modify the constitution.

Abdullah Gül was later elected President after the general elections on 22 July 2007 that saw AK Party and Erdoğan brought back to power with 46.7 percent of the vote. Later in 2007, Turkish constitutional referendum approved with the support of 69% of the voters to modify the constitution to allow the people to elect the President.

Local elections

In the local elections of 1994 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected Mayor of Istanbul, one of the biggest metropolitan areas of the world. He received 25.19% of the popular vote.

After the AK Party won the 2002 general elections under the leadership of Erdogan, it has received more votes in the 2004 local elections. The AK party was the biggest party in 12 out of 16 metropolitan municipality.

The Turkish local elections of 2009 took place during the financial crisis of 2007–2010. In these elections the AK Party received 39% of the votes and lost 3 points compared to the local elections of 2004. The second party CHP received 23% of the votes and the third party MHP received 16% of the votes.

Referendums

After the opposition parties deadlocked the 2007 presidential election by boycotting the parliament, the ruling AK party proposed a constitutional reform package. The reform package was first vetoed by president Sezer. Then he applied to the Turkish constituonal court about the reform package, because the president is unable to veto amendments for the second time. The Turkish constituonal court did not find any problems in the packet and 68.95% of the voters supported the constitutional changes. The reforms consisted of:

electing the president by popular vote instead of by parliament;

reducing the presidential term from seven years to five;

allowing the president to stand for re-election for a second term;

holding general elections every four years instead of five;

reducing the quorum of lawmakers needed for parliamentary decisions from 367 to 184.

Reforming the Constitution was one of the main issues of the AK Party during the 2007 election campaign. The main opposition party CHP was not interested to alter the Constitution on a big scale, making it impossible to vorm a Constitutional Commission (Anayasa Uzlaşma Komisyonu). The amendments lacked the two-thirds majority needed to instantly become law, but secured 336 votes in the 550 seat parliament - enough to put the proposals to a referendum. The reform package includes a number of issues such as the right of individuals to appeal to the highest court, the creation of the ombudsman’s office, the possibility to negotiate a nation-wide labour contract, gender equality, the possibility of civilian courts to convict members of the military, the right for public servants to go on strike, a privacy law, and the structure of the Constitutional Court. The referendum was agreed by a majority of 58%.

Honors and accolades

Awards

On January 29, 2004, Erdoğan received the Profiles of Courage Award from the American Jewish Committee, for promoting peace between cultures. On April 18, 2004, Erdoğan was listed in Time magazine's "100 most influential people in the world" and was called a builder of bridges by the magazine. On June 13, 2004, Erdoğan received the Golden Plate award from the Academy of Achievement during the conference in Chicago. On December 1, 2004, Erdoğan was named European of the Year by the weekly European Voice, for having put Turkey on the path to reform. On September 2, 2005, Erdoğan received the Mediterranean Award for Institutions (Italian: Premio Mediterraneo Istituzioni). This was awarded by the Fondazione Mediterraneo. On June 1, 2006, Erdoğan received a Russian state medal from the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. On August 8, 2006, Erdoğan received the Caspian Energy Integration Award from the Caspian Integration Business Club. On November 1, 2006, Erdoğan received Outstanding Service award from the Turkish humanitarian organization Red Crescent. On February 2, 2007, Erdoğan received the Dialogue Between Cultures Award from the President of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev. On March 12, 2007, Erdoğan received together with the Spanish prime minister Zapatero the 2007 RUMI Peace and Dialogue award. On April 15, 2007, Erdoğan received the Crystal Hermes Award from the German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the opening of the Hannover Industrial Fair. On June 14, 2007, Erdoğan received the Turkish Leader of the Year Award from the mediagroup Imedya. On July 11, 2007, Erdoğan received the highest award of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the Agricola Medal, in recognition of his contribution to agricultural and social development in Turkey. On January 15, 2008, Erdoğan received together with the Spanish prime minister Zapatero the Building Bridges Award from the AMSS(UK), for their efforts to unify communities separated by race, culture and religion, for promoting a climate of respect, and peaceful co-existence through launching the Alliance of Civilizations project. On May 11, 2009, Erdoğan received the Avicenna award from the Avicenna Foundation in Frankfurt, Germany. On June 9, 2009, Erdoğan was the honor guest of 20th Crans Montana Forum in Brussels and received the Prix de la Fondation, for democracy and freedom. On October 26, 2009, the Government of Pakistan awarded Erdoğan the Nishan-e-Pakistan, the highest civilian award in Pakistan. On December 29, 2009, Erdoğan received the Award for Contribution to World Peace from the Turgut Özal Thought and Move Association. On January 12, 2010, Erdoğan won the King Faisal International Prize for "service to Islam" from the King Faisal Foundation. On February 23, 2010, Erdoğan received the Nodo Culture Award from the mayor of Seville for his efforts to launch the Alliance of Civilizations initiative. On March 1, 2010, Erdoğan won the United Nations–HABITAT award in memorial of Rafik Hariri. A seven member international jury unanimously found Erdoğan deserving the award because of his “excellent achievement and commendable conduct in the area of leadership, statesmanship and good governance. Erdoğan also initiated the first roundtable of mayors during the Istanbul conference, which led to a global, organized movement of mayors.” On April 29, 2010, Erdoğan was listed for the second time in Time magazine's "100 most influential people in the world". On May 17, 2010, Georgia's president awarded Erdoğan the Order of Golden Fleece for his contribution to development of bilateral relations. On May 27, 2010, Erdogan received a medal of honor from the Brazilian Federation of Industry for the State of São Paulo (FIESP) for his contributions to industry On May 31, 2010, the World Health Organization awarded Erdoğan the 2010 World No Tobacco Award for "his dedicated leadership on tobacco control in Turkey." On June 29, 2010, Erdoğan received the 2010 World Family Award from the World Family Organization which operates under the umbrella of the United Nations. On November 04, 2010, Erdoğan received the Golden Medal of Independence, an award conferred upon Kosovo citizens and foreigners that have contributed to the independence of Kosovo. On November 25, 2010, Erdoğan received the "Leader of the Year" award presented by the Union of Arab Banks in Lebanon. On November 29, 2010, Erdoğan was invited as guest of honor at the 3rd EU-Africa Summit in Libya, where he is given the Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights. On January 11, 2011, Erdoğan was presented with the "Outstanding Personality in the Islamic World Award" of the Sheikh Fahad al-Ahmad International Award for Charity in Kuwait.

Honorary doctorates

On January 26, 2004, Erdoğan received an honorary doctorate from St. John's University. On April 3, 2004, Erdoğan received an honorary doctorate from the Crimean State University. On May 18, 2006, Erdoğan received an honorary doctorate from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. On July 20, 2006, Erdoğan received an honorary doctorates from Girne American University. On March 29, 2008, Erdoğan received an honorary doctorate from the University of Sarajevo. On October 15, 2008, Erdoğan received an honorary doctorate from the Fatih University. On July 4, 2009, Erdoğan received an honorary doctorate from Maltepe University. On August 22, 2009, Erdoğan received an honorary doctorate from the University of Aleppo. On April 16, 2010, Erdoğan received an honorary doctorate from the Islamic University of Gaza. On May 18, 2010, Erdoğan received an honorary doctorate from European University of Madrid. On June 12, 2010, Erdoğan received an honorary doctorate from Black Sea Technical University. On October 2, 2010, Erdoğan received an honorary doctorate from Piri Reis University. On October 31, 2010, Erdoğan received an honorary doctorate from Harran University. On November 4, 2010, Erdoğan received an honorary doctorate from University of Prishtina.

Honorary citizenship

Erdoğan received honorary citizenship of Seoul in February 2004. Erdoğan received honorary citizenship of Tehran in February 2009. Erdoğan received honorary citizenship of Prizren in November 2010.

See also

Prime Minister of Turkey

External Links

Turkey: The New Indispensable Nation: article written by the Prime Minister, distributed globally as part of Project Syndicate's 2010 Year End Series.

References

External links

Official Website of Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey

BBC News Profile

Category:Prime Ministers of Turkey Category:Current national leaders Category:Mayors of Istanbul Category:Leaders of political parties in Turkey Category:People from Istanbul Category:1954 births Category:Armenian Genocide deniers Category:Turkish people of Georgian descent Category:Living people Category:Turkish Sunni Muslims Category:Recipients of the Nishan-e-Pakistan Category:Justice and Development Party (Turkey) politicians

Name	Dmitry MedvedevДмитрий Медведев
Alt	A portrait shot of a serious looking middle-aged male looking straight ahead. He has short brown hair, and is wearing a blue blazer with a blue tie over a white collared shirt.
Order	3rd
Office	President of Russia
Primeminister	Vladimir Putin
Term start	7 May 2008
Predecessor	Vladimir Putin
Office2	Deputy Prime Minister of Russia
Term start2	14 November 2005
Term end2	12 May 2008
Alongside2	Sergei Ivanov
Primeminister2	Mikhail FradkovViktor Zubkov
Predecessor2	Position established
Successor2	Viktor ZubkovIgor Shuvalov
Birth date	September 14, 1965
Birth place	Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia)
Birthname	Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev
Nationality	Russian
Party	Independent (Formally)Endorsements:United RussiaFair RussiaAgrarian PartyCivilian Power
Spouse	Svetlana Medvedeva
Children	Ilya Medvedev
Alma mater	Leningrad State University
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Russian Orthodoxy
Name	Medvedev, Dmitry Anatolyevich
Alternative names	Медведев, Дмитрий Анатольевич (Russian)
Short description	Politician, businessman, lawyer
Date of birth	14 September 1965
Place of birth	Leningrad, Russia, Soviet Union

Category:1965 births Category:Campaign managers Category:Current national leaders Category:Eastern Orthodox Christians from Russia Category:Gazprom people Category:Independent politicians Category:Living people Category:People from Saint Petersburg Category:People of the 2008 South Ossetia war Category:Presidents of the Russian Federation Category:Russian bloggers Category:Russian businesspeople Category:Russian lawyers Category:Russian Orthodox Christians Category:Russian people of Ukrainian descent Category:Russian politicians Category:Russian photographers Category:Saint Petersburg State University alumni Category:Video bloggers

Name	Bill Gates
Caption	Bill Gates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, 2007
Birth date	October 28, 1955
Birth place	Seattle, Washington, United States
Nationality	American
Occupation	Chairman of MicrosoftChairman of CorbisCo-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationDirector of Berkshire HathawayCEO of Cascade Investment
Net worth	US$54 billion (2010)
Spouse
Children	3
Residence	Medina, WA
Alma mater	Harvard University (dropped out in 1975)
Website	Bill Gates
Signature	BillGates Signature.svg
Parents	William H. Gates, Sr.Mary Maxwell Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III, (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, philanthropist, author and chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 8 percent of the common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books.

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts. In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.

Bill Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In June 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates' last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as non-executive chairman.

Early life

Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, to William H. Gates, Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates, of English, German, and Scotch-Irish descent. His family was upper middle class; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way, and her father, J. W. Maxwell, was a national bank president. Gates has one elder sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby. He was the fourth of his name in his family, but was known as William Gates III or "Trey" because his father had dropped his own "III" suffix. Early on in his life, Gates' parents had a law career in mind for him.

At 13 he enrolled in the Lakeside School, an exclusive preparatory school. When he was in the eighth grade, the Mothers Club at the school used proceeds from Lakeside School's rummage sale to buy an ASR-33 teletype terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric (GE) computer for the school's students. Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. He wrote his first computer program on this machine: an implementation of tic-tac-toe that allowed users to play games against the computer. Gates was fascinated by the machine and how it would always execute software code perfectly. When he reflected back on that moment, he commented on it and said, "There was just something neat about the machine." After the Mothers Club donation was exhausted, he and other students sought time on systems including DEC PDP minicomputers. One of these systems was a PDP-10 belonging to Computer Center Corporation (CCC), which banned four Lakeside students—Gates, Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and Kent Evans—for the summer after it caught them exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain free computer time.

At the end of the ban, the four students offered to find bugs in CCC's software in exchange for computer time. Rather than use the system via teletype, Gates went to CCC's offices and studied source code for various programs that ran on the system, including programs in FORTRAN, LISP, and machine language. The arrangement with CCC continued until 1970, when the company went out of business. The following year, Information Sciences, Inc. hired the four Lakeside students to write a payroll program in COBOL, providing them computer time and royalties. After his administrators became aware of his programming abilities, Gates wrote the school's computer program to schedule students in classes. He modified the code so that he was placed in classes with mostly female students. He later stated that "it was hard to tear myself away from a machine at which I could so unambiguously demonstrate success." In early 1973, Bill Gates served as a congressional page in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Gates graduated from Lakeside School in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT and enrolled at Harvard College in the autumn of 1973. While at Harvard, he met Steve Ballmer, who later succeeded Gates as CEO of Microsoft. In his sophomore year, Gates devised an algorithm for pancake sorting as a solution to one of a series of unsolved problems, presented in a combinatorics class by Harry Lewis, one of his professors. Gates' solution, which was later formalized in a published paper in collaboration with Harvard computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou, held the record as the fastest version for over thirty years; its successor is faster by only one percent. and spent a lot of time using the school's computers. He remained in contact with Paul Allen, joining him at Honeywell during the summer of 1974. The following year saw the release of the MITS Altair 8800 based on the Intel 8080 CPU, and Gates and Allen saw this as the opportunity to start their own computer software company. He had talked this decision over with his parents, who were supportive of him after seeing how much Gates wanted to start a company. In reality, Gates and Allen did not have an Altair and had not written code for it; they merely wanted to gauge MITS's interest. MITS president Ed Roberts agreed to meet them for a demo, and over the course of a few weeks they developed an Altair emulator that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter. The demonstration, held at MITS's offices in Albuquerque, was a success and resulted in a deal with MITS to distribute the interpreter as Altair BASIC. Paul Allen was hired into MITS, and Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard to work with Allen at MITS in Albuquerque in November 1975. They named their partnership "Micro-Soft" and had their first office located in Albuquerque. This letter was unpopular with many computer hobbyists, but Gates persisted in his belief that software developers should be able to demand payment. Microsoft became independent of MITS in late 1976, and it continued to develop programming language software for various systems.

During Microsoft's early years, all employees had broad responsibility for the company's business. Gates oversaw the business details, but continued to write code as well. In the first five years, he personally reviewed every line of code the company shipped, and often rewrote parts of it as he saw fit.

IBM partnership

In 1980, IBM approached Microsoft to write the BASIC interpreter for its upcoming personal computer, the IBM PC. When IBM's representatives mentioned that they needed an operating system, Gates referred them to Digital Research (DRI), makers of the widely used CP/M operating system. IBM's discussions with Digital Research went poorly, and they did not reach a licensing agreement. IBM representative Jack Sams mentioned the licensing difficulties during a subsequent meeting with Gates and told him to get an acceptable operating system. A few weeks later Gates proposed using 86-DOS (QDOS), an operating system similar to CP/M that Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products (SCP) had made for hardware similar to the PC. Microsoft made a deal with SCP to become the exclusive licensing agent, and later the full owner, of 86-DOS. After adapting the operating system for the PC, Microsoft delivered it to IBM as PC-DOS in exchange for a one-time fee of $50,000. Gates did not offer to transfer the copyright on the operating system, because he believed that other hardware vendors would clone IBM's system. They did, and the sales of MS-DOS made Microsoft a major player in the industry.

Gates oversaw Microsoft's company restructuring on June 25, 1981, which re-incorporated the company in Washington state and made Gates President of Microsoft and the Chairman of the Board.

Management style

From Microsoft's founding in 1975 until 2006, Gates had primary responsibility for the company's product strategy. He aggressively broadened the company's range of products, and wherever Microsoft achieved a dominant position he vigorously defended it.

As an executive, Gates met regularly with Microsoft's senior managers and program managers. Firsthand accounts of these meetings describe him as verbally combative, berating managers for perceived holes in their business strategies or proposals that placed the company's long-term interests at risk. He often interrupted presentations with such comments as, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" and, "Why don't you just give up your options and join the Peace Corps?" The target of his outburst then had to defend the proposal in detail until, hopefully, Gates was fully convinced.

Gates's role at Microsoft for most of its history was primarily a management and executive role. However, he was an active software developer in the early years, particularly on the company's programming language products. He has not officially been on a development team since working on the TRS-80 Model 100 line, but wrote code as late as 1989 that shipped in the company's products.

Antitrust litigation

Many decisions that led to antitrust litigation over Microsoft's business practices have had Gates' approval. In the 1998 United States v. Microsoft case, Gates gave deposition testimony that several journalists characterized as evasive. He argued with examiner David Boies over the contextual meaning of words like "compete", "concerned" and "we". BusinessWeek reported:

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Gates later said that he had simply resisted attempts by Boies to mischaracterize his words and actions. As to his demeanor during the deposition, he said, "Did I fence with Boies? ... I plead guilty. Whatever that penalty is should be levied against me: rudeness to Boies in the first degree." Despite Gates's denials, the judge ruled that Microsoft had committed monopolization and tying, and blocking competition, both in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. As they are walking out of the mall, Seinfeld asks Gates if he has melded his mind to other developers, after getting a yes, he then asks if they are working on a way to make computers edible, again getting a yes. Some say that this is an homage to Seinfeld's own show about "nothing" (Seinfeld). In a second commercial in the series, Gates and Seinfeld are at the home of an average family trying to fit in with normal people.

Post-Microsoft

Since leaving Microsoft, Gates continues his philanthropy and, among other projects, purchased the video rights to the Messenger Lectures series called The Character of Physical Law, given at Cornell University by Richard Feynman in 1964 and recorded by the BBC. The videos are available online to the public at Microsoft's Project Tuva.

In April 2010, Gates was invited to visit and speak at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he asked the students to take on the hard problems of the world in their futures.

Personal life

, June 2009.]] Gates married Melinda French from Dallas, Texas on January 1, 1994. They have three children: daughters Jennifer Katharine Gates (born 1996) and Phoebe Adele Gates (born 2002), and son Rory John Gates (born 1999). The Gates' home is an earth-sheltered house in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina. According to King County public records, as of 2006 the total assessed value of the property (land and house) is $125 million, and the annual property tax is $991,000.

His estate has a swimming pool with an underwater music system, as well as a gym and a dining room.

Also among Gates's private acquisitions is the Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci, which Gates bought for $30.8 million at an auction in 1994. Gates is also known as an avid reader, and the ceiling of his large home library is engraved with a quotation from The Great Gatsby. He also enjoys playing bridge, tennis, and golf.

Gates was number one on the "Forbes 400" list from 1993 through to 2007 and number one on Forbes list of "The World's Richest People" from 1995 to 2007 and 2009. In 1999, Gates's wealth briefly surpassed $101 billion, causing the media to call him a "centibillionaire". Since 2000, the nominal value of his Microsoft holdings has declined due to a fall in Microsoft's stock price after the dot-com bubble burst and the multi-billion dollar donations he has made to his charitable foundations. In a May 2006 interview, Gates commented that he wished that he were not the richest man in the world because he disliked the attention it brought. Gates has several investments outside Microsoft, which in 2006 paid him a salary of $616,667, and $350,000 bonus totalling $966,667. He founded Corbis, a digital imaging company, in 1989. In 2004 he became a director of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company headed by long-time friend Warren Buffett. In March 2010 Bill Gates was bumped down to the 2nd wealthiest man behind Carlos Slim.

Philanthropy

, Queen Rania of Jordan, Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, President Yar Adua of Nigeria and other participants in a 'Call to Action on the Millennium Development Goals' during the Annual Meeting 2008 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.]]

Gates began to realize the expectations others had of him when public opinion mounted that he could give more of his wealth to charity. Gates studied the work of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller and in 1994 sold some of his Microsoft stock to create the William H. Gates Foundation. In 2000, Gates and his wife combined three family foundations into one to create the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is the largest transparently operated charitable foundation in the world. The foundation is set up to allow benefactors access to how its money is being spent, unlike other major charitable organizations such as the Wellcome Trust. The generosity and extensive philanthropy of David Rockefeller has been credited as a major influence. Gates and his father have met with Rockefeller several times and have modeled their giving in part on the Rockefeller family's philanthropic focus, namely those global problems that are ignored by governments and other organizations. As of 2007, Bill and Melinda Gates were the second most generous philanthropists in America, having given over $28 billion to charity.

The foundation has also received criticism because it invests the assets that it has not yet distributed with the exclusive goal of maximizing the return on investment. As a result, its investments include companies that have been criticized for worsening poverty in the same developing countries where the Foundation is attempting to relieve poverty. These include companies that pollute heavily and pharmaceutical companies that do not sell into the developing world. In response to press criticism, the foundation announced in 2007 a review of its investments to assess social responsibility. It subsequently cancelled the review and stood by its policy of investing for maximum return, while using voting rights to influence company practices. Gates has made The Giving Pledge to donate over half of his wealth to charity.

Recognition

In 1987 Gates was officially declared a billionaire in the pages of Forbes' 400 Richest People in America issue, just days before his 32nd birthday. As the world's youngest self-made billionaire, he was worth $1.25 billion, over $900 million more than he'd been worth the year before, when he'd debuted on the list.

Time magazine named Gates , as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005, and 2006. Time also collectively named Gates, his wife Melinda and U2's lead singer Bono as the 2005 Persons of the Year for their humanitarian efforts. In 2006, he was voted eighth in the list of "Heroes of our time". Gates was listed in the Sunday Times power list in 1999, named CEO of the year by Chief Executive Officers magazine in 1994, ranked number one in the "Top 50 Cyber Elite" by Time in 1998, ranked number two in the Upside Elite 100 in 1999 and was included in The Guardian as one of the "Top 100 influential people in media" in 2001.

In 1994, he was honoured as the twentieth Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society. Gates has received honorary doctorates from Nyenrode Business Universiteit, Breukelen, The Netherlands, in 2000; the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, in 2002; Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, in 2005; Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in April 2007; Harvard University in June 2007; the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, in January 2008, and Cambridge University in June 2009. He was also made an honorary trustee of Peking University in 2007. Gates was also made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005, in addition to having entomologists name the Bill Gates flower fly, Eristalis gatesi, in his honor.

In November 2006, he and his wife were awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle for their philanthropic work around the world in the areas of health and education, particularly in Mexico, and specifically in the program "Un país de lectores". In October 2009, it was announced that Gates will be awarded the 2010 Bower Award for Business Leadership of The Franklin Institute for his achievements in business and for his philanthropic work. In 2010 he was honored with the Silver Buffalo Award by the Boy Scouts of America, its highest award for adults, for his service to youth.

Investments

Cascade Investments LLC, a private investment and holding company, incorporated in United States, is controlled by Bill Gates, and is headquartered in the city of Kirkland, WA.

bgC3, a new think-tank company founded by Bill Gates.

Corbis, a digital image licensing and rights services company.

TerraPower, a nuclear reactor design company.

Bibliography

Gates has authored two books:

The Road Ahead (1995)

Business @ the Speed of Thought (1999)

Filmography

Gates has appeared in at least one film: Waiting For Superman

See also

List of billionaires (also see List of college dropout billionaires and List of wealthiest non-inflated historical figures)

Paul Allen – Microsoft's co-founder, friend, and fellow billionaire

Books

References

Further reading

"The Meaning of Bill Gates: As his reign at Microsoft comes to an end, so does the era he dominated", The Economist, June 28, 2008.

External links

The Official Site of Bill Gates – The Gates Notes

Biography of Bill Gates at Microsoft.com

Forbes profile page on Bill Gates

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

How I Work: Bill Gates

TED Talks: Bill Gates trying to change the world now at TED in 2009

Category:American billionaires Category:American computer businesspeople Category:American chief executives Category:American computer programmers Category:American philanthropists Category:American technology writers Category:Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation people Category:Businesspeople in software Category:Harvard University people Category:Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Category:Microsoft employees Category:History of Microsoft Category:National Medal of Technology recipients Category:People from Seattle, Washington Category:People from King County, Washington Category:Windows people Category:Fellows of the British Computer Society Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:1955 births Category:Living people Category:Time Persons of the Year

Benjamin Zander (born March 9, 1939, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England) is a Jewish American conductor from Britain. He is the music director of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and a faculty member at the New England Conservatory. He is known for his interpretations of the works of Gustav Mahler and his popular pre-concert lectures.

Biography

Zander started his early musical training in his native England with cello and composition lessons under the guidance of his father. When he was nine, Benjamin Britten took an interest in his development and invited the family to spend three summers in Aldeburgh with him. This led to a long association with Britten and lessons in music theory and composition from Britten's close associate Imogen Holst, daughter of Gustav Holst.

Zander left school when he was fifteen, moving to Florence at the invitation of the Spanish cello virtuoso Gaspar Cassadó, who became his teacher and mentor for the next five years. He completed his cello training at the State Academy in Cologne, traveling extensively with Cassadó and performing recitals and chamber music.

In 1964, Zander completed a degree at University College London (part of the University of London), winning the University College Essay Prize and a Harkness Commonwealth Fellowship for postgraduate work at Harvard. Boston has been his home ever since.

In 1967, Zander joined the faculty of the New England Conservatory where he teaches an Interpretation Class and conducts the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and the conservatory orchestras. During his 32-year tenure as conductor of the Youth Philharmonic, he has led the orchestra on 12 international tours and released five commercial recordings as well as several PBS documentaries. In addition to his work at NEC, Zander is the artistic director of the New England Conservatory at Walnut Hill program at the renowned Walnut Hill School, where he teaches a weekly master class.

In 1979, he became the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he still holds. Their extensive repertoire includes an emphasis on late Romantic and early 20th-century composers, especially the symphonies of Gustav Mahler, of whose work he has become a notable interpreter. With the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Zander has released five critically acclaimed recordings of works by Stravinsky, Beethoven, Mahler, Shostakovich and Ravel. Among the many accolades and high praise, Classic CD magazine awarded the Boston Philharmonic’s recording of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring the highest rank of all available recordings of the work, and of Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, (produced by Dominic Reeves), American Record Guide wrote: “This joins the Rattle and the two Bernstein recordings as the finest on record…All the glory to Zander and his semi-professional orchestra, for the sixth is probably Mahler’s most difficult and complex symphony…All things considered, when I reach for a recording of the sixth to play for my own pleasure, it will most likely be this one.” To celebrate the orchestra's 25th Anniversary in 2003-4, the BPO completed a nearly all-Mahler season, including a concert of Mahler's Second Symphony in Carnegie Hall.

Zander is currently () recording a series of Beethoven and Mahler symphonies with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London for the Telarc label. Each of his recordings includes a full-length discussion disc in which he explains the music. High Fidelity magazine named his recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 6 as the best classical crossover recording of 2002. His recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 3 was awarded the 2004 Critic's Choice by the German Record Critic's Award Association, his recording of Mahler's 9th Symphony was nominated for a Grammy Award, and his most recent release, Bruckner's 5th Symphony (with the London Philharmonia) has been nominated for a 2010 Grammy Award.

On 19 July 2006 he received an Honorary Doctorate from Leeds Metropolitan University. On 17 May 2009 he received another from New England Conservatory as he conducted the Boston Philharmonic and New England Conservatory/Tufts University choirs at Symphony Hall in Boston.

Extra-musical life

Zander has an extensive speaking career lecturing to organizations on leadership. He has appeared four times as a keynote speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he was presented with the Crystal award for "outstanding contributions in the Arts and international relations". His book The Art of Possibility, co-authored with his partner, psychotherapist Rosamund Zander, has been translated into seventeen languages. In 2002, Zander was awarded the "Caring Citizen of the Humanities" Award by the International Council for Caring Communities at the United Nations. His brothers, Luke (a doctor) and Michael Zander (a professor of Law at the London School of Economics), are also accomplished musicians.

External links

Official site

Benjamin Zander Profile Page

Interviews with Ben Zander

Interview with Charlie Rose

Interview with Bruce Sellery

WGBH Public Television Boston

TED Talk: Classical music with shining eyes

Category:English conductors (music) Category:American conductors (music) Category:Jewish American musicians Category:American Jews Category:English Jews Category:Harvard University people Category:Alumni of the University of London Category:1939 births Category:Living people Category:New England Conservatory faculty Category:English immigrants to the United States

Aditya Mittal is a CFO, Responsible for Flat Americas, Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A;), Investor Relations, Strategy and Communications of the world's largest steel firm ArcelorMittal, which is controlled by his father Lakshmi Mittal, who was ranked the eighth richest person in the world by Forbes in 2009.

He has a Bachelor's Degree in Economics with concentrations in Strategic Management and Corporate Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, from which he graduated magna cum laude in 1996. He worked for a short time in the mergers and acquisitions department at investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston. He joined the family business in 1997 and was appointed Head of Mergers and Acquisitions in 1999, and has been involved in several purchases since then as Mittal Steel has played a major role in the consolidation of the global steel industry. He lives in London. He led Mittal Steel's offer for Arcelor that led to its acquisition and merger with Mittal Steel in 2006. The two companies were merged in 2006 and the new merged company is called ArcelorMittal.

Aditya Mittal is married to Megha Mittal, owner of German fashion company Escada. He has one sister, Vanisha, who is married to Amit Bhatia and is a board member of ArcelorMittal.

In 2009, he was ranked 4th in the '40 under 40' list of Fortune magazine. He is a member of the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders Forum, the Young President's Organization, a Board Member at the Wharton School, a Board Member at Bennett, Coleman & Co., a Board Member at PPR and a member of Citigroup's International Advisory Board.

Charity

He is involved with various charitable organisations, including the NSPCC in the United Kingdom.

In 2008, Aditya and Megha Mittal made a donation of £15m to the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, the largest private contribution the hospital had ever received. The donation was used to help fund their new facility, the Mittal Children’s Medical Centre.

References

Further reading

Interview published November 2005

Such a busy fellow How does he get the time

External links

Timesonline Stats and Info

ArcelorMittal Group Management Board biography

Category:Indian businesspeople Category:Arcelor Mittal Category:Wharton School alumni Category:1974 births Category:Living people