Calouste Gulbenkian: The architect of Middle East oil
How one man held out for decades against the combined might of big oil companies and governments. With Martin Essayan, Jonathan Conlin, Joost Jonker and Rajan Datar.
Today, the Istanbul-born Armenian financier Calouste Gulbenkian is mostly remembered as a great art collector and philanthropist; at his death in 1955 he was thought of as the world's richest man. But perhaps more than any of the above, he may have been the world's most tenacious negotiator: how else would he have held on - for decades - to the main source of his fabulous wealth, his minority share in major oil companies, despite their concerted effort to push him out? In the 150th year of Gulbenkian's birth, Rajan Datar follows Calouste's life and deal-making with his great grandson Martin Essayan; historian Dr. Jonathan Conlin, author of a new biography of Gulbenkian; and Professor of Business History Joost Jonker.
Photo: Calouste Gulbenkian (credit: Arquivos Gulbenkian)
Last on
More episodes
Clip
Broadcasts
- Fri 1 Mar 2019 00:06GMT成人快手 World Service
- Sat 2 Mar 2019 14:06GMT成人快手 World Service News Internet
- Sun 3 Mar 2019 15:06GMT成人快手 World Service except Americas and the Caribbean, East Asia & South Asia
- Mon 4 Mar 2019 04:06GMT成人快手 World Service except East and Southern Africa, Europe and the Middle East, News Internet & West and Central Africa
Featured in...
Technology and innovations—The Forum
Machines, materials and methods that changed how the world works
Do you think political or business leaders need to be charismatic? Or do you prefer highly competent but somewhat stern people?
Podcast
-
The Forum
The programme that explains the present by exploring the past