Fortune Global Forum 2023: Welcome From Fortune
Alan Murray, Chief Executive Officer, FORTUNE; Co-chair, Fortune Global Forum
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TechTranscript
00:00 Welcome to the 2023 Fortune Global Forum.
00:03 I think many of you know that Fortune
00:05 has been holding these forums since 1995
00:10 in various cities around the world,
00:12 but this is the first time we've held a forum
00:14 in the Middle East.
00:16 We're very happy to be here,
00:19 and we're particularly pleased that Abu Dhabi
00:21 is hosting us for this first event,
00:25 first Fortune event in the Middle East.
00:27 The theme of our event is a new era for business,
00:32 and Abu Dhabi offers an interesting perspective
00:37 on the three big megatrends that are both driving
00:40 and defining that new era.
00:42 The first of those is a technology revolution.
00:46 Some of us, I see some of you in the audience
00:48 were this morning at the Mohammed bin Zayed
00:50 University of Artificial Intelligence
00:53 where we got an interesting look at some of the things
00:55 that are happening here in Abu Dhabi
00:58 to drive that technology revolution forward.
01:02 The second big megatrend, of course,
01:03 is the energy transformation,
01:05 and again, Abu Dhabi offers an interesting perspective
01:08 on that, being both an oil-producing country,
01:12 but also invested heavily in energy transformation.
01:16 And the third big megatrend
01:18 is a rethinking of globalization.
01:21 We live at an interesting moment
01:22 where there are two wars going on in the world,
01:25 one in Europe, one in the Middle East,
01:27 simmering tension in Asia.
01:29 Every CEO I've talked to over the course of the past year
01:33 is rethinking their supply chains,
01:36 rethinking their global footprint
01:39 to take into account the realities
01:41 of a very different geopolitical environment.
01:44 And again, Abu Dhabi offers itself
01:48 as an interesting positioning between Europe and Asia
01:53 for corporations to place offices and facilities.
01:57 So we're gonna be talking about all of that
01:59 over the course of the next three days.
02:01 We have a lot to talk about,
02:04 and we've got a great lineup of speakers,
02:08 thinkers, innovators, doers to be part of it.
02:12 But those of you who've been at Fortune events before
02:15 know that what's particularly important
02:18 is not what you hear from the stage,
02:20 but the people you meet in the networking events,
02:22 the opportunity you have to talk to each other,
02:26 take a moment to introduce yourself
02:28 to the person on your left, to the person on your right.
02:31 It's the conversation that happens among all of you
02:34 that makes this event important.
02:37 And let me tell you a little bit about you, okay?
02:40 Most of you, you represent the largest,
02:45 most important companies in the world.
02:47 Most of you are from companies
02:48 that are on our Fortune 500 list,
02:51 the Fortune Global 500 list, Fortune 500 India,
02:55 the new 500 Arabia list, the new 500 Europe list.
03:00 So you have earned yourself a place
03:05 on these iconic listings of global business success.
03:10 Together, you represent companies
03:12 with 4.3 trillion US dollars in revenues.
03:16 That's higher than the GDP of the US or China.
03:20 Truly impressive.
03:22 You have the power to change the world,
03:25 and we hope the next three days will help inform you
03:28 and inspire you to do that.
03:30 So please make the best use of them.
03:34 Our goal at Fortune is always to make business better
03:38 and in the process, to make the world better.
03:41 Now, before we get started,
03:43 I wanna say a few thank yous,
03:45 first of all, to our hosts,
03:48 our partners who make all this possible.
03:50 Top of the list, of course, is our host partner,
03:53 the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development.
03:55 Thank you so much for your support for this event.
03:58 I wanna thank our premier partner, Shudao,
04:02 our partners, GAC Group, Honor, Mubadala,
04:07 PayPal, T-Com, and TopTal,
04:12 our knowledge partner, McKinsey & Company,
04:15 our support partner, Binance,
04:17 and our media partner, Apco.
04:19 Please, round of applause for the partners
04:21 who make this event possible.
04:23 (audience applauding)
04:26 I also wanna acknowledge and thank
04:30 my fellow Fortune Global Forum co-chairs,
04:33 Fortune Editor-in-Chief, Alison Chantel.
04:36 Alison, are you in the audience somewhere or backstage?
04:40 All right, you'll see her shortly if you don't see her now.
04:43 Fortune Executive Editor, Peter Vannum.
04:45 Peter, thank you, Peter.
04:48 And Fortune Editor-at-Large, Mahal Lavram,
04:50 who unfortunately could not be with us
04:52 but played an important role in putting together
04:55 the program you're gonna be seeing over the next few days.
04:59 A quick reminder about our reporting rules.
05:01 Everything that's said on stage
05:03 or in a roundtable session is on the record,
05:06 but conversations you have over dinner,
05:08 in the hallway, whatever, they will all be considered
05:11 off the record unless you agree otherwise.
05:14 And now let's dive into the substance.
05:18 I talked about the three megatrends
05:19 that are driving this new era of business.
05:22 We're gonna start with a panel to discuss those megatrends
05:26 and how companies can adapt and grow and prosper
05:30 in such a tumultuous environment.
05:32 The Fortune Senior Editor-at-Large, Jeff Colvin,
05:35 will lead the conversation with Abdul Nasser Bin Kalban,
05:40 the CEO of Emirates Global Aluminum,
05:43 which is the largest premium aluminum producer in the world
05:47 and the biggest industrial company in the UAE
05:49 outside of oil and gas.
05:52 Also Mikhail Gurchuk, who is CEO of the Global Technology
05:56 and Investment Group E& International.
06:00 Christian Ulbricht, who is President and CEO
06:02 of the global real estate investment management firm JLL.
06:07 And Nigel Vaz, CEO of Publicis Sapient,
06:11 the digital business transformation company
06:13 focused on helping companies thrive in a digital world.
06:16 So a diverse representation of industries
06:20 to kick off our conversations here.
06:21 Please welcome them to the stage.
06:23 [BLANK_AUDIO]