Ironically, it’s the enforced lockdown under the COVID19 that really set me thinking on the altered dynamics of future business and social interactions. As Chairman of Suez Holdings and in my role as a Trustee of The Ocean Foundation, I have relied heavily on personal meetings worldwide to transact business. Personal meetings are three dimensional, insofar as we meet people, chat about our families, our interests, discuss politics and not just the business to be transacted.
However, in this COVID19 scenario, in zoom meetings, business has become single dimensional. We discuss what we have to discuss and then the time is up. I therefore thought it would help if the people I interact with, would know a bit more about me, what makes me tick and what are my drivers. This would help them to better understand where I am coming from and hopefully make doing business a more personal interaction. This then is the raison d’etre behind this personal website of mine.
However, in this COVID19 scenario, in zoom meetings, business has become single dimensional. We discuss what we have to discuss and then the time is up. I therefore thought it would help if the people I interact with, would know a bit more about me, what makes me tick and what are my drivers. This would help them to better understand where I am coming from and hopefully make doing business a more personal interaction. This then is the raison d’etre behind this personal website of mine.
The Badge of The Knight Grand Cross of The Order of The Red Eagle
The most difficult part of describing one’s achievements in life is understanding when to draw a line. I thought therefore that I should perhaps reproduce here a write up about me that was put up by The International Society of Business Leaders on their website.
“Shiv Shankar Nair is currently the Chairman Emeritus of Suez Holdings and Vanuatu’s Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to The Commonwealth in London. His background is in Financial Engineering and Government Advisory roles. He is also recognized as a leading practitioner of Conflict Resolution among Sovereign states.
Ambassador Nair has spent the past twenty years in putting together some of the most iconic infrastructure projects in Africa and Latin America, using multilateral credit. As an entrepreneur, he has set up, added value and sold several companies, especially in the “Economies in Transition”. He bought, developed and sold off British Borneo Petroleum, an old midcap oil company. In 1995. Along with two local partners he set up the first post-soviet insurance company in The Republic of Georgia, and in 2004, when it had become the largest independent insurer in Georgia, sold it to the Bank of Georgia.
“Shiv Shankar Nair is currently the Chairman Emeritus of Suez Holdings and Vanuatu’s Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to The Commonwealth in London. His background is in Financial Engineering and Government Advisory roles. He is also recognized as a leading practitioner of Conflict Resolution among Sovereign states.
Ambassador Nair has spent the past twenty years in putting together some of the most iconic infrastructure projects in Africa and Latin America, using multilateral credit. As an entrepreneur, he has set up, added value and sold several companies, especially in the “Economies in Transition”. He bought, developed and sold off British Borneo Petroleum, an old midcap oil company. In 1995. Along with two local partners he set up the first post-soviet insurance company in The Republic of Georgia, and in 2004, when it had become the largest independent insurer in Georgia, sold it to the Bank of Georgia.
Being made a Freeman of The Worshipful Company of Fuellers.
As a specialist in National Conflict Resolution and Consensus Building, Ambassador Nair was called upon to attend the Somali Round Table, representing a major Middle Eastern Country. He also acted as mediator between the Govt. of Niger and major Chinese Oil Company in the dispute on the Agadem block, and represented another Chinese oil major in their negotiations with the Kurdish Government.
In 2013, Shiv Shankar Nair was appointed as Special Envoy of the Government of Vanuatu to initiate talks between Vanuatu and the Republic of Georgia on the issue of the de-recognition of the breakaway Republic of Abkhazia, which resulted in the recognition of Georgia by Vanuatu.
In 2017 he was appointed Vanuatu’s Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to The Commonwealth in London and Permanent Representative to UNWTO in Madrid. Ambassador Nair is an alumnus of The Said Business School at the University of Oxford and of Strathclyde University. He was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and is also a Fellow of The Royal Asiatic Society and The Royal Africa Society.
In 2018 he was elected a Freeman of The Worshipful Company of Fuellers. In 2019, Ambassador Nair was honoured with the title of The Knight Grand Cross of The Order of The Eagle of Georgia, for his exemplary contribution to the political and economic welfare of Georgia”
In 2013, Shiv Shankar Nair was appointed as Special Envoy of the Government of Vanuatu to initiate talks between Vanuatu and the Republic of Georgia on the issue of the de-recognition of the breakaway Republic of Abkhazia, which resulted in the recognition of Georgia by Vanuatu.
In 2017 he was appointed Vanuatu’s Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to The Commonwealth in London and Permanent Representative to UNWTO in Madrid. Ambassador Nair is an alumnus of The Said Business School at the University of Oxford and of Strathclyde University. He was elected a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts and is also a Fellow of The Royal Asiatic Society and The Royal Africa Society.
In 2018 he was elected a Freeman of The Worshipful Company of Fuellers. In 2019, Ambassador Nair was honoured with the title of The Knight Grand Cross of The Order of The Eagle of Georgia, for his exemplary contribution to the political and economic welfare of Georgia”