Prince Khaled Bin Alwaleed Alsaud
Prince Khaled Bin Alwaleed Alsaud, son of billionaire Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal, has announced plans to open at least 10 vegan restaurants across the region by 2020. The Prince, who was recently named president of the Saudi CrossFit Federation and is known as a true health buff, made this announcement on his Facebook profile:
“Our region occupies parts of the top ten most obese counties in the world. This is crazy and frankly a joke we have reached this level. I'm not saying opening 10 restaurants will solve this issue, but you better believe it's a step in the right direction.”
In a bid to help tackle the region’s obesity epidemic and give people the option of healthier food options, Prince Khaled will be opening at least 10 restaurants in the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Jordan.
Outside his role as founder and chairman of KBW Investments, a private equity firm and venture capital firm, the Prince is an avowed vegan and an avid campaigner against cruelty to animals.
According to Arab News, Prince Khaled “was named among the world’s top influencers toward veganism in 2017 for his investments in Matthew Kenney’s vegan lifestyle company. He took the brand international by opening the first vegan restaurant in the Middle East with Bahrain’s new Plant Cafe.”
In 2016, he spoke to Arabian Business on his food conscious decisions, saying, “I want to be successful and to be a better person than I was yesterday, and hopefully to leave this planet in a better state than it was when I arrived.”
In the same interview, he was also asked it was that he considered his greatest fear. The Prince answered: “I think about my daughters[…] What kind of world am I leaving them? And what did I do to make their life better? What did I instil in them to make them a better human? […] At the end of the day, we’re here temporarily. I’m not taking my money with me, or my shoes or my watches. People are just going to remember me for what I did. If I’m gone, and my daughters can say he really did everything he could for us, I can’t ask for anything more.”
