Michael Ezra

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Michael Ezra Kato, born Michael Semakula^[1] is a Ugandan property tycoon. The source of Ezra's wealth is unknown^[1], but he is known as a sports philanthropist^[1] and does most of his business in Dubai.^[2] As of May 2008 he is reported to be 34 years old.^[2]

In 2004, Ezra offered to buy football club Leeds United for £60 million, but the offer was rejected.^[3] In 2008, an Airbus spokesman confirmed that they have come a "preliminary agreement" to sell Ezra a private Airbus 380 superjumbo, worth an estimated $260 million before furnishing.^[2] Ezra is reportedly only the second person in the world to place an order for an A380 to be used as a private jet.^[2]

[edit] External links

Official Michael Ezra site

Michael Ezra Mulyoowa was born in Kampala, Uganda on July 20, 1973 but it wasn’t until March 2003 that he got to be known to his countrymen as a philanthropist. At the time, a team of Ugandan athletes were destined to miss out on the World Cross Country Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland because the Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) couldn’t raise enough air tickets. After meeting with the team, Ezra, himself a former sprinter, expeditiously purchased the tickets and sent the team on its way. “When I heard that some athletes have been training hard but were on the verge of missing the competition because they couldn’t get transported, I felt I had to do something,” Ezra told The New Vision, Uganda’s leading daily newspaper. He also bought for the team some running gear and gave them a token travel allowance. Thereafter, Ezra picked an overt interest in Ugandan athletics and instituted the Ezra Track Team Board (ETTB), which set up training camps for promising athletes in several upcountry towns in Uganda. But Ezra’s relationship with the athletics federation, which saw ETTB as something of a parallel governing body, soon soured, forcing the latter to close down most of its training camps. Nonetheless, several Ugandan runners, most notably Osaka 2007 World Championships bronze medalist Moses Kipsiro, were groomed at ETTB camps. In October 2003, a cast-strapped Uganda Amateur Boxing Federation (UABF) approached Ezra for sponsorship ahead of the Olympic qualifiers. The tycoon responded swiftly by instituting the Ezra Boxing Board (EBB) which took full financial responsibility for putting the national boxers in camp and flying them to Casablanca, Morocco and Gabarone, Botswana for qualifying tournaments. As a result, Uganda qualified five boxers for Athens 2004. In Africa, only Nigeria and Morocco sent more boxers to Athens. By EBB estimates, the camp, transportation, medical facilities and allowances to pugilists and officials cost Ezra around Ugshs 600million ($320,000 at the exchange rate at that time). In February 2004, Ezra made a £60m bid to buy then English Premiership club Leeds United. He claimed he would spend a further £30m on buying players. Although his bid was later rejected, the Leeds stock went up by 14% after news of it. The tycoon told The New Vision newspaper that: “The six man board that I presented doesn’t have any Briton and they don’t find that acceptable. They also feel that my board lacks the technical expertise to bolster the club.” In April 2004, The Sunday Vision, Uganda’s leading weekly newspaper, ran a story claiming that between 1997 and 1999, Michael Ezra had forged an army identity card and was posing as an intelligence officer to blackmail civilians and extort money from them. In an interview with the New Vision, daily version of the same paper, the tycoon challenged anybody to come up with the forged ID he was allegedly using and he would pay that person $20,000. He also challenged anybody who had been a victim of his alleged extortion to come up and he/she would walk away with $10,000. Nobody came up. Then in May 2004, Ezra unveiled a staggering one billion shillings ($550,000) sponsorship of the Uganda Sports Press Association; the money was meant to organize annual galas at which the country’s best sportsmen are feted. In October 2006, Ezra came to the rescue of another national team, this time it was the football team. The Uganda Cranes were supposed to travel to Naimey, Niger for an African Nations Cup qualifier but, until a few hours before take off, had failed to pay for their tickets. As the airline was getting restless and threatening to cancel their travel, the tycoon made a timely call to the Football Association Chief Executive Officer and offered to fund the trip. It cost him Ugsh60m ($35,000 at the exchange rate at the time). “I was very surprised when I read the story that the team’s trip was in balance, I had to act immediately,” Ezra told the Daily Monitor newspaper in Kampala. A relieved Uganda Football Association president Lawrence Mulindwa told the same publication: “I just cannot extend enough gratitude towards Ezra for what he has done for football, I am grateful beyond words.” In November 2006, Ezra was unveiled in Dubai as the winner of the Emirates and Montblanc charity auction to purchase a unique wristwatch. The ‘one of one’ limited edition automatic Montblanc chronograph centennial timepiece is encased in 118 grams of 18ct solid white gold. It features a bezel set with black and white diamonds and a 43-faceted diamond on the crown (winder), shaped in the distinctive Montblanc star, with a total weight of 1.5 carats. The reserve price for the bid was $65,000 and there were 36 entries. But Ezra’s bid of $250,000 was the highest and, according to The Moodie Report, the single biggest purchase in the 60-year history of the Duty Free industry. The timepiece was handed over to Ezra by His Highness Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum in Dubai. In an interview with the Moodie Report, Ezra explained why he decided to pay so much for the watch. “The turning point for me was when I read about the EK Foundation,” he says, recalling how he had studied the details of the promotion in a centre spread within Emirates’ inflight brochure, then watched it on the inflight video. “I knew any money I contributed would trickle down and reach the disadvantaged children of the world. This is a global foundation – not just targeted at a section of society.” The watch also appealed hugely. “It was one of one – which meant I would be the only person wearing the timepiece; and that was attractive enough. But I had to ask: What am I giving away in return so that society’s disadvantaged children would benefit?” All of those factors made the purchase irresistible, Mr Mulyoowa recalls. So much so that he made not one but three bids. On one flight he offered US$150,000. Then, having mulled it over, he topped that with successive offers of US$200,000 and US$250,000 – during the same flight. “I really wanted the watch and what was behind it,” he says. Ezra told the Moodie Report that his extraordinary acts of philanthropy are driven by his deep religious faith. “As a Christian I believe children are angels,” he says. “Only children are truly innocent; they don’t need to be repainted or born again.” He continued: “US$250,000 is not really a lot of money. It isn’t going to change the fate of all the disadvantaged children of the world. But it is a start. I like exclusive and expensive things, but I want them with a clear conscience. OK, it would get me a reasonable sports car. But that’s just for me. Whereas US$250,000 will maybe help 10,000 children. Today if I drive a sports car my conscience is clear because I have given away an equal amount of money.” Ezra also revealed to the Moodie Report that he is married with a nine year-old daughter. Martin Moodie described him as an extra-ordinary humanitarian. “He’s someone who loves the finest things in life,” Moodie wrote. “Yet at the same time he is an individual who believes that without giving generously to those who need it most, any material things in life are ultimately unsatisfactory.” Ezra was voted Man of The Year 2006 by readers of The New Vision, beating the country’s president Yoweri Museveni, who had won the previous nine years, into second place. In September 2007, Ezra promised to give the Uganda national football team players and coach $100,000 to share between themselves if they beat Niger in the final Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Kampala to qualify for Ghana 2008. Uganda won 3-1 but still missed out on the continental tournament. Nonetheless, Ezra handed them the promised $100,000. In May, 2008, The Daily Monitor newspaper in Kampala wrote that Ezra had paid $260m to Airbus in France to have an A380 made for him.