The Monaco Economic Board spent two days in the English capital, renewing ties and creating new bonds for future investment and collaborative opportunities.
As a huge international financial centre and the largest in Europe, London’s appeal has not been dampened by Brexit or Covid. The Monaco Economic Board (MEB), knowing this full well, took time out on 8th and 9thFebruary to visit the British capital, going to an invitation-only family office event at the House of Lords organised by Vahe Vartanian, Founder and Managing Director of the Global Family Office Community.
The Monegasque delegation, led by Deputy Director General of the Monaco Economic Board Justin Highman, allowed the MEB to reconnect with prospective investors, entrepreneurs and potential future residents.
On the first evening, former English rugby team captain Lawrence Dallaglio, OBE Order of the British Empire, spoke about a cause near to his heart, namely, the Centre for Social Justice, which aims to put the poorest and most disadvantaged communities of the UK on the radar of British politicians. The talk opened up friendly discussions and established new contacts.
Additionally, meetings with Evelyne Genta, Ambassador of Monaco to the United Kingdom as well as with the Principality of Monaco’s promotion office in London, were organised in order to prepare future joint actions for the coming year.
Justin Highman also visited the headquarters of the international art gallery Hauser & Wirth with those in charge of the new space in Monaco located at Monte-Carlo One, Laetitia Catoir and Federica Beretta. New members of the MEB, the gallery is looking at becoming a promotional events partner with Monaco and in its various sites around the world.
The MEB also is setting up an on-site economic mission dedicated to Monegasque companies in 2022, truly signalling a return to business with the English capital after the past difficult two years.
Photo taken during the Family Office evening, from left to right: Andy Cook, CEO of The Center For Social Justice; Justin Highman, Deputy CEO of the MEB; Sophia Tutino, CEO of Sophia Tutino Yachting; Vahe Vartanian, Founder and CEO of the Global Family Office Community; Lawrence Dallaglio, former captain of the England rugby team. Source: MEB
Three overtimes, three defeats. AS Monaco’s Basketball’s recent trend of overtime losses continued on Sunday, Lyon-Villeurbanne this time the benefactors of a late Monegasque collapse 87-79.
Whether born out of mental fragility or physical fatigue, the result remains the same. After disheartening, energy-sapping overtime defeats against Real Madrid and then Boulogne-Levallois, just days later Monaco once again found themselves in an all-too-familiar scenario at the Astroballe in Lyon, with an all-too-familiar ending.
Momentum was with the Principality side, having clawed their way back into a fixture that looked beyond their grasp. As they did against Real Madrid, Monaco matched their opponents in the first overtime (8-8), before running out of steam in the second (15-7).
Whilst the defeat against Zalgiris in midweek inflicted material damage to their play-off aspirations, Sunday’s defeat leaves a more mental scar, truly marking an end to the side’s recent run of form. Re-building the momentum that saw Monaco reach the play-off places in the Euroleague, and consolidate their second place in the Betclic Elite is now the priority for Sasa Obradovic.
Although the victory for Lyon-Villeurbanne sees them leapfrog their most recent opponents, Monaco are still in a strong position to reach the play-offs in the Betclic Elite, but must quickly re-find the golden-touch that saw them win 10 of their previous 13 games prior to the Zalgiris defeat.
The image of Mike James, ball-in-hand, seconds left on the clock, and with the ability to win the game has become commonplace in the Roca Team’s recent history. This scenario played out once again, the American point-guard failing in his attempt to win the game on-the-buzzer in the first overtime. The match could, and perhaps should, have already been decided, but Monaco’s profligacy from the free-throw line kept their opponents in the game (seven missed).
Earlier, James’ heroics allowed Monaco to take Lyon to overtime, a three-pointer and then an assist for Alpha Diallo with only 0.3 seconds left on the clock closed the 6-point gap to level the scores (64-64).
The late drama proceeded a topsy-turvy tie in which Monaco unpredictably oscillated between moments of brilliance and farce with alarming frequency. Their pitiful yield in the first-quarter (14-7), followed by a strong second-quarter, which gave rise to false illusions of dominance (25-29). Just as quickly as they had forged a lead, it was once again ceded in the third-quarter (47-42), before the late drama settled the game in favour of the home side.
James’ 23 point haul, and 15 points from Will Thomas weren’t enough to see Monaco over the line. The Principality side now take a break from league competitions, as they welcome Le Mans to the Salle Gaston Medecin in the French Basketball Cup on Wednesday.
Bluewater and the Monaco Yacht Club are teaming up once again for the Superyacht Chef Competition, where nine superyacht chefs are challenged to create delicious cuisine from limited ingredients.
Food is the great unifier. Not only does it nourish and give the fuel needed for our very survival, it is also something meant to be savoured and enjoyed, something that brings people together in ways not many other things can.
The making of food has been elevated to an art form, with chefs as the artists in residence. Restaurants are made or broken by the inventiveness of chefs, and arguably the same can be said of chefs who work on the superyachts. These culinary wizards work in tight spaces, with spotty access to ingredients, and are expected to make incredible meals for owners and guests every day and night of their stay.
So, when Bluewater and La Belle Class Academy training centre of the Monaco Yacht Club joined forces for an event specifically aimed at superyacht chefs, it was sure to be explosive. So was born the Superyacht Chef Competition.
“Our wish is to position Monaco as a centre of excellence in the yachting sector, including in the field of training,” said Bernard d’Alessandri, Secretary General of the Yacht Club de Monaco. “This type of competition makes it possible to demonstrate the exceptional skills demonstrated by the chefs on board the superyachts.”
The 2022 edition will include nine chefs from different countries going toe-to-toe on superyachts over 40-metres, such as the M/Y Black Pearl and the M/Y Hampshire.
Each chef will be asked to prepare a meal comprised of items received in a mystery basket created by Chef Joël Garault with the help of Maison del Gusto, in this case seasonal seafood products. The contents will only be revealed just prior to the start of each preparation.
Then, three 40-minute rounds ensue, narrowing down the competitors from nine to three finalists who will again prepare and present a dish and dessert for the judges to choose from. This format has been the way of all past competitions, but this year, there is an extra challenge. For the first time, chefs will have to follow a no-waste rule which will be overseen by Chef Gilles Brunner, culinary teacher at the Lycée Technique et Hotelier de Monaco. The idea is simple: all products from the basket must be incorporated into the dishes. If there is anything left over, the chef will be penalised.
The jury is comprised of a talented roster of known chefs including Nicolas Benoit, voted Best Ouvrier de France in 2015 in the ‘gourmet cuisine’ category and professor at the Ferrandi School of Gastronomy in Paris, alongside Nicolas Sale, head of two Michelin-starred gourmet restaurants and International President of the Disciples of Auguste Escoffier. They are joined by starred chef Didier Anies, elected Meilleur Ouvrier de France in 2000 and current executive chef at the Château de la Tour in Cannes.
The jurists will be led by chairman Guillaume Gomez, Ambassador of French gastronomy and member of the Disciples of Auguste Escoffier, who officiated in the kitchens of the Elysée, and supervised by Joël Garault, President of Gouts et Saveurs,
The Zepter Group are providing the tools and knives necessary to assist the nine chefs in completing their tasks under tight deadlines in workstations which mimic the small galley areas found on many yachts. Yacht owners and food lovers are invited to watch as the chefs work wonders under pressure in these restricted conditions.
Through this event, the Yacht Club de Monaco intends to honour certain trades of the Grande Plaisance, which brings together 252 companies in the Principality, and positions Monaco as the Capital of Yachting.
The Superyacht Chef Competition is being held on 7th April at the Monaco Yacht Club. Registration is now open at academy@ycm.org
Romain Goiran, owner of Ambitious Monte-Carlo, spoke to Monaco Life about boxing through the pandemic, supporting fighters in Cameroon, and reviving the Fight AIDS Cup with sports enthusiast Louis Ducruet.
The stories of Goiran’s multiple ventures are at best punctuated by, at worst, defined by struggle and hardship. The Covid-19 pandemic in particular posed its own set of seemingly insurmountable problems, forcing a complete re-conception of the Ambitious business model, and throwing his Fight Aids Cup project in doubt.
The Fight Aids Cup did, however, go ahead, and Ambitious has adapted and persevered. Ambitious is under the stewardship of its highly-motivated manager Goiran, looking to become a larger player on the global stage whilst seeking to bring a new boxing culture to the Principality.
Crises as opportunities
No phrase sums up Goiran’s reaction to adversity quite like this one: “The best projects come to the fore in times of crisis.” Whilst others were forced to scale-down operations, Goiran was doing the opposite.
Alongside his work for Ambitious, Goiran juggles a range of other responsibilities, most notably his work with Louis Ducruet, Prince Albert’s nephew and the son of Princess Stéphanie of Monaco, which recently yielded the latest instalment of the Fight Aids Cup in the Principality. The aim of their collaboration is simple, as Gorian tells us: “With him, we do the maximum to find projects to bring to Monaco.”
The match itself, which sees Prince Albert II’s Barbagiuans face off against Princess Stephanie’s Cirque FC, existed long-before it became popularised in its current format. “It was a tradition that was an amateur affair at the Stade Didier Deschamps, without press or anything like that. A proper family affair.”
Goiran and Ducruet are responsible for changing that, bringing it to the Stade Louis II and turning it into a mediatised, charitable event for the first time in 2020. Following the cancellation of the event in 2021, the sanitary context in 2022 made the realisation of the second installation questionable once again. “We were told three weeks before that we wouldn’t be able to do it.”
Not only did the event go ahead as planned in January, it was even improved upon. “We told ourselves that the first year was good, but that we could do better. Better is what you saw this year, with an event in two halves, the gala dinner on the one side, the match on the other, as well as welcoming bigger players, bigger stars.”
Marie and Louis Ducruet, Princess Stephanie, Prince Albert and Camille Gotlieb at the Fight AIDS Cup 2022, photo by Eric Mathon – Michael Alesi / Prince’s Palace, Government Communication Department
Boxing through the pandemic
Goiran’s collaborative project with Ducruet isn’t the Monegasque businessman’s only success story of the pandemic. His Ambitious Monte-Carlo business, which he runs with his associate Jean Marc Toesca, has also faced a difficult set of challenges.
In its infancy, Ambitious created networks around sportspeople, the sheer wealth of sports stars and events in and around the Principality bringing in an elite clientele. “A year ago, we had a quarter of AS Monaco professional players,” says Goiran. “We create teams around footballers. We find them an osteopath, a kinesiotherapist, a boxing teacher, a yoga teacher, a dance teacher, a tai chi teacher. That was the business model at Ambitious, before having boxers.”
The business has since diversified its activities. As Goiran succinctly puts it, “Ambitious is an organisation for boxers to support boxing. It isn’t for us, it’s for the boxers.” When the pandemic hit in 2020, Ambitious struggled to continue to fulfil its function. Social distancing and sparring sessions, or indeed fights themselves, don’t exactly go hand in hand.
Although training became feasible after the first lockdown, the lack of prospects for events, and the fragile economic situation of boxers and boxing itself left Ambitious and Goiran in a precarious position. His entrepreneurship, his drive to make the project work and a disused family tennis court in La Turbie would come in handy. “Ambitious is a sporting support service, but we said, in order to survive, we have to be more than that. So, we created our own training camp in La Turbie. We took a tennis court from my family that was never used, we added a military tent and put in a ring. So, we created a boxing camp, which allowed boxers to continue to train.”
Although the training camp in La Turbie facilitated the boxers’ preparation for bouts, the fact remained that there weren’t many fights out there. During the toughest times of the pandemic, the threat to boxers’ careers became an existential one. “If you have an economy that is solid, even in times of crisis, then things can still happen. But the boxing environment in France is ridiculous. The boxers themselves are the ones who have to organise their own galas, it is them who pay. They call their family, their friends for financing. It is them who create their own financial base upon which to fight.”
Larger fighters at Ambitious, like Cameroonian-French boxer Hassan N’Dam, could ride out this difficult period, but others had to look for alternative means of income. “We encouraged the younger boxers to find work, because they simply didn’t have a choice, and we helped them to do that through our partners.”
Monaco and boxing: A more exclusive clientele
Goiran recognised the importance of organising an event, and this was realised during last July’s ‘Chill out on the bay’ event at Villa Calvi. It provided a lifeline for the fight-deprived boxers of Ambitious, with tickets for the high-level event selling for €500. Not only that, it has also inspired Goiran to bring similar events to Monaco. “The Villa Calvi event was a great model that we can replicate in Monaco 100%,” he says.
Goiran sees the potential to go smaller, even more exclusive, as he announced an exciting plan to bring boxing to the skyline of the Principality. “We have visited the rooftops here and we want to propose a project to do small boxing matches, very private, for 15 people, three fights. That is something that we’ll do, we know it’s doable.” This project could soon see the light of day, as he added, “We’ve already found a few places with partners.”
His confidence in this project is unwavering, referencing an already blossoming sports scene in the Principality as well as the successful fights hosted by the Monte-Carlo Casino. “In Monaco everything works, this place is amazing. You have a lot of sports, a lot of different people and nationalities, so of course it can work.”
Ambitious trophy belts
A global mindset
His ambition for Ambitious isn’t confined to the border that separates the Principality from France. He is already well accustomed to making flights to and from Manchester, where he visits the business’ footballing clients who have made the switch from the Riviera to the UK.
He has now set his sights further afield on the west African country of Cameroon, where his work in collaboration with Ambitious boxer N’Dam aims to serve both a social and sporting purpose.
“What Hassan (N’Dam) explained to us is that there are a lot of good fighters in Cameroon, but they are very poor, so to get a chance to achieve their dream, they have to come to France, but they do so without any money,” Goiran explains. “They sleep outside, they struggle to eat, they don’t have official documentation. So, with some partners in France, we can give money and organise events in Cameroon to fund these top fighters, who could become world champions.”
As Goiran says, Cameroon is a country “rich in great fighters”, the aim of Ambitious’ latest project is therefore to give them the means to shine on a global stage, without constraints. “A boxer should think only about boxing, not about what he has to do to pay for his ticket to get to France, to Italy or elsewhere, about what he will do in terms of accommodation, in terms of food. If this guy really has great boxing potential, he deserves to have partners at his level of boxing.”
Be it through his work with Ducruet or through Ambitious, Goiran’s contribution to Monaco’s sports scene is unequivocal. Pivotal to that success is a fighting spirit, an unerring belief, that he could overcome whatever struggle presents itself, and persevere to make his mark on Monaco’s rich sporting landscape. “You will always have difficulties, there’s always something between yourself and the objective. If it’s easy, it’s a trap.”
After a scaled-back 2021 edition of the Monaco Run, amateurs and professionals alike once again took to the streets of the Principality en-masse this past weekend for a sporting spectacle that unfolded in beautiful conditions.
Epidemiological necessity dictated that last year’s edition was reserved solely for a handful of professional athletes. Meteorological conditions couldn’t have been more perfect to herald the return of amateur runners this year, as hundreds took to a variety of different routes around the sun-bathed Principality.
204 runners descended on Port Hercules early on the Sunday morning to participate in the City Trail run, a 10km run, which saw runners pass many of Monaco’s most iconic landmarks. Sebastien Poesy (33:06) was the run-away winner, comfortably leading from Cedric Pistoresi (35:29) and Michael Reynaud (35:36). Elena Scolari (45:23) was the women’s winner, and was trailed by Tatyana Gramatikova (46:17) and Monica Gomez Fernandez (47:15).
The conclusion of the podium ceremonies was quickly followed by the start of the Pink Ribbon Walk, which saw around 100 walkers set off for a charitable stroll around the Principality, whilst raising awareness and funds in the fight against breast cancer.
The final race to depart saw athletes take part in the 5km Herculis, a sprint that saw runners pass the Larvotto Beach, almost reaching the French border, before heading back to Port Hercule.
Dane Axel Christensen took home the winner’s medal with a time of 13:42, closely followed by Frenchman Raphael Montoya (13:43) and Vidar Johansson (13:46). In the women’s race, a mere second stood between Margaux Sieracki and history, her run of 15:32, not enough to beat the French record set by Liv Westphal (15:31) in 2020. Valentina Gemetto (16:51) and Alexandra Droulin (18:39) rounded off the podium.
