People

PEOPLE MEET THE LOCALS

Business visitors to Bermuda will usually get a kick out of the fact that it is impossible to walk the streets of the City of Hamilton without seeing someone who looks familiar, be it from the front page of the Island’s daily newspaper, last night’s CNN news, sitting in first class on the way down or from the up-market restaurant clientele they were part of last night. Bermuda, it would seem, is a magnet for many of the world’s most interesting individuals, and the Island manages to produce a few stars of its own as well.

Don’t be surprised if you bump into one of our ‘locals’.

Michael Bloomberg

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg has been a long-time admirer of Bermuda, owning home in Tucker’s Town that he regularly visits. He can often be seen playing golf at exclusive Mid Ocean Club, just a short iron from his property.

The former Mayor of New York is the founder of Bloomberg LP which is the leading source in the world of financial data.

His fortune is thought to be in the region of $5bn and as a philanthropist he has donated millions of dollars to cultural, educational and medical causes.

Bruce Gordon

Australian Bruce Gordon is a self-made multi-millionaire who spends most of his time on his 26-acre estate in Tucker’s Town,

Bermuda.

According to Forbes, his wealth peaked at $1 billion although it is now estimated to be about $620 million. His company Win Corp owns Australia’s largest privately held TV network. Ross Perot

Until his death in July 2019, Ross Perot was a part-time resident of Bermuda and was perhaps best known as a two-time US Presidential candidate. He made his fortune, estimated by Forbes at $3.5 billion, in IT. He sold his firm, Perot Systems, to Dell in 2009. As a young man Perot spent several years in the US Navy, which may have explained his fondness for skimming over Bermuda’s waters in one of his magnificent speedboats. His family still own two luxury properties in toney Tucker’s Town.

Silvio Berlusconi

The media tycoon and former Prime Minister of Italy has been a frequent criminal defendant in recent years. But he remains a powerful figure in Italian politics and his $9 billion fortune does not seem to have been affected by his recent judicial troubles. “Blue Horizon”, his estate in Tucker’s Town, looks as splendid as ever.

Michael Douglas

Who is the most famous Bermudian? Without doubt, Michael Douglas whose mother Diana Dill’s Bermudian bloodlines go back to 1630. Douglas and his family recently announced an $85 million redevelopment of their Ariel Sands hotel. The property has been in Douglas’s family since the 1840s and Dill family members began running it as Ariel Sands Beach Club in 1954. The new luxury resort will consist of 85

hotel keys located in 33 cottages and six suites and aims to “embrace the romance, sophistication and unique architectural traditions of Bermuda”.

Douglas said his decision to go ahead with the redevelopment marked a vote of confidence in Bermuda.

Harold (Terry) McGraw

Harold Whittlesey McGraw, III, known as Terry, has been the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of McGraw Hill Financial, Inc. (formerly known as The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.) since December 1999 and 1998 respectively.

He transformed McGraw Hill Financial by exiting slower-growth businesses and investing in fast-growing, high-margin franchises, such as Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, S&P Capital IQ, S&P Dow Jones Indices and Platts.

He is also chairman of many outside and influential organisations, including the Chairman of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) - The World Business Organization.

The Greens

Like many wealthy families that reside in Bermuda, the Greens choose to keep a low profile. Over the last few years, however, they have been thrust into the spotlight by their purchase and subsequent $100 million renovation of the Hamilton Princess Hotel, the development of Waterloo House, a large and prestigious office building almost next door to the hotel, and more recently the redevelopment of the former HSBC Bermuda headquarters building, located in one of the most prominent positions in all of Hamilton.

The family’s connection to the island goes back three generations. Industrialist Sir Harold Mitchell, father-in-law of Peter Green and grandfather to Alexander and Andrew Green, came to Bermuda in 1947. After the Second World War, Clement Attlee’s newly elected Labour Government nationalised Sir Howard’s mines and the railway company he owned and he subsequently refused to keep any of his money in the UK. He owned a number of estates, including properties in Jamaica, Honduras, Portugal, Fiji, Brazil and Guatemala, but Marshall’s Island, in Bermuda’s Great Sound, became his main residence. With Sir Harold’s passing in 1983, his only daughter, Mary-Jean, took over the management of the family’s various international businesses until her tragic death from cancer in 1990. It was then that Peter Green, whom she had married in 1975, was left in charge.

But the story of the family business had begun several generations earlier. Sir Harold’s grandfather, William Mitchell, was a Scottish entrepreneur who, during the industrial revolution of the mid 19th century, invested in coal mining and shipping lines. His company would ship coal from Scotland to Canada and bring back timber. The business was later managed by William’s two sons, whom he had named Alexander and Andrew, Alexander being the father of the aforementioned Harold.

Now, the new generation of Alexander and Andrew Green, together with their father Peter, is putting its faith in the Bermuda market with the purchase and development commercial real estate.

In 2000, shortly after the PLP won control of the Bermuda Government for the first time, the family moved its investment company and core business from Bermuda to Dublin. At the time, a spokesman for the company said that they were re-domiciling solely for business reasons, to be closer to their European investments. He denied speculations that they were leaving because of dissatisfaction with the policies of the PLP, but the decision was reminiscent of Sir Howard’s move out of the UK almost six decades earlier, following the election of a labour Government.

Our sports stars

Shaun Goater

Shaun Goater played for Manchester City in the Premier League between 1998 and 2003, where he scored more than 100 goals — including a hat-trick against his first professional club, Manchester United. He was Manchester City’s top scorer for four consecutive seasons, and the local fans created a song in his honour, “Feed the Goat and He Will Score”.

Flora Duffy

Flora Duffy is the 2016 and 2017 ITU World Triathlon Series World Champion, a two-time winner of the ITU Cross Triathlon World Championships and a four-time winner of the XTERRA World Championships. Flora is also the first Bermuda female to win a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games when she won the triathlon event in Gold Coast, Australia in April 2018.