Ozan Ozkural: the Power of Travel

One of the great things Larry King has taught me is the value of having a meal with friends every day. When I arrived in Los Angeles about ten years ago to help him write

his autobiography – My Remarkable Journey – his breakfast table was filled with a lot of guys who had grown up with him in Brooklyn.

They were all about 75 or older, and as time passed, so have some of those guys. I came to the table a generation younger, having once traveled around the world for roughly ten years without a home. And one of my contributions to the table over time has been to bring in guests.

Folks like Jay Leno or New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft occasionally come by the

table at Nate n Al’s deli to say hello to Larry. But I delight in bringing in people from around the world – and it always takes the conversation to new places.

Some of these people have made an impression and are welcome back any time. One of them is Ozan Ozkural, the CEO of Tanto Capital Partners. Ozan is from Turkey, has a residence in London, started out at Merrill Lynch and then ran a business from Russia. His work at Tanto Capital Partners now has him flying more than a million miles a year around the globe to invest in companies, and on top of that he’s a member of the Foreign Policy Leadership Council of the Brookings Institution – which is often described as the best think tank in the world.

So when Ozan comes through the door, we all smile. Because we know that the things we’re all talking about every day will have a different slant coming through the prism of Ozan’s eyes.

It’s a different conversation when somebody at the table has just been to the places you’re reading about in the newspaper or seeing on television.

I like to joke that Nobody Flies Like Ozan because he’s on the road so much. So when he told us that he would be around for a few days, I asked him to come on Big Questions and give us his take on the world.

We can’t get enough of Ozan. Not long after, as you can see in the photo above, we convened for dinner, too. That’s Ozan between Larry and I.

Cheers,

Cal