Capital markets

As a Formula One double World Champion, two-time winner of the Le Mans 24-hour race, and victor in the FIA World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Daytona, Fernando Alonso might appear to have achieved pretty much everything there is to achieve in the realm of elite motorsport.

Despite this, though, the 41-year-old Spanish legend feels he is far from done with motor racing. So, what keeps powering him onward?

For the past 30 years, the Elton John AIDS Foundation has worked tirelessly to put an end to the disease that has now claimed at least 38 million lives over some decades. (The true figure is likely higher owing to persistent under-recording.) Inspired partly by the bravery of Ryan White, a young boy who died of AIDS after a contaminated blood transfusion, Elton decided to commit himself to the struggle against this cruel blight on humanity.

Northern Ethiopia can be an unforgiving place to live. Despite great natural beauty and rich culture, the region has over time endured poverty, periodic famines and outbreaks of warfare. But of all that she witnessed on her early visits to the country, there was one encounter especially that Mabel van Oranje will never forget.

It was the couple’s first glimpse of the White Continent. But as their ship drew closer to the Antarctic shoreline, Martin and Carmel Naughton’s wonderment became mixed with sadness. The telltale signs of melting coastal glaciers were plain to see. And the graphic scene they were witnessing was no mere seasonal effect. The ship’s captain brought out a map to show them just how far the ice sheet had retreated in the previous decade alone.

I think that experience had a profound effect on my parents, says Neil Naughton.

I recall that when they returned from that trip, my father sat us down at work and told us the frightening developments that he’d seen first-hand. He said that things were changing much faster than most people understood, and that our company had a responsibility to do whatever we could.

Reetu Gupta hadn’t slept at all. Covid-19 – recently declared a pandemic – was creating intense uncertainty the world over. Occupancy at her family’s chain of hotels across Canada, of which she was the CEO, was in freefall. However, it wasn’t the unprecedented business turmoil that was keeping her awake, as she explained in an early-morning phone call with her younger brother. All that Reetu could think about was how the pandemic was going to affect others, recalls Suraj Gupta.

She kept saying how there were already so many people suffering in the world, even before the health crisis hit. With things deteriorating so fast, she said we had to think of ways to help. I wasn’t at all surprised by her reaction; trying to assist others and make the world better is just her mentality.

When COVID-19 struck in their native Philippines, Andrew Tan and his son Kevin mobilized the resources of their conglomerate, Alliance Global, to provide life-saving assistance to their fellow citizens amid one of the world’s longest and strictest lockdowns. These included switching their iconic spirits production facilities to make alcohol for disinfectants, feeding and transporting healthcare workers in Manila, and assisting in the creation of viral testing centers across the archipelago nation.