12 Things You Should Know About Arms Maker Ivor Ichikowitz

Ivor Ichikowitz doesn’t like to be called an arms dealer.

Industrialist, venture capitalist, philanthropist — those are some of the titles people give to the founder and chairman of Africa’s largest privately owned arms company.

Born in 1966, South Africa-born Ichikowitz founded Paramount Group in 1994 when he was still in his 20s. It was the year South Africa started over and became a democracy. At first, Ichikowitz sold surplus military equipment at a time when the South African military was cutting its budget.

Twenty-one years later, he’s credited with pioneering military aviation production in Africa. His company may be on track to make a billion dollars in 2015.

Ichikowitz makes selling military hardware sound like a moral crusade, Simon Round wrote in the JewishChronicle. “He believes deals he has brokered have made his continent a safer place.”

Here are 12 things you should know about arms maker Ivor Ichikowitz.