12 Things You Should Know About Arms Maker Ivor Ichikowitz

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Written by Dana Sanchez

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.

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About Dana Sanchez

Dana Sanchez was born in South Africa and is a U.S. citizen. After working in advertising, she went back to school and earned a master's degree in journalism from the University of South Florida. As a business writer, she won regional and national writing awards. As editor of a daily newspaper, she coordinated staff writers, freelancers and photographers in the fast-paced environment of daily news. Dana was an editor at Moguldom Media Group for four years, helping to build and manage a team of staff and freelance writers. She works now on Moguldom.com for Nubai Ventures. A long-distance hiker and cyclist, she writes about the business of technology.