Farhad Vladi

Farhad Vladi (Hamburg, 1945) is the founder and president of Vladi Private Islands, an international broker of island real estate. Born in Hamburg, Vladi was bitten by the island bug during his studies at the Universität Hamburg. After completing his PhD thesis in Economics and taking part in an apprenticeship at the Deutsche Bank, the young German’s life took an unexpected change in direction whilst reading his local newspaper. It was here that Vladi stumbled across a small advert for a private island in the Indian Ocean. Hastily gatherings some belongings and his savings, he set sail for the Seychelles – no easy feat in the era before mass tourism! Upon arriving in the beautiful island republic, it soon became apparent that Vladi simply could not afford to buy the island. Undeterred, the keen photographer began to document the island with a view to finding a buyer on his return to Germany. A short time later, Vladi was able to celebrate closing his first island deal in 1971. He hasn’t looked back since.

Indeed, since 1971, Vladi has been involved in the sale of over 2000 islands and the rental of thousands more. With an archive detailing more than 12,000 international islands and with over 40 years experience in the private island business, Vladi has emerged as the leading voice in the field of private island sales and rentals, and is also regularly commissioned by governments as a private island appraiser. Constantly on the beating pulse of the world of private islands, his current affairs portal, Private Island News (www.privateislandnews.com) ensures that all other island lovers are also kept up to date. Never one to sit still for long, when not supervising the day-to-day running of Vladi Private Islands, Vladi can be found serving as a committed board member of the World Future Council and expanding his collection of aerial photographs for Panoramio – an online gallery which recently saw its millionth visitor! On top of all that, he’s even found the time to publish several successful books, including Luxury Private Islands and The World of Private Islands. A further coffee-table book project with the publisher teNeues is currently in the pipelines.