Christian Kälin

Christian H. Kälin or Kaelin (born 1971) is a Swiss businessperson, author and lawyer who is the chairman of Henley & Partners, an architect of citizenship-by-investment programs that allow wealthy individuals to obtain additional passports. 

Kälin has written a number of works on the subject of citizenship by investment. He is the author of the Global Residence and Citizenship Handbook and the co-author of the Quality of Nationality Index. He also wrote the monograph Ius Doni in International Law and EU Law on citizenship by investment. Kälin is co-founder of Arnova Capital, a Swiss investment firm, and SIP Medical Family Office, a Swiss health-advisory firm.

Early life and education
Kälin was born in 1971 in Zürich. In his teenage years, he began collecting immigration and citizenship laws from different countries, writing to embassies to request copies of their legislation and keeping the documents in a big binder. He told writer and journalist Atossa Araxia Abrahamian of this time in his life: "What always fascinated me was the inclusionary and exclusionary aspect of citizenship .... I wanted to understand how different countries handled this." 

Kälin studied in Paris, Auckland, and Zurich. He earned master's and PhD degrees in law from the University of Zurich. His doctoral thesis was published under the title Ius Doni: The Acquisition of Citizenship by Investment. In the thesis, he wrote in support of citizenship by investment, arguing that it "creates social and economic development opportunities for States." He also coined the term ius doni, referring to people who gain citizenship through investment.

Career
Kälin trained as a banker before joining Henley & Partners as a consultant in 1994. There, he pioneered the concept of "citizenship by investment", whereby people can acquire citizenship in return for investing in a country of which they are not a national. Kälin makes a distinction between citizenship that can be "earned" through investment that is economically beneficial to a country, and "commodified" citizenship which can be simply bought, claiming that only the former method can be seen as legitimate. He also considers that "citizenship is inherently unjust".

Kälin co-founded Arnova Capital in 2003 with Pendo Lofgren. The firm primarily manages assets for wealthy families, has two investment funds for outside investors to access Arnova's trading strategies and a third investment fund focusing on contrarian investments. He has also founded a Swiss health-advisory firm called SIP Medical Family Office. 

In 2006, Kälin published the first edition of the Switzerland Business & Investment Handbook, a comprehensive guide to doing business in Switzerland that is said to be found in every Swiss embassy around the world. In the same year, he created the Henley Passport Index, which ranks countries according to the travel freedom their citizens get from their passport.

Kälin and Henley & Partners have worked with the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Austria, Australia, Cyprus, Greece, Grenada, Malta, Montenegro, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Thailand. 

Kälin was the lead consultant in the creation and implementation of the citizenship-by-investment program of Antigua and Barbuda in 2013. In 2014, Kälin was appointed as the chairman of Henley & Partners following many years in different senior roles at the firm.

In collaboration with Dimitry Kochenov, Kälin authors The Quality of Nationality Index (QNI), an annual report published since 2015. The index ranks the quality of nationalities based on factors such as GDP, Human Development Index and freedom to travel and settle abroad.

Kälin is a member of the governing board of the Investment Migration Council in Geneva. He is also the founder and chairman of the Switzerland-based Andan Foundation, which focuses on supporting displaced people.

In 2017, Henley conspired with top Maltese politicians to launch lawsuits against investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia who was reporting on Henley's programs in Malta. Leaked email exchanges between top Henley officials (including CEO Christian Kalin), Malta prime minister Joseph Muscat, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici and Individual Investment Program CEO Jonathan Cardona discussing launching a SLAPP (Strategic lawsuit against public participation) lawsuit against Galizia that was intended to financially cripple her for her reporting.

Saint Kitts and Nevis 
In 2006, Kälin restructured the Saint Kitts and Nevis citizenship-by-investment program, and obtained exclusive rights for Henley to market St. Kitts and Nevis worldwide. The company gave the country's government a $20,000 fee for every successful applicant for its passport program. Applicants for passports could either invest in real state on the islands or donate to the Sugar Industry Diversification Foundation, which was intended to invest on behalf of the St. Kitts and Nevis population. The contract between Henley and Partners and St. Kitts and Nevis ended in 2013. In 2014, the US and Canada flagged that St. Kitts and Nevis had allowed financial criminals and individuals evading sanctions to obtain passports through the Henley and Partners program. Canada ended its visa-free agreement with St. Kitts and Nevis, however it was partially reinstated for air travelers some years later following reforms. In 2015, the head of an International Monetary Fund mission to St. Kitts and Nevis said that the citizenship-by-investment program improved by Kälin led to the country out-performing other Caribbean nations in its recovery from the global financial crisis.

According to 2022 reporting by the OCCRP, there is evidence that Henley CEO Christian Kälin helped to finance the successful 2010 re-election campaign of Denzil Douglas, the St. Kitts and Nevis prime minister. At the same time, Henley entered into at least three agreements with the SCL Group or its affiliated companies to help each other in the Caribbean region. Henley has denied financing the Douglas campaign. However, Douglas stated in an unpublished 2018 interview that Henley did fund his campaign and that the SCL Group was hired to manage the campaign. Henley responded by calling Douglas a liar.

Personal life
According to Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, Kälin possesses at least five passports personally. When asked by The Economist in 2017, Kälin declined to reveal how many passports he has.

Select publications

Global Residence and Citizenship Programs 2017–2018: The Definitive Comparison of the Leading Investment Migration Programs (Christian H. Kälin) for Henley & Partners 
Ius Doni: The Acquisition of Citizenship by Investment 
Ius Doni in International Law and EU Law

References

Living people
University of Zurich alumni
Swiss chief executives
Swiss chairpersons of corporations
20th-century Swiss lawyers
1971 births
2019 Malta political crisis
21st-century Swiss lawyers