Joseph Kabila
In 1996, Gertler founded the Dan Gertler International (DGI) group of companies. He bought his first mine in the DRC in 1997. Gertler purchased many of the Congo's "most profitable mineral rights" and has been a "close friend" of the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Joseph Kabila since their youth. Joseph Kabila introduced Gertler to his father, then-president of the DRC Laurent Kabila, in 2000.