Frontier: Exploring the Top Ten Emerging Markets of Tomorrow

Acknowledgments

My journey began with a question: Where's the best place in the world to invest?

Given my job, it's something friends and family would often ask and, despite having penned countless articles speculating on which countries might be the next to bounce or bomb, I could never provide a satisfying answer. Most news and research is focused on what might happen in the coming days, hours or minutes rather than years or decades. I'm indebted to those who asked the question and the ten investors who led me to an answer.

Having a journalist traipsing along, earwigging and butting in on sensitive conversations with ministers and executives, isn't every money manager's cup of tea. Life on the road for most amounts to an exhausting series of meetings crammed into short pockets before heading to the next country to do it all again. Traveling with Mark Mobius – and trying to keep up with the 78-year-old's frenetic run of factory tours, gym workouts and evening engagements – was truly a privilege. I'm grateful to Julian Adams for his meticulous note taking when I was called away from Argentina as my father-in-law fell ill, and to Kevin Daly and Derrick Irwin for gracefully re-arranging high-level meetings in Nigeria and Ghana to postpone our trip. I was suitably impressed by Brett Rowley's determination to press ahead with our Kenya plans in the face of terrorist attacks and Andrew Stobart's unwavering resolve to visit Egypt in what turned out to be one of the country's worst weeks ...