Family office head to join crypto pioneer; Rothschild sustainable investing initiative

De Rothschild launches new group

Shareholder activist Jeff Ubben has joined forces with family office campaigner Lynn Forester de Rothschild to start Inclusive Capital Partners, dedicated to sustainable investing.

Ubben is founder of US activist firm ValueAct Capital which seeks to negotiate corporate governance improvements from within their boardrooms. Its targets have included Nintendo, Citigroup and Rolls Royce.

Rothschild is chief executive of EL Rothschild, a family investment office owned with her husband, the banker Sir Evelyn de Rothschild. 

She also leads the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism, dedicated to enlightened governance, backed by companies, family offices and foundations.

Executives from ValueAct will help to develop San Francisco-based Inclusive Capital which will take over the management of its sustainable ValueAct Spring Fund.

Ubben has warned that ESG funds have helped to over-inflate the value of over-priced technology companies which can be viewed as sustainable. 

Instead, he supports companies like oil giant BP and engineering firm AES for their environmental stance and aims to lobby for improvements elsewhere. He believes companies making a sustainable impact will be recognised by the stock market in due course.

He also opposes corporate short-termism and backs US Senator Elizabeth Warren’s view that private equity firms have become too greedy. 

Bitcoin Suisse appoints family office head to its board

Bitcoin Suisse, a big player in the Swiss crypto/blockchain sector, has appointed Roger Studer to its board of directors. Studer, the former head of investment banking at Swiss bank Vontobel, also runs Studer Family Office, based in Pfäffikon, Switzerland. 

Bitcoin Suisse, based in Zug, the location of so-called “crypto valley”, was founded by Niklas Nikolajsen, one of the main pioneers in the crypto/blockchain sector in Switzerland. Nikolajsen set up a family office, Nikolajsen Capital, in 2018. 

The Studer hire and the earlier hire of Giles Keating, previously chief economist for Credit Suisse, by Bitcoin Suisse shows it wants to be a big global force in the bitcoin sector. It also indicates establishing members of the financial community are taking the sector more seriously by working for groups connected to the sector.