People Moves: Sustainable head at family office; Operation business head from family office, and more…

Kirk Capital appoints sustainable investment head 

Kirk Kapital, a family office that manages the assets of Lego heiress Gunhild Kirk Johansen, has appointed Thomas Fabricius as investment director, responsible for sustainable investments. Fabricius joins from Danke Bank, where he was chief ESG analyst and a senior portfolio manager.

Done Family Office director appointed head of operational business

Joanne Whittaker, a director of Done Family Office, has been appointed CEO of Betfred, the UK bookmaker. Whittaker has been a long-time associate of Fred Done, the UK bookmaker entrepreneur and billionaire, who, along with his brother Peter, owns Betfred. Done backed Whittaker’s business childcare voucher provider Fideliti in 2005. Ever since Whittaker has been brought increasingly into the Done business universe and has advised him on investments linked to his family office. Now she has been given the top job within the Done family enterprise.  

Sports professional appointed at family office

US-based Athlon Family Office has recruited Garrick Jones to head up its sports division, dedicated to building a financial legacy for professional athletes. Jones used to play for the Houston Texans football team. He played five years in the National Football League and five in the Canadian Football League. 

He went on to develop experience in managing a range of sports businesses. He is currently president of the Huddle Up Foundation of Houston, a non-profit organisation created by former NFL athletes to serve their communities. Athlon, a multi-family office, profiled by Family Capital was recently founded to serve the financial needs of pro-athletes, particularly during their retirement.

A study by Ed Butowsky of Chapwood Investment Management found a distressing tendency for pro-athletes to hit financial problems some years back. In 2009, he reported that 78% of former NFL players had gone bankrupt, or suffered financial stress just two years after retirement.

From hedge fund to family office and back to Wall Street

Scott Bommer has been appointed chief investment officer of the newly created Blackstone business, Blackstone Horizon platform. Bommer was a well-known hedge fund manager in the 2000s but closed his hedge fund SAB Capital Management to outside money in 2015 and converted it into a family office. 

Impact investment fund appoints new board member from Brenninkmeijer family enterprise group

Kelly Clark, director of the finance and capital market transformation programme at The Laudes Foundation, has been appointed to the board of Snowball, a UK impact fund management group backed by members of the Hoare banking dynasty and UK family office, Skagen Conscience Capital.

The Laudes Foundation is part of the Brenninkmeijer family investment and philanthropic groups including the overall Swiss-based holdings group COFRA.