Jeremy Coller

Jeremy Coller (born 17 May 1958) is a British financial executive and philanthropist. He is Chief Investment Officer and Executive Chairman of Coller Capital, the firm he founded in 1990. Financial News has voted Coller one of the most influential people in private equity in each of the past four years. The publication also named him 'Personality of the Decade' in Europe in 2013, to acknowledge his innovation in private equity and the 'industrialisation' of the secondaries market. As well as being Chairman of the Jeremy Coller Foundation, his vehicle for philanthropic activities, he sits on the Boards of the Coller Institute for Private Equity at London Business School and the Coller Institute for Venture at Tel Aviv University. He is a member of the Advisory Council of The Elders.

Early life and education

Coller was born in London on 17 May 1958. He attended Carmel College and holds a master's degree in Philosophy from the University of Sussex, and a BSc (Hons) in Management Sciences from Manchester University School of Management. He also took the Diplome Cours de Civilisation at the Sorbonne in Paris. After building a successful career in private equity, Coller was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by London Business School in 2011. In 2013, he received an Honorary Doctorate from Tel Aviv University.[1]

Business career

Coller's early career was spent as Head of Equity Research at Fidelity International. He then joined ICI Pension Plan as a Sector Fund Manager, before being promoted to Venture and Buyout Manager. In this role, Coller pioneered the purchase of secondary positions in private equity and became the first investor in VCFA.

In 1990, he started the first European private equity secondaries fund. Since then, Coller Capital has grown to become a globally recognised leader in the private equity secondaries market. Jeremy Coller is today recognised for leading the industrialisation of private equity secondaries.

He is Chief Investment Officer and Executive Chairman of Coller Capital, which has completed some of the largest transactions in the private equity secondary market. The firm employs around 185 people, and is headquartered in London, with additional offices in New York City and Hong Kong. In 2015, Coller Capital closed its latest secondaries fund, Coller International Partners VII, with total capital commitments of $7.15 billion and backing from approximately 170 of the world's leading institutional investors. Jeremy Coller promotes entrepreneurialism, in the UK and worldwide, and offers frequent support for the commercialisation of innovative ideas.

Philanthropy

The Jeremy Coller Foundation is a strategic grant-making organisation, focused on two primary programme areas: ending factory farming and improving venture and management education.[2]

The Foundation also supports the work of The Elders, of which Coller has been on the Advisory Council since 2012.[3]

Venture and management education

Coller Institute of Private Equity at London Business School

The Coller Institute of Private Equity at London Business School (2008–2016) sprang from a significant donation[4] to London Business School by the Jeremy Coller Foundation in 2008.

The Institute focused on private equity education and research, and was influential in building bridges between academia and the global private equity industry. The Institute also published Private Equity Findings, a digest of international private equity-related research. (This publication is now published directly by Coller Capital.)

Coller Institute of Venture at Tel Aviv University

The Coller Institute of Venture was established at Tel Aviv University in 2013, with a mission to advance the venture ecosystem globally. The Institute's work is centred around three key objectives:

  • To identify the conditions that will lead to compelling venture capital returns for long-term capital providers (e.g., pension plans, charitable foundations, and sovereign wealth funds)
  • To investigate and communicate best practice in ‘technology translation’ – the creation of new businesses from IP owned by governments, universities and corporates
  • To promote innovation in venture policy-making and planning, encouraging governments to adopt best practices in legal frameworks, fiscal incentives, behavioural economics, and other areas of public policy.

The Institute produces the Coller Venture Review (previously known as Venture Findings) – a publication aimed at deepening understanding of innovation and the venture ecosystem.

Coller School of Management, at Tel Aviv University

The Coller School of Management at Tel Aviv University was established in 2016, following a major donation from the Jeremy Coller Foundation. The donation renamed, and boosted the capacities of, Israel's leading business school, which has been educating undergraduates, graduates, business managers, and entrepreneurs for over 50 years.

The Coller School is one of the world's leading management schools, especially in the area of venture and entrepreneurship; its graduates are more successful at attracting venture capital funding than those of many other well-known business schools – ranking the Coller School number 11 globally in this area.

The support of the Jeremy Coller Foundation will allow the School to build on its recent successes in recruiting young faculty, expanding its research, and diversifying and internationalising its student body.

The Coller School of Management aspires to be one of the leading places in the world for aspiring innovators to build the skills, the know-how, and the networks for success in the world of venture – a mission that will be greatly facilitated by the School's base in Tel Aviv, which has been recognised by Startup Genome as having the world's best start-up ecosystem outside Silicon Valley.

Ending factory farming

The Jeremy Coller Foundation is actively engaged in addressing the consequences of factory farming for global sustainability. The Foundation is taking action on three fronts:

FAIRR (Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return) Initiative

FAIRR is a collaborative investor network that raises awareness of the material ESG risks and opportunities caused by intensive livestock production. Launched by the Jeremy Coller Foundation 2015, FAIRR believes that intensive livestock production poses material risks to the global financial system and hinders sustainable development. Its mission is to build a global network of investors who are focused and engaged on the risks and opportunities linked to animal factory farming.[5]

FAIRR helps investors to identify and prioritise these factors through cutting-edge research that investors can then integrate into their investment decision-making and active stewardship processes. FAIRR also runs collaborative investor engagements with global food companies to improve performance on selected ESG issues in the sector.

Publications

To date, FAIRR has published numerous resources, including the following:[6]

  • Factory farming: assessing investment risks - FAIRR's first report, outlining 28 ESG risks linked to intensive livestock production that can destroy investment value.[7]
  • Factory farming in Asia: assessing investment risks - a deeper dive into ESG risks specific to the Asian livestock industry.[8]
  • Superbugs and super risks: the investment case for action - produced in collaboration with Aviva Investors and the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, this report explains how antibiotic overuse in livestock supply chains is fuelling antibiotic resistance and presents a material risk to investors.[9]
  • Responding to resistance: investor exposure to antibiotic risk - an update on FAIRR's engagement on antibiotic use with 20 global food companies, including best-practice policies for antibiotic use on farms that have been approved by expert epidemiologists.[10]
  • Future of food: the investment case for a protein shake-up - summarises the drivers behind the changing landscape of protein production and how it affects investment risk and opportunity.[11]
  • Plant-based profits: investment risks and opportunities in sustainable food systems - an update on FAIRR's collaborative investor engagement with 16 global food companies on diversifying protein supply chains.[12]
  • The livestock levy: are regulators considering meat taxes? - a white paper assessing the likelihood of governments implementing a 'meat tax', based on extensive research with public policy specialists.[13]

Human health

The Foundation is supporting activities to address the human health consequences of factory farming, with a focus on one of the most pressing public health issues today: antibiotic resistance.[14]

The Foundation coordinates epidemiological research with governments and the public and private sectors to provide an evidential basis for the link between antibiotic misuse on factory farms and antibiotic resistance in humans, to project future resistance patterns, and to contribute to a global public health action plan. In parallel, the Foundation works with the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics[15] and other NGOs to promote legislation for the appropriate use of antibiotics in farm animals.

Animal welfare

The Foundation seeks to highlight the animal welfare impacts of factory farming.[16] As concern among consumers about the way in which animals are treated in the course of producing meat, dairy or egg products increases, farm animal welfare is also growing in importance for investors in the food industry. Higher standards of welfare are not only important to meeting consumer expectations but can also have a beneficial effect on business efficiency, profitability and long-term market value when health risks are taken into account.

As part of this programme, the Foundation supports the Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW),[17] a tool for investors to assess corporate animal welfare policies and performance and to integrate this into their investment decision making and engagement.

Honours and awards

Coller has won numerous awards and has often been honoured for his contribution to the private equity and venture capital industries. These include:

  • Being named one of the Most Influential People in Private Equity by Financial News in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013
  • Being voted Private Equity Personality of the Decade by Financial News[18] (awarded in 2013)

Outside his professional achievements, Jeremy received an Honorary Doctorate from Tel Aviv University in 2013.[1] Specific mention was given to his vision in guiding the evolution of private equity as an asset class, and his commitment to the worldwide teaching of research in entrepreneurship and innovation, as a means of bolstering the economy. In 2011, he also received an Honorary Fellowship from London Business School. In 2008, he was the recipient of the University of Manchester's Outstanding Alumnus Award.[19]

Books authored by Jeremy Coller

Splendidly Unreasonable Inventors: The Lives, Loves, and Deaths of 30 Pioneers Who Changed the World.[20]

References

  1. 1 2 "2013 TAU Honorary Degrees Awarded | Tel Aviv University". English.tau.ac.il. 9 June 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  2. ↑ "Jeremy Coller Foundation". www.jeremycollerfoundation.org. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  3. ↑ "Advisory Council". The Elders. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  4. ↑ "Private equity gets a lifeline for research". Financial Times. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  5. ↑ "About". FAIRR. 20 June 2014. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  6. ↑ "Resources Archive". FAIRR. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  7. ↑ "Factory farming: assessing investment risks" (PDF). FAIRR Initiative. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  8. ↑ "Factory farming in Asia: assessing investment risks". FAIRR Initiative. 14 August 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  9. ↑ "Superbugs and Super Risks: the investment case for action" (PDF). FAIRR Initiative. 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  10. ↑ "Responding to Resistance". FAIRR Initiative. November 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  11. ↑ "Future of food: the investment case for a protein shake-up" (PDF). FAIRR Initiative. September 2016. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  12. ↑ "Plant-based profits: investment risks and opportunities in sustainable food systems". FAIRR Initiative. February 2018. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  13. ↑ "The Livestock Levy". FAIRR Initiative. December 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
  14. ↑ "Human Health – Jeremy Coller Foundation". www.jeremycollerfoundation.org. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  15. ↑ "Alliance to save our antibiotics". www.saveourantibiotics.org. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  16. ↑ "Animal Welfare – Jeremy Coller Foundation". www.jeremycollerfoundation.org. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  17. ↑ "BBFAW | Business Benchmark - A benchmark on farm animal welfare". www.bbfaw.com. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  18. ↑ "FN Private Equity Awards 2013: the winners". Efinancialnews.com. 22 July 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  19. ↑ "Outstanding Alumnus Awards – The University of Manchester". Alumni.mbs.ac.uk. 17 March 2015. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
  20. ↑ Jeremy Coller. "Splendidly Unreasonable Inventors: The Lives, Loves, and Deaths of 30 Pioneers Who Changed theWorld by Jeremy Coller — Reviews, Discussion, Bookclubs, Lists". Goodreads.com. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
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