Jonathan Ruffer
Jonathan Ruffer DL (born 17 August 1951) is a British City investor, art collector and philanthropist.
Jonathan Ruffer | |
---|---|
Born | Jonathan Garnier Ruffer
17 August 1951 |
Education | Marlborough College Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge |
Occupation | City investor, art collector |
Net worth | GBP £380 million[1] |
Spouse(s) | Jane Sequeira |
Children | 1 daughter |
Early life
Jonathan Ruffer was born on 17 August 1951 in London, England, and lived from an early age in Stokesley, North Yorkshire, England.[2][3][4] He was educated at Marlborough College, a public school in Marlborough, Wiltshire.[2] He graduated from Sidney Sussex College, a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, in 1972.[2][5]
Career
Ruffer started as a stockbroker, before becoming a barrister.[1] He is now a Bencher of the Middle Temple. He worked in corporate finance for Schroders, an accepting house bank.[5][6] He worked for Dunbar, a private bank,[7] from 1980 to 1985.[2] He was also on the board of directors of one of its subsidiaries, Dunbar Fund Management, from 1981 to 1985.[7] He was then on the board of CFS (renamed Rathbone plc) from 1985 to 1994.[2] He was on the board of Odey Asset Management, founded by Crispin Odey, from 1992 to 2005; Fuel Tech from 1994 to 1998; and Electric & General Investment Trust from 2001 to 2011.[2]
In 1994, he co-founded Ruffer Investment Management Limited, an investment management firm with Robert Shirley, 14th Earl Ferrers and Jane Tufnell.[3][8] The firm was renamed Ruffer LLP in 2004 and is now based at 80 Victoria Street in London.[3][9] Ruffer was its chief executive officer from 1994 to 2012[2] and has been its chairman since 2011.[2] The firm managed £15.4 billion on behalf of its clients in 2012–2013.[7] In 2014, it had 199 employees,[3] and additional offices in Edinburgh and Hong Kong.[10]
He is a research fellow at St John's College, Durham.[5] He has published articles in The Spectator.[11]
Philanthropy
Ruffer credits William Rathbone VI as a source of inspiration for his philanthropy.[12] He believes nobody needs more than £20 million.[12] However, he is critical of William Temple's Christian socialism.[12]
He served as the chairman of the Good Shepherd Mission in Bethnal Green from 1998 to 2008.[2] He has also supported the Church Urban Fund.[13]
![](../I/m/Auckland_Castle_Crop.jpg)
He expressed an interest in reviving County Durham through philanthropy in 2012.[4] That same year, he donated £1 million to the Durham Foundation.[14] A year later, in 2013, he donated £15 million to preserve Auckland Castle, the historical palace of the Bishop of Durham, through the Auckland Castle Trust,[12][15] of which he is the chair.[16][17] This included the preservation of 12 paintings by Francisco de Zurbarán, present in the palace since 1756.[12][17][18] In 2013, he donated £18 million to restore the Bishop's Palace and create a museum on the history of Christianity and faith in Britain, which had been expected to open in 2018.[12][15]
The restoration project was completed in 2019 and the Castle was scheduled to re-open to visitors in November; [19][20] three new restaurants for visitors were added, with one in operation by early November 2019.[21] [22] Nonetheless, the Scotland Wing still houses the offices of the Bishop of Durham.[23] In 2019, he worked with Sotheby's James Macdonald (an expert on the Spanish school) to assemble a collection displayed at the Spanish Gallery.[24]
In 2014, Ruffer donated the endowment to create Kynren, a night show telling the history of England, in nearby Bishop Auckland to aid in wider regeneration.[25]
He has endowed the Jonathan Ruffer curatorial grants at The Art Fund, which give £75,000 to curators every year.[26]
Art collection
Ruffer collects Spanish old masters.[12] He also owns paintings by Thomas Gainsborough.
Personal life
![](../I/m/Isaac_Henrique_Sequeira_(Gainsborough).jpg)
Ruffer is married to Jane Sequeira, a doctor, and palliative care specialist.[5][27] They have a daughter.[5] She is a descendant of Isaac Henrique Sequeira (1738-1816), a Portuguese Jewish doctor, who was painted by Thomas Gainsborough, one of his patients, and that oil painting now hangs in Madrid's Museo del Prado.[28][29]
An Anglican,[15] he has been described by the Financial Times as "a committed evangelical Christian"[12] and The Yorkshire Post as "a devout Christian."[3] He is a member of the Athenaeum Club and the Beefsteak Club.[2] As of 2014, he had an estimated wealth of £380 million.[12]
Bibliography
- The Big Shots (1977).
- Babel, the Breaking of the Banks (2009)
References
- "Sunday Times Rich List". The Sunday Times (page 42). 18 May 2014. ISSN 0956-1382.
- Jonathan Garnier Ruffer Archived 26 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine, Debrett's
- Ruffer LLP pays member of firm £18m, Yorkshire Post, 28 December 2014
- Millionaire Jonathan Ruffer pledges to tackle deprivation, BBC, 25 January 2012
- "St John's College : Jonathan Ruffer - Durham University". www.dur.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- Jonathan Ruffer, Bloomberg Business
- Philip Beresford, Britain's Top 100 Entrepreneurs 2014: No. 10 – Jonathan Ruffer, Ruffer Management: The investment entrepreneur is worth £380m. Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Management Today, 26 October 2014
- Julia Rampen, Ruffer co-founder steps down, Investment Week, 4 April 2014
- "Investment Funds - Investment Management - London, Edinburgh, Guernsey - UK - Ruffer". www.ruffer.co.uk. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- Katie Holliday, Jonathan Ruffer steps back from Ruffer Investments, Investment Week, 11 April 2012
- "Author: Jonathan Ruffer - The Spectator". The Spectator. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- A N Wilson, Man on a mission: Jonathan Ruffer and the Auckland Castle Trust, Financial Times, 7 November 2014
- "Millionaire Jonathan Ruffer pledges to tackle deprivation". BBC. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
- Jonathan Ruffer donates £1m donation to Durham foundation, The Journal, 7 September 2012
- Charles Moore, The great Auckland Castle rescue, The Daily Telegraph, 18 May 2013
- "Auckland Castle". Auckland Castle. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- Heritage Exchange 2014: Jonathan Ruffer Archived 15 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine
- Francisco Zurbaran paintings saved by £15m donation, BBC, 31 March 2011
- "Auckland Castle in Durham to open to public after £12.4m restoration". the Guardian. 25 October 2019. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
- Simpson, Harriet Agerholm, Emma; Palumbo, Daniele (3 March 2020). "The multimillionaire's plan to reinvent a town". BBC News. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
- "Auckland Castle to re-open after multimillion-pound restoration". BBC. 11 September 2019. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
- "Eat & shop". The Auckland Project. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
- "The Bishops of Durham Through Time". The Auckland Project. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
- Gates, Anita (17 April 2018). "Private Sales Offer Art for a Few Eyes Only". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
- Benefactor plans theme park for Bishop Auckland, ITV, 3 April 2014
- Fund, Art. "Jonathan Ruffer curatorial grants". artfund.org. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- "Zurbarans' trustees revealed by owner". The Northern Echo. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
- País, Ediciones El (24 April 2011). "Reportaje - El salvador de los 'zurbarán'". Retrieved 5 February 2018 – via elpais.com.
- "Isaac Henrique Sequeira - The Collection - Museo Nacional del Prado". www.museodelprado.es. Retrieved 5 February 2018.