Jeremy Coller

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Jeremy Coller (born 17 May 1958) is a British businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder, chief investment officer and chairman of Coller Capital.

He is chairman of the Jeremy Coller Foundation, his vehicle for philanthropic activities. He is deputy chair of Tel Aviv University and an advisory board member of the university's Coller School of Management.^[1] He is a member of the Advisory Council of The Elders, the international peace and human rights NGO founded by Nelson Mandela.

In 2019 the Sunday Times Rich List gave Coller's net worth to be £320 million.^[2]

Early life and education

Coller was born in London on 17 May 1958.

He attended

After building a career in private equity, Coller was awarded an honorary fellowship by London Business School in 2011 and in 2013, received an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University.^[4][5]

Business career

Coller's early career was spent as head of equity research at

In 1990, he started the first European private equity secondaries fund.^[8] Since then, Coller Capital has become a globally recognised leader in the private equity secondaries market and Coller is recognised for leading the industrialisation of private equity secondaries.^[9] His notable acquisitions include technology incubators formerly owned by BT, Lucent Bell Labs and the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.^[10]

He is Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner of Coller Capital, which has completed some of the largest transactions in the private equity secondary market. [citation needed] The firm employs over 220 people, and is headquartered in London, with additional offices in New York City, Hong Kong and Korea. In January 2021, the firm closed Coller International Partners VIII, with committed capital (including co-investment vehicles) of just over $9 billion and backing from over 200 of the world's leading institutional investors. In February 2022 the firm closed Coller Credit Opportunities I, with committed capital (including co-investment vehicles) of c.$1.4 billion and backing from over 30 institutional investors.

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.^[11]

The Foundation also funds and supports the work of The Elders, where Coller has been a member of the Advisory Council since 2012.^[12]

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 to London Business School by the Jeremy Coller Foundation in 2008.^[13]

The Institute focused on private equity education and research. 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 the goal to advance the venture ecosystem globally.^[14] The Institute pursues three 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.

The Jeremy Coller Foundation funds the School to recruit new faculty, expand its research, and diversify and internationalise its student body.

The School hosts the Coller Startup Competition, a $100,000 prize awarded annually to startups focused on food, specifically on replacing animals in the human food supply chain.^[15] The 2019 winner was Solutum Ltd, which develops water-soluble plastic-like bags.^[16]

Factory farming

The Jeremy Coller Foundation looks at the consequences of

FAIRR is a collaborative investor network that raises awareness of the material ESG risks and opportunities caused by intensive animal agriculture.^[18] Launched by the Jeremy Coller Foundation in 2015, FAIRR believes that intensive animal agriculture and protein production poses material risks to the global financial system and hinders sustainable development. Its goal is to build a global network of investors who are focused and engaged on the risks and opportunities linked to animal factory farming. As of October 2023, FAIRR's membership and wider supporting network comprises institutional investors managing over $70 trillion in combined assets.^[19][20] FAIRR also runs collaborative investor engagements with global food companies to improve performance on selected ESG issues in the sector.

Human health

The Foundation is supporting activities to address the human health consequences of factory farming, with a focus on antibiotic resistance.^[6]

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^[21] 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.^[6] 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.

As part of this programme, the Foundation supports the Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW),^[22] a tool for investors to assess corporate animal welfare policies and performance and to integrate this into their investment decision making and engagement.

Coller Prize for Interspecies Conversation

In July 2020, Coller announced the Coller Prize for Interspecies Conversation, a $1m award for research into AI-augmented human-animal communication. The prize was announced by Interspecies I/O, a forum of leading figures in inter-species communication; its members include Peter Gabriel, Vint Cerf, Diana Reiss and Neil Gershenfeld. At the same forum, he also announced the Coller Hall of Fame and Young Leaders Circle, for leading interspecies thinkers, as well as the creation of a digital hub in support of interspecies research.^[23]

Commenting on advances in machine learning, Coller said his aim was to “…seek out the conversation algorithm that will unlock in ourselves a greater sense of respect for those other animals with whom we share our planet, so we no longer see them simply as objects and possessions.”^{[citation needed]}

Honours and awards

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

• 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 (2013)
• Coller was named to Financial News's Europe's 50 Most Influential People list in 2018 and 2020.^[24][25]
• Financial News' European Personality of the Decade for his role in industrialising the secondaries market.

Coller received an Honorary Doctorate from Tel Aviv University in 2013,^[26] for guiding the evolution of private equity as an asset class, and his commitment to the worldwide teaching of research in entrepreneurship and innovation. In 2011, he received an Honorary Fellowship from London Business School.^[4] In 2008, he received an Outstanding Alumnus Award from the University of Manchester.^[27]

Financial News has over several years voted Coller one of the most influential people in private equity and in 2013, named him its Private Equity Personality of the Decade.

Publications

Coller's book Splendidly Unreasonable Inventors: The Lives, Loves, and Deaths of 30 Pioneers Who Changed the World was published in 2008.^[28]

References