Benjamin de Rothschild

Benjamin de Rothschild (30 July 1963 – 15 January 2021) was a French banker, owner of the Edmond de Rothschild Group since 1997. He was the son of the Edmond Adolphe (1926–1997) and Nadine (1932–) de Rothschild. He was married to Ariane de Rothschild. In 2000, he created the professional offshore sailing racing team Gitana Team.

Family

See also: Rothschild family and Rothschild banking family of France

Benjamin de Rothschild was a seventh-generation descendant of the dynasty founder Mayer Amschel. He was the great grandson of Edmond James de Rothschild (1845–1934) and Adelheid von Rothschild (1853–1935), the grandson of Maurice de Rothschild (1881–1957) and Noémie Halphen (1888–1968), and the only child of Edmond Adolphe and Nadine (née Lhopitalier) de Rothschild.

His family wealth ranked 22nd on Challenges 2019 list of French fortunes, 43rd on Bilan 2019 list of Swiss fortunes, and 1349th on Forbes 2019 list of world billionaires. He was considered one of the richest members of the Rothschild family.

Biography

Early life

De Rothschild was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine on 30 July 1963. He studied at the Swiss Institut Florimont and held a BA in Business Management from Pepperdine University.

Banking

See also: Edmond de Rothschild Group

Following his graduation, Benjamin de Rothschild worked in family-owned banks in California. In 1989, he returned to Europe and launched the Compagnie de Trésorerie Benjamin de Rothschild specializing in advanced financial risk management.

After the death of his father in 1997, he succeeded him as chairman of the Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild. He restructured the group's organization around key activities such as asset management and M&A. In 1999, he launched Edmond de Rothschild Investment Services in Israel where he also succeeded his father at the helm of the Caesarea Rothschild Foundation. In 2010, Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild became the Edmond de Rothschild Group.

In March 2015, Benjamin de Rothschild named his wife Ariane de Rothschild CEO of the Group, and Chairwoman of the executive committee. In 2016, all the lifestyle-oriented assets of the group were reorganized under the Edmond de Rothschild Heritage label. In March 2019, the Benjamin de Rothschild family made the Edmond de Rothschild Group 100% privately owned. The group's French bank was integrated to the Swiss bank which subsequently became the Group's main holding structure. Ariane de Rothschild became Chairman of the new group and Vincent Taupin CEO.

Sailing

File:Gitana 16 étrave.jpg

Bow of Gitana 16.

In 2000, Benjamin de Rothschild purchased the 62-foot long Elf Aquitaine and founded the professional sailing team Gitana Team, walking in the footsteps of the family tradition but eventually expanding it to multihulls sailboats. The team's first trimaran was the Gitana IX (former Elf Aquitaine), followed by the Gitana X, entirely developed by the team. The Gitana VII won the Route du Rhum 2006.

In 2015, the team mounted foiling daggerboards and T-rudders on a Multi One Design 70ft to make it "fly" over water, after a decision a year earlier to build a new, state-of-the-art yacht. On 17 July 2017, the 32x23-meter Maxi Edmond de Rothschild (Gitana 17) was introduced, the offshore racing's first maxi-multihull designed to fly in the open ocean. It was decorated by the street artist Cleon Peterson. The Maxi won the 48th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race in August 2019, breaking the record set in 2011 by Loïck Peyron (Banque Populaire V) and the Brest Atlantiques in December 2019 (skippers Charles Caudrelier-Franck Cammas for both races).

Vineyards and farms

Benjamin de Rothschild inherited the Château Clarke wine estate purchased by his father in 1973. He renovated the fermentation room and hired the oenologist Michel Rolland in 1998 to perfect the Château's vines and supervise the family's new vineyard ventures in South Africa and Argentina.

In 1997, Benjamin de Rothschild initiated a joint venture with Anton Rupert to create the Rupert & Rothschild Vignerons vineyards in South Africa. He gathered wine enthusiasts (including Laurent Dassault) to create the wine estate Le Clos de los Siete in Argentina's Uco Valley, producer of the Flechas de los Andes wine. In 2003, he acquired the Château des Laurets vineyards in Bordeaux. In 2005, he launched Champagne Barons de Rothschild with Baron Éric de Rothschild and Baroness Philippine de Rothschild. In 2009, he launched a joint venture with the Spanish winery Vega Sicilia. In 2012, he acquired 26 hectares of vines in the Marlborough Region to produce the Rimapere wine. Benjamin de Rothschild was the largest stakeholder in the Château Lafite Rothschild wine estate.

The baron and his wife were owners of the farm La Ferme des 30 Arpents in the countryside outside of Paris, the only producer of brie de Meaux "appellation d'origine contrôlée".

Personal

On 23 January 1999, de Rothschild married Ariane Langner. They had four daughters. De Rothschild died on 15 January 2021 at his home in Pregny, Switzerland. He was 57 and had a heart attack.

See also

• Edmond de Rothschild Group
• Ariane de Rothschild
• Rothschild family

External links

• Edmond de Rothschild Group website
• Gitana Team website