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.

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 recognized 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 more than 170 people; it is headquartered in London, with offices in New York and Hong Kong. In 2012, Coller Capital closed its sixth secondaries fund, Coller International Partners VI, with total capital commitments of $5.5 billion and backing from almost 200 of the world’s leading institutional investors.

Jeremy Coller is keenly interested in promoting entrepreneurialism, in the UK and worldwide, and offers frequent support for the commercialization of innovative ideas.

Philanthropy

The Jeremy Coller Foundation is a strategic grant-making organisation, focused on a number of programme areas, including the Coller Institute of Private Equity at London Business School, the Coller Institute of Venture at Tel Aviv University, Animal Welfare and Human Health programmes.

Areas currently under research for future work include: sentient rights and duties; pensions as a tool for economic reform; and career mapping.

The Foundation support the work of The Elders, of which Coller has been on the Advisory Council since 2012.

Coller Institute of Private Equity at London Business School

The Coller Institute of Private Equity – the result of a major donation to London Business School in 2008 by the Jeremy Coller Foundation – aims to be the world’s pre-eminent institute for research in the field of private equity.

The Institute represents a bridge between the academic and practitioner worlds. It is dedicated to the rigorous analysis and synthesis of data to establish and promote new insights and so facilitate a better understanding of the industry.

Integral to the vision of the Institute is the provision of world class education both to students and executives via a private equity elective and the Coller Institute MasterClass.

The Institute publishes Private Equity Findings, a journal showcasing private equity and venture capital-related research from leading academic thinkers worldwide.

Coller Institute of Venture at Tel Aviv University

The Coller Institute of Venture at Tel Aviv University was established in 2013. The Institute’s mission is to advance the venture ecosystem globally. The Institute’s work is centred on three objectives:

• Identify the conditions that will lead to compelling returns for long-term capital (e.g. pension plans, foundations, sovereign wealth funds) from investing in venture capital
• Investigate and communicate best practice in technology translation from governments, universities and corporates
• Promote innovation in policy-making and planning, encouraging governments to adopt best practices in legal frameworks, fiscal incentives, behavioural economics and other parts of the public policy agenda
• The Institute publishes Venture Findings, a journal aimed at deepening our understanding of innovation and the venture ecosystem.

Foundation Initiatives on Factory Farming

The Jeremy Coller Foundation is actively engaged in shaping the debate on the unsustainable practices of animal factory farming. The Foundation is taking action on two fronts:

'Influencing capital flows' through ESG (Environment, Social and Governance), by exploring the relationship between investment in animal factory farming and financial returns

• Coller Investment Risk Report – establishing the material risks presented by investing in animal factory farming (report to be published September 2015)
• Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW ) – supporting the development of BBFAW, a tool for investors to assess corporate animal welfare policies and performance
• Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return (FAIRR) Initiative – an investor network to put farm animal welfare on the ESG agenda (see more information below)

'Influencing legislation' related to human health and factory farming

• Epidemiological Research – providing an evidential basis for the link between antibiotic misuse on factory farms and antibiotic resistance in humans, and projecting future resistance patterns
• Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics – JCF is the main funder of the Alliance, which campaigns for tighter regulation of farm animal antibiotic use
• Consequences of meat overconsumption – publishing research and briefing papers on the human health effects and environmental implications of meat overconsumption and production

Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return (FAIRR) Initiative

FAIRR is an investor initiative that aims to put farm animal welfare on the ESG agenda. Launched by the Jeremy Coller Foundation in summer 2015, FAIRR believes that there is a knowledge gap in the investment community around the material risks and opportunities connected with animal factory farming and poor animal welfare standards.

FAIRR provides research to help investors to understand these risks and to support investors to incorporate farm animal welfare into their investment processes. As a framework to do this, FAIRR has developed a set of three aspirational principles:

1. Investment Decisions. We will consider farm animal welfare as an ESG issue in our investment decision-making process.
2. Monitoring. We will consider including farm animal welfare in our investment monitoring.
3. Transparency. We will support transparency on farm animal welfare issues by the entities in which we invest.

Investor signatories to FAIRR commit to implementing these principles.

Publications

To date, FAIRR has published the following resources:

• An Introduction to FAIRR – overview of the FAIRR initiative and why investors should consider farm animal welfare issues in their investment process.
• Considering Farm Animal Welfare in Investment Decision-Making - case studies and guidance for investors on integrating farm animal welfare into the investment process

The Coller Investment Risk Report, the first report to assess material risk presented by the animal factory farming industry, will be published in September 2015.

Human health and the misuse of antibiotics

The Foundation is also supporting activities to better understand and fight one of the most pressing public health issues today: resistance to antibiotics http://www.jeremycollerfoundation.org/programmes/human-health. The Foundation is the main funder of the Alliance to Save Our Antibiotics, which is engaged in promoting better legislation for appropriate use of antibiotics on humans and other animals. The Foundation has also commissioned epidemiological research on the causes and determinants of antibiotics resistance, with the final objective of influencing the global public health action plan.

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 (awarded in 2013)

Outside his professional achievements, Jeremy received an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University in 2013. 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.

Books authored by Jeremy Coller

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

External links

• www.collercapital.com
• www.jeremycollerfoundation.org
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