Jeremy Coller

Jeremy Coller (born 17 May 1958) is a British businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder, chief investment officer and chairman of Coller Capital. Known as "The Godfather of Secondaries",[1][2] Coller is one of Europe's best-known alternative investors, specialising in buying second-hand stakes in private equity funds.[3]

Jeremy Coller
Born	(1958-05-17) 17 May 1958 London, England
Nationality	British
Education	Manchester University University of Sussex
Occupation	Businessman
Known for	Founder, CIO and chairman, Coller Capital
Net worth	£320 million (2019)

His investments have included a portfolio of mid-sized UK companies that held TM Lewin and Vue Entertainment. Financial News has over several years voted Coller one of the most influential people in private equity and in 2013, named him its European "Personality of the Decade" for his role in industrialising the secondaries market. In December 2018, Coller was named to Financial News's Europe's 50 Most Influential People list.[4]

He is chairman of the Jeremy Coller Foundation, his vehicle for philanthropic activities. He sits on the advisory board of the Coller School of Management at Tel Aviv University. 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.[5]

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 took the Diplome Cours de Civilisation at the Sorbonne in Paris.[6]

After building a successful 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.[7][8]

Business career

Coller's early career was spent as Head of Equity Research at Fidelity International.[9] He then joined ICI Pension Plan as a sector fund manager, before becoming a venture and buyout manager.[10] 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.[11] 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.[2]

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 leading institutional investors.

Coller promotes entrepreneurship in the UK and worldwide, offering frequent support for the commercialisation of innovative ideas.[12][13]

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.[14]

The Foundation also funds and supports the work of The Elders, where Coller has been a member of the Advisory Council since 2012.[15]

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.[16]

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.[17] 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, 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 Jeremy Coller Foundation funds the School to recruiting fresh faculty, expand its research, and diversify and internationalise 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.

The School hosts the Coller Startup Competition, a $100,000 prize awarded annually to startups focused on the future of food, specifically on replacing animals in the human food supply chain.[18]

Ending factory farming

The Jeremy Coller Foundation looks at the consequences of factory farming for global sustainability.[19]

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.[20] Launched by the Jeremy Coller Foundation in 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. As of August 2019, FAIRR’s membership and wider supporting network comprises institutional investors managing over $16 trillion in combined assets.[21][22]

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.

Global investor statements

• Global investor statement on antibiotics stewardship - a public-facing statement calling on food companies to adopt stronger antibiotic stewardship policies. The statement encourages companies to build a policy in line with FAIRR's best-practice antibiotics policy, developed in consultation with leading industry and issue experts. As of November 2018, the statement has been signed by 73 investors managing over $3 trillion in assets.[23]
• Statement of Support for the Cerrado Manifesto - a public-facing statement showing investor and corporate support for the Cerrado Manifesto, which asks purchasers of soybean and beef from the Cerrado savannah to immediately adopt effective policies and commitments to eliminate deforestation and incentivise producers to move towards more sustainable land management. As of November 2018, the statement has been signed by 50 investors with over $6 trillion in assets.[24][25]

Engagements

• Antibiotics overuse in livestock supply chains - antibiotics use in livestock is a leading cause of rising antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in humans. The food industry is the largest consumer of antibiotics globally, and uses antibiotic drugs to prevent disease or promote growth in healthy farm animals rather than treat clinically ill animals. The engagement asks 20 global food companies to limit antibiotic use in their supply chains to protect public health and long-term value creation. As of August 2019, it is supported by investors with $4.9 trillion of combined assets.[26]
• Building sustainable protein supply chains - The conventional (i.e. industrial) livestock production system is heavily dependent on unpriced externalities for its continued growth: GHG emissions, deforestation, air and water pollution, low regulatory scrutiny, poor animal welfare, license to operate risks and human health concerns. The engagement asks 25 global food companies to diversify their protein sources to drive growth, increase profitability, reduce risk exposure, and improve their ability to compete and innovate in a resource-constrained world. As of August 2019, the engagement is supported by investors with $5.3 trillion in combined assets. A progress report, 'Appetite for disruption' was published in July 2019.[27]
• Global investor engagement on meat sourcing - For fast food companies buying meat and dairy, these unpriced externalities present growing challenges to their supply security, sustainability ambitions, brand and reputation, and financial growth. FAIRR is asking companies to set, and report on, a clear strategy for how they are de-risking their meat and dairy supply chains..[28]

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.[9]

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[29] 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.[9] 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),[30] 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 in support of 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.[31]

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.”

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 (2013)

Coller received an Honorary Doctorate from Tel Aviv University in 2013,[32] 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.[33] In 2008, he received an Outstanding Alumnus Award from the University of Manchester.[34]

Books

Coller's book Splendidly Unreasonable Inventors: The Lives, Loves, and Deaths of 30 Pioneers Who Changed the World was published in 2008.[35]

References

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3. "The 20 most influential people in private equity today". www.realdeals.eu.com.
4. Editorial, P. E. N. "Europe's 50 Most Influential People in Private Equity". www.penews.com. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
5. Times, The Sunday (12 May 2019). "Rich List 2019: profiles 351-399=, featuring the Queen, Elton John and David Beckham". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 7 November 2019.
6. "The 'leech on a leech's back'". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
7. "Jeremy Coller". Sustainability. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
8. "2013 TAU Honorary Degrees Awarded | Tel Aviv University". English.tau.ac.il. 9 June 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2016.
9. "Private equity executive fights antibiotic risks in farming | Financial Times". www.ft.com. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
10. "Jeremy Coller". Euromoney. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
11. Taylor, James (3 January 2013). "Coller raises biggest ever secondaries fund". Private Equity International. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
12. "Jeremy Coller". Intentional Endowments Network. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
13. "Coller $100,000 Startup Competition". en-coller.tau.ac.il. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
14. "Jeremy Coller Foundation". Retrieved 23 August 2019.
15. "Jeremy Coller AC profile". The Elders. 23 October 2018. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
16. "Private equity gets a lifeline for research". Financial Times. 13 October 2008. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
17. "Tel Aviv University nabs $50m donation - Globes". en.globes.co.il (in Hebrew). 18 May 2016. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
18. "Tel Aviv University Competition Offers $100K Investment For FoodTech Startups". Vegeconomist. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
19. "RI Interview: Jeremy Coller, the private equity titan backing ESG to end animal factory farming". Responsible Investor. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
20. "Private equity executive fights antibiotic risks in farming". www.ft.com. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
21. "About FAIRR". FAIRR. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
22. "Bloomberg - Are you a robot?". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
23. "Investor statement". Investor statement. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
24. "Investors add their voices to calls to protect the Cerrado | Forest 500". forest500.org. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
25. Hub, IISD's SDG Knowledge. "Investor Coalition Joins Manifesto to Halt Deforestation in the Cerrado | News | SDG Knowledge Hub | IISD". Retrieved 29 February 2020.
26. "Antibiotics overuse in global protein supply chains". FAIRR. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
27. "Building sustainable protein supply chains". FAIRR. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
28. "Global Investor Engagement on Meat Sourcing". Ceres. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
29. "Alliance to save our antibiotics". www.saveourantibiotics.org. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
30. "BBFAW | Business Benchmark - A benchmark on farm animal welfare". www.bbfaw.com. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
31. "Coller Prize for Interspecies Conversations, Hall of Fame & Young Leaders Circle". Coller Foundation. 16 July 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
32. "2013 TAU Honorary Degrees Awarded". Tel Aviv University. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
33. "Jeremy Coller". Sustainability. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
34. "Outstanding Alumni". Your Manchester Online - The University of Manchester. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
35. 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.