Lord Jacob Rothschild, financier, philanthropist and member of Europe's largest banking dynasty is dead at the age of 87, leaving “a commanding presence in the lives of many people,” the family recalled in a statement. Born in 1936, it can be said that Rothschild was born with a banker's shirt.
Son of Victor, III Baron Rothschild, and an Anglican Christian woman converted by marriage to observant Judaism, Jacob studied at Oxford University. But immediately after university, in 1963, he joined the family bank, the NM Rothschild & Sons. He left her in 1980 after a clash with his cousin Evelyn, who took over at the helm of the bank after Jacob's father had chosen to follow a scientific career and lost his majority on the board of directors.
But what can a Rothschild scion, forced out of his bank, do other than create another financial reality? Thus the investment fund was born Rit Capital Partners, publicly traded, which Jacob led from 1988 to 2019. Rothschild also co-founded J Rothschild Assurance Group – now known as a wealth manager St James's Place – together with Sir Mark Weinberg and Mike Wilson in 1991.
TV, the National Gallery, science, oil and much more
In his decades-long career he has held many important roles. He was vice president of BSkyB Television, director of RHJ International, now known as BHF Kleinwort Benson Group, and was a member of the council of the Duchy of Cornwall for the then Prince of Wales. Passionate about art, he was a trustee of the National Gallery between 1985 and 1991, as well as chairing the National Lottery Heritage Fund. In 2002 he was awarded the Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth II for his commitment to the arts, literature, learning and science.
Jacob was member independent of British House of Lords, by virtue of the title of 1991th Baron Rothschild, from 1998 to XNUMX: the year in which a reform, aimed at reducing the presence of members of the Upper House by hereditary right to almost zero, deprived him of his seat together with others.
Among the other areas of his interest was that oil. In 2003 he signed an agreement to try to put into custody (in vain) assets of the Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, opponent of Vladimir Putin, before his arrest and the de facto confiscation of his group, Yukos. Furthermore, in 2013 it acquired from the Israeli government, through the company Genie Energy, the exclusive right to exploit a crude oil field in the occupied Syrian Golan area.
“Our father Jacob” wrote i 4 children in one message, specifying that the burial will take place in private according to the Jewish rite “it was a eminent figure for many people... as an esteemed financier, champion of the arts and culture, devoted servant of public affairs, passionate supporter of charitable activities in Israel and for Jewish culture, enthusiastic environmentalist, friend, father and beloved grandfather."
