But his continued investments in industries reliant on fossil fuels have drawn howls of hypocrisy from climate activists. foundation, run by his wife at the time, Jamie Cooper-Hohn. When their marriage ended in 2014, a judge ordered Hohn to pay Jamie Cooper $531 million, the largest divorce settlement in British history, opening a window on Hohn’s finances. By then, his hedge fund had donated a reported $4.5 billion to the foundation for a wide range of organizations working to improve the health and safety of children in the developing world. Its mission shifted in the last decade, when the foundation also donated out more than $440 million in energy and climate change- related grants. It has directed at least $16 Extinction Rebellion has targeted airports and train stations for protests in recent months. A self-made billionaire, Hohn’s personal fortune is now estimated at more than $3.1 billion. Born in a London suburb in 1966, the son of a Jamaican émigré mechanic and a legal secretary he graduated from Southampton University in England, then earned an MBA at Harvard before going to work for the American hedge fund manager Richard Perry in 1996. Hohn left Perry Capital in 2003 to start his own hedge fund, The Children’s Investment Fund Management Ltd. – or TCI as it is known – which designated a portion of fees and profits to the similarly named
million in recent years to groups advocating U.S. climate change litigation targeting traditional energy firms, according to an analysis of grants and other charitable records. In 2018, the foundation contributed $7 million to climate litigation efforts of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Climate Integrity, to “initiate, coordinate and support ground-breaking cases in multiple countries.” The center and its parent organization, the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development, lobbied elected officials in multiple U.S. cities to bring lawsuits against energy companies for causing climate change, according to the Florida Record. Representatives for XR, Hohn, and his affiliated entities declined comment for this article. The hedge-fund manager also has donated millions of dollars of his own money to other global and U.S.-based environmental groups actively opposed to fossil fuels. Last year, Hohn pledged to contribute another $500 million during the next five years. But his continued investments in industries reliant on fossil fuels have drawn howls of hypocrisy from climate activists. British media disclosed in October that Hohn has a £630 million stake ($824 million) in Spanish infrastructure conglomerate Ferrovial, which owns London Heathrow airport. XR protesters in Britain recently glued themselves to planes and attempted to shut down a nearby airport, London City. In fact, Hohn built his wealth in large part by exploiting fossil fuels and natural resources,
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March 2020
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