Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild

Nathaniel Charles Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild OMGBE CVO FRCA (born April 29, 1936), British colleague and investment banker, member of the prominent Rothschild banking family . He is also president emeritus of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

He was born in Berkshire, England. He is the eldest son of Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild by his first wife Barbara Judith. Rothschild (née Hutchinson). His father was born into a Jewish family and his mother converted to Orthodox Judaism when they married. Rothschild was educated at Eton College and then at Christ Church, Oxford, where he received his first-ever degree under Hugh Trevor-Roper.

From 1963 Rothschild worked at the family bank NM Rothschild & Sons in London , before resigning in 1980 due to a family dispute. The presidency of the bank passed from his father, who had chosen an academic career and lost control of most of the voting shares, to his cousin Sir Evelyn Robert de Rothschild , and Jacob felt his aspirations would be thwarted. He sold his minority stake in the bank but gained independent control of the Rothschild Investment Trust (now RIT Capital Partners plc), an investment trust listed on the London Stock Exchange .

Bank in 1980, Jacob Rothschild founded J. Rothschild Assurance Group (now St. James's Place plc ) with Sir Mark Weinberg in 1991. In 1989 he joined forces with Sir James Goldsmith and Kerry Packer in an unsuccessful bid for British American Tobacco.

Rothschild is chairman of RIT Capital Partners plc, one of the largest investment funds listed on the London Stock Exchange with a net asset value of about £2 billion. He is chairman of J Rothschild Capital Management, a subsidiary of RIT Capital Partners plc. He also retains many other venture capital and property interests.

He was vice chairman of BSkyB Television from November 2003 until his retirement in 2008 and was a director of RHJ International until 2008. He was also a member of the Prince of Wales Duchy of Cornwall Council and a member of The Blackstone Group International Advisory Board .

He was appointed a Knight. Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in the New Year's Honours for services to the Duchy of Cornwall.

In 2003, Rothschild arrived under scrutiny when Russian oilman Mikhail Khodorkovsky's shares in Yukos were transferred to him in accordance with a deal they had struck before Khodorkovsky's arrest.

In November 2010, an undisclosed Company affiliated with Rothschild acquired a 5.0% stake in Genie Energy , a subsidiary of IDT Corporation , for $10.0 million. In 2013, Genie Energy obtained exclusive oil and gas exploration rights to a 153-square-mile area in the southern Golan Heights .

From his headquarters at St. James Place in London, Jacob Rothschild has found clients, business associates and friends who have expanded his interests beyond the normal scope of a banker. He maintained personal and business ties with Henry Kissinger.

His country estate has been the site of visits from heads of state, including Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Margaret Thatcher hosted French President François Mitterrand at a summit here in 1990. In 2002 he hosted the European Economic Round Table conference, which was attended by James Wolfensohn, former president of the World Bank, Nicky Oppenheimer, Warren Buffett and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Jacob Rothschild played a prominent role in the philanthropy of the arts in Britain. He was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery from 1985 to 1991 and Chairman of the National Heritage Memorial Fund from 1992 to 1998. From 1994 to 1998, at the invitation of the Prime Minister, he was Chairman of the British National Heritage Lottery Fund, responsible for the distribution of national lottery income to the heritage sector, an influential post that oversaw the distribution of £1.2 billion in grants.

He was also a former trustee of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg (retired since 2008); Trustee of the Qatar Museums Authority (retired since 2010); Chairman of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture (2002-2004); Chairman of the Gilbert Collection Trust and Hermitage Development Trust, Somerset House; Trustee and Honorary Member of the Courtauld Institute, Somerset House; and Fellow, benefactor and member of the visitor committees of Oxford's Ashmole Museum (retired since 2008). In 2014, he received the J. Paul Getty Medal "for outstanding achievement in the fields of museology, art history research, philanthropy, conservation and conservation science."

He was particularly active in the restoration of Somerset House in London, for which he helped preserve the Gilbert Collection and secured the long-term future of the Courtauld Institute of Art. As a private project, he undertook the restoration of Spencer House, one of London's best preserved 18th-century townhouses, adjacent to his own offices.

In 1988 he inherited from his aunt, Dorothy de Rothschild, the Waddesdon and Eithrop estates in Buckinghamshire, and began a close collaboration with the Waddesdon Estate, the house and grounds built by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in the 1880s and bequeathed to the National Trust in 1957 by his cousin James A. de Rothschild. He was a major contributor to the restoration of Waddesdon Manor through a private family charitable foundation and, in an unusual way, was authorized by the National Trust to operate Waddesdon Manor as a semi-independent operation. The cellars of Waddesdon Manor contain his personal collection of 15,000 bottles of Rothschild wines dating back to 1870.

Open to the public, the Waddesdon attracted more than 466,000 visitors in 2018, of which 157,000 visited the house in 2015. Waddesdon has won numerous awards over the past 20 years, including Visit England's "Major Visitor Attraction of the Year" award in 2017, Museum of the Year and National Trust's Best Property awards.

In 1993, he joined with John Sainsbury, Baron Sainsbury of Preston Candover to establish the Butrint Foundation to record and preserve the Butrint archaeological excavations in Albania , close to his vacation home in Corfu . Today Jacob remains chairman of the Butrint Foundation.

Philanthropy

Jacob Rothschild also followed the philanthropic interests of the Rothschild family in Israel and was Chairman of the Yad Hanadiv Family Foundation, which gave Israel the Knesset and Supreme Court buildings from 1989 to 2018. He is also president of the Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) in Europe, as well as patron and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Rothschild Foundation. In addition, he is president emeritus of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research .

He has also been a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council, established by the British government, and is an honorary member of the British Society. Academy and a trustee of the Prince of Wales Charitable Trust.

He is a past member of the General Honorary Council of Great Britain (retired 2008); Chairman of the Honorary Committee on the Arts and Media (retired 2008); Trustee of the Edmond J. Safra Foundation (retired 2010); and committee member of the Henry J. Cravis Award for Creative Philanthropy (retired 2010).

Central courtyard at Somerset House, London.

Honors and Awards

In the United Kingdom

Member of the Order of Merit (OM) - 2002.

Commander of the Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) - New Year's Honours 1998. , "for services to Art and Heritage".

Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) - New Year's Honours 2020," for services to the Prince's Council, Duchy of Cornwall "

Prince of Wales Medal for Philanthropy in the Arts 2013

Awarded honorary degrees from the universities of Oxford, London, Exeter, Keel, Newcastle and Warwick

Honorary Fellow of the British Academy (Hon FBA) - 1998

Fellow of the Royal College of Art (FRCA) - 1992

Honorary Fellow King's College London (Hon FKC) - 2002

"Apollo Personality of the Year - 2002

President Emeritus of the Jewish Policy Institute - 2002

Mont Blanc Prize - 2004

Medal for the 300th Anniversary of Saint Petersburg - 2005

Honorary Student of Christ Church, Oxford - March 2006

In the United States

Adrian Prize from the World Monuments Fund - 1995

Classical America - Arthur Ross Award - 1998

Iris Foundation Award - BARD Institute 1999

American Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award 2000

American Academy Centennial Medal in Rome 2002

Kennedy Center International Committee Gold Medal for Achievement in the Arts 2006

Royal Oak Foundation "Timeless Design Award" - 2009

J. Paul Getty Medal - 2014

In Continental Europe

Commander of the Order of Henry the Navigator (1985) - Portugal

Europa Nostra Medal of Honor in Brussels - 2003

Freedom of the City of Saranda - Albania 2003

Honorary Member of the Board of Trustees of the Gennadius Anna Library - ual Award 2010

Order of the National Flag - Albania 2014

In Israel

Sir Winston Churchill Prize (2004)

Weizmann Prize (50th anniversary of the State of Israel)

Honorary degree from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Honorary Fellowships of the City of Jerusalem and the Israel Museum, Jewish Commonwealth Council Award.