Chris Hohn Bio, Age, Family, Wife, Net Worth, TCI, Investments

Chris Hohn Biography

Chris Hohn is a billionaire hedge fund manager and philanthropist from the United Kingdom. Hohn founded The Children’s Investment Fund Management (TCI), a well-known value-based hedge fund, in 2003. 

How old is Chris Hohn? – Age

He is 55 years old as of October 2021. He was born in 1966 in Addlestone, United Kingdom. His real name is Sir Christopher Anthony Hohn KCMG.

Chris Hohn Family

His father, Paul, was a Jamaican-born car mechanic of European descent who moved to the United Kingdom in 1960, and his mother was an East Sussex legal secretary. Between 1979 and 1983, he attended St Paul’s County Secondary School in Addlestone, where he obtained 13 O Levels. He then went on to the University of Southampton, where he graduated in 1988 with first-class honours in accounting and business economics. A tutor at Southampton advised him to apply to Harvard Business School, where he earned a Master of Business Administration degree. He graduated in 1993 as a Baker Scholar, which means he was among the top 5% of all graduates.

Chris Hohn Wife

He married Jamie Cooper, a fellow Harvard graduate student from Chicago whom he met during his studies at a party. When they married, they took each other’s surnames to form Cooper-Hohn, though he is still commonly known as Hohn. The couple had four children, including triplets.

It was reported in 2013 that Hohn had begun divorce proceedings with his wife. He was set to pay his American-born ex-wife $500 million in November 2014, in what is thought to be the largest divorce settlement ever awarded by an English court. He was ordered to pay his ex-wife £337 million in December 2014.

How much is Chris Hohn Net Worth?

According to the Forbes billionaires list, Hohn is worth $5 billion in 2020, up $1.9 billion from 2019. Forbes named Hohn one of the world’s most generous philanthropists outside of the United States in 2019. Hohn has become an outspoken advocate for immediate action on the climate crisis in recent years, as well as a prolific contributor to the cause.

Chris Hohn Photo
Chris Hohn Photo

How did Chris Hohn make his money? – What does Chris Hohn invest?

Following graduation, Hohn worked for the private equity firm Apax Partners. In 1996, he began working for Perry Capital, a Wall Street hedge fund. In 1998, he was appointed to lead Perry’s London operations. He earned an estimated £75 million while working for Perry.

Hohn founded his own hedge fund, The Children’s Investment Fund, in 2003. TCI made regular contributions to The Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, which was run by his wife. The original formula called for transfers of 0.5 percent of the fund’s assets each year, with an additional 0.5 percent of assets transferred for each year in which the fund earned returns of more than 11%.

According to reports, Hohn established the formulaic charitable link to motivate himself. Changes initiated in 2012 coincided with the couple’s divorce proceedings, resulting in the separation of the fund and the foundation. The fund no longer makes contractual donations to the foundation, but it may do so at its discretion.

Hohn received £200 million in dividend payments in 2018, slightly more than his Children’s Investment (TCI) fund profited. This was down from $274 million in 2017 and $364 million in 2016. His earnings of $250 million in 2015 placed him 12th among the top 25 hedge fund managers. In 2019, it was reported that he had amassed a €730 million stake in Heathrow Airport through a group of investment firms that had taken a 4% stake in the Spanish multinational Ferrovial. He paid himself $479 million from March 2019 to March 2020, the highest annual amount paid to a person in the UK.

Hohn launched the “Say on Climate” initiative in collaboration with The Children’s Investment (TCI) fund. The campaign’s goal is to require companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and plans to reduce them, as well as to give shareholders an advisory vote on the plans and their outcomes. The initiative was launched by Aena, Unilever, Glencore, and CN, but it has received widespread criticism.