Hargreaves Lansdown co-founder Peter Hargreaves has roped in former employees from the company to help get a £100m charitable foundation up and running.
The Hargreaves Foundation, based in Bristol, will be headed up by former Hargreaves Lansdown head of new business Alexandra Butler, who becomes managing director. Nigel Spence, former chief operating officer, will be a trustee alongside Hargreaves and his two adult children, Robert, 31, and Louisa, 29.
Butler worked for Hargreaves Lansdown from 2000 to 2017, a statement on the foundation’s website said.
The foundation has been seeded with £50m of Hargreaves Lansdown shares, which must be held for two years with dividends to be used for grant spending. Hargreaves will transfer an additional £50m of shares in the next tax year and has pledged to make further “meaningful” grants over time.
Hargreaves defends political donations
In an interview with The Observer announcing the launch of the foundation, Hargreaves (pictured right with Blue Whale fund manager Stephen Yiu) said he only set it up because his daughter and son were “fully behind it”. His son works in marketing for Blue Whale Capital, the boutique equity firm backed by his father.
Hargreaves said of the foundation: “It was right to set it up now, rather than have it go through probate.”
The billionaire defended his history of donating to political causes, including £3.2m to the Leave EU campaign, in which his son, one of the foundation’s trustees, was a social media and research project lead. He also donated £1m to the Conservatives ahead of the 2019 general election.
“I don’t regret my Brexit donation one bit,” he told The Observer. “I strongly believe we will be better out of the EU. It was right that the money enabled the Leave campaign to have as big a shout as the Remain campaign. Remember, what they had was massive – they had Obama and the Bank of England pushing for Remain. It wasn’t balanced at all.”
Hargreaves described his election donation as “more anti-Corbyn than pro-Tory”. “He would have turned this country into Venezuela,” he said with The Observer noting he has previously described Boris Johnson as a “buffoon”.
Young people to be focus of Hargreaves Foundation
The foundation, which already has Charity Commission approval, is due to be operational by H2 2020.
It will focus on supporting young people with disabilities or from disadvantaged backgrounds to “lead a full life through engagement in education, sport and associated activities”.
Hargreaves said in a statement on the foundation’s website: “While I am proud of my professional achievements, my family and I now wish to establish a more formal and sustainable structure to enable us to make a positive and significant contribution outside of the world of work. Having spent the last few years in retirement, I have had time to reflect on and discuss with my family how best to make that contribution and to which causes.
“Our focus, through the Foundation, will be on seeking to improve the lives of young individuals, whether with disabilities or from underprivileged backgrounds, and to assist them in leading the fullest and happiest lives possible. As a family, we have all benefitted from education and our love of participatory sport. We are in the process of recruiting a team of professional people to manage the Foundation and to identify people, programmes and initiatives that we can support to achieve these goals and make a meaningful difference to many young people’s lives.”
