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Home » The Board’s Personal Connections to the Fossil Fuel Industry.

The Board’s Personal Connections to the Fossil Fuel Industry.

David M. Rubenstein, Chair of the Board of Trustees, is Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of the Board for The Carlyle Group, a private equity and financial services corporation. According to LittleSis, “Carlyle has billions invested in more than two dozen oil and gas companies whose operations include power plants, fracking projects and oil and gas pipelines.” The Private Equity Stakeholder Project reported in October 2021 that, “Carlyle has significant energy investments within its own portfolio, and additionally has a controlling ownership stake in NGP Energy Capital that dates back more than a decade and which provides Carlyle with additional exposure to fossil fuels. The Carlyle Group owns more than 35 energy companies while NGP has over 45. Combined, more than 80 percent of Carlyle and NGP’s energy companies are in fossil fuel assets.” Rubenstein has $1,042,749,809 worth of holdings in The Carlyle Group.
David Rubenstein
John Liew is co-founder and principal of AQR Capital Management, which as of August 2023 holds over $1.66 billion in shares of fossil fuel companies, including $292.33M of shares in ExxonMobil, $218.89M in Valero, and $94.37M in HF Sinclair.
John Liew
Emmanuel Roman is the CEO of Pimco, an investment management firm. Pimco has a fossil fuel production exposure of $1.09 billion in oil and gas and $64.4 million in coal. Six of its managed funds were given an “F” rating by Fossil Free Funds for having more than 9% of their assets in fossil fuel companies. Pimco is also owned by Allianz, “the third biggest bondholder [in the oil and gas industry]… with US $17bn in bonds held by its asset management branches PIMCO and Allianz GI.”
Emmanuel Roman
Gregory Wendt is a partner at Capital Group, which has over $1 billion investments in coal, oil, and gas companies, and is the fourth highest institutional investor in fossil fuels. Four of seven Capital Group funds scored a D or below for fossil fuels composing over 7% of the portfolio. 

Gregory Wendt

Kenneth M Jacobs is the Chairman and CEO of Lazard, which has a fossil fuel production exposure of $2.37 billion in oil and gas and $49.1 million in coal. The Lazard Emerging Funds Equity Portfolio scored an F for 13% of its portfolio consisting of fossil fuels.
Kenneth M Jacobs
Michael P. Polsky is the Founder and CEO of Invenergy. The company, though it promotes its “clean energy” projects, currently has thirteen natural gas projects in North America.

Michael Polsky Donates $35M To U of C, Will Have Incubator Named For Him -  Hyde Park - Chicago - DNAinfo

Michael Polsky

Kenneth C Griffin is the founder, CEO, and co-Chief Investment Officer of Citadel, which holds at least $253 million in Chevron Corporation, $198 million in Phillips 66, $194 in First Energy Corp., $185 million in Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated, and $182 million in PPL Corporation, among other investments in fossil fuel companies.

Kenneth C. Griffin - Founder & CEO | Citadel

Kenneth C. Griffin

Jason J Tyler is the CFO and Executive Vice President of Northern Trust, an asset manager with $5.9B in fossil fuel production exposure, as well as $372M in coal production exposure. Within the Northern Trust’s “Emerging Markets Low Carbon Optimised Equity” portfolio – despite the “Low Carbon” label – there are estimated to be over 900,000 tons of thermal coal reserves and 5,200,000 BOE of oil and gas reserves owned by companies contained within the fund. 

Jason J. Tyler | Northern Trust

Jason J. Tyler

John W Rogers is the chairman and co-CEO of Ariel Investments, which has invested at least $34 million in oil and gas and $28 million in coal, with $62 million invested in 7 fossil fuels companies.

John W. Rogers Dellivering Alpha Speaker

John W. Rogers

Valerie Jarrett is also on the Board of Directors of Ariel Investments.

Behind the Curtain: Valerie Jarrett for the defense - POLITICO

Valerie Jarrett

Emily Nicklin has represented oil and gas companies BP and Amoco with the law firm Kirkland & Ellis. Kirkland & Ellis received an F on its 2023 Law Students for Climate Accountability scorecard.

Emily Nicklin | Professionals | Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Emily Nicklin

Barry E. Fields personally represented BP in the litigation surrounding the Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting oil spill, also with the law firm Kirkland & Ellis.

Barry E. Fields | University of Chicago Law School

Barry E. Fields

Thomas A. Cole is the Chair Emeritus of the Executive Committee of Sidley Austin LLP. Law Students for Climate Accountability graded the firm an F on climate and lists Sidley Austin as one of the worst 10 firms when it comes to litigation exacerbating the climate crisis. Cole was formerly a partner at Sidley Austin from 1981 through 2016 and senior counsel from 2017 through 2022. He was personally involved with various company mergers in the energy sector, including the following: Duke Energy/Piedmont Natural Gas merger, NiSource spinoff of Columbia Pipeline Group, MidAmerican Energy/NV Energy merger, AGL/Nicor merger (Nicor is based in Naperville), Barrett/Plains merger (petroleum company), IMC Global/Vigoro merger (mining), Williams/Barrett merger (natural gas), IMC/Cargill merger, Maverick Tube/Tenaris merger (pipelines).

Thomas A. Cole | People | Sidley Austin LLP

Thomas A. Cole

Satya Nadella is the CEO of Microsoft. Microsoft’s supply chain is heavily reliant on fossil fuels (supply chain emissions grew between 2020 and 2022) and the company has multiple partnerships with fossil fuel companies, including Chevron and the oilfield services company Schlumberger.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's Son Zain Has Died, Company Says

Satya Nadella

Paul Yovovich is on the Board of Directors for GATX Corporation, a freight railcar lessor that serves petroleum among other industries. Yovovich has $4,773,709 worth of holdings in GATX.

Serbica Americana - Paul Yovovich

Paul Yovovich

Rika Mansueto is married to Joe Mansueto, the executive Chairman of Morningstar. The investment research firm has a fossil fuel production exposure of $151 million in oil and gas and $6.9 million in coal.

Joe and Rika Mansueto - The Joe and Rika Mansueto Library - The University  of Chicago Library

Rika (and Joe) Mansueto

Myrtle S Potter is on the Board of Directors of Liberty Mutual, one of the world’s top fossil fuel insurers.

Myrtle Potter - National Academy of Future Physicians and Medical Scientists

Myrtle S. Potter

Brady W. Dougan was the CEO of Credit Suisse from 2007-2015, a bank embroiled in scandals for helping wealthy Americans evade taxes. During his time in this role, Dougan was encouraged to resign by multiple lawmakers. Credit Suisse contributes heavily to fossil fuels as Europe’s leading bank for the provision of coal mining finance, and has lent over $82B to various fossil fuel projects and companies in the past seven years.

Can Brady Dougan Resuscitate a Dying Breed?

Brady W. Dougan

Brett J. Hart is president of United Airlines, a company that is almost entirely dependent on the fossil fuel industry.

Brett J. Hart – The Economic Club Of Chicago

Brett J. Hart

   

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