{{Short description|English financier and environmentalist (born 1980)}} {{Use British English|date=July 2014}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Ben Goldsmith | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Benjamin James Goldsmith | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1980|10|28|df=yes}} | birth_place = London, England | education = Eton College | known_for = | occupation = Financier and environmentalist | website = | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Kate Rothschild|2003|2013|end=divorce}} * {{marriage|Jemima Jones<br>|2014}} }} | children = 8 | parents = {{ubl|Sir James Goldsmith|Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart}} | relatives = See Goldsmith family }}
'''Benjamin James Goldsmith''' (born 28 October 1980) is an English financier and environmentalist.<ref>{{cite web |title=Ben Goldsmith's Official Profile on The Marque |url=https://www.themarque.com/profile/ben-goldsmith}}</ref> The son of financier James Goldsmith and Lady Annabel Goldsmith, he is founder and CEO of London-listed investment firm Menhaden, which focuses on energy and resource efficiency.
Previously he co-founded the sustainability themed investment firm WHEB, whose private equity business split away in 2014 and now trades under the name Alpina Partners. He has used his personal wealth to support both philanthropic and political projects in the area of the environment and sustainability.
== Early life == Goldsmith was born in London and is the youngest child of the late billionaire James Goldsmith, a member of the prominent Jewish Goldsmith family, and his third wife Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart.<ref>Billionaire: The Life and Times of Sir James Goldsmith by Ivan Fallon</ref> He has an older sister, Jemima Goldsmith; an older brother, Zac Goldsmith; and several half-siblings. Influenced by his older brother Zac, he has a passion for the environment inherited from their father, who, towards the end of his life, was one of Europe's most prominent founders of green causes, including campaigns against genetically modified food.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4544600.stm |work=BBC News |first=Brian |last=Wheeler |title=Interview: Zac Goldsmith |date=11 January 2006}}</ref> His uncle Teddy Goldsmith was a co-founder of the Green Party UK and also of ''The Ecologist''.<ref>Nilima Choudhury for Responding to Climate Change. 19 August 2013 [http://www.rtcc.org/2013/08/19/ben-goldsmith-its-possible-to-be-green-and-conservative/ Ben Goldsmith: it's possible to be green and conservative] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150630164129/http://www.rtcc.org/2013/08/19/ben-goldsmith-its-possible-to-be-green-and-conservative/ |date=30 June 2015 }}</ref><ref>Meredith Veldman. Fantasy, the Bomb, and the Greening of Britain. Cambridge University Press, 1994. {{ISBN|978-0521440608}}</ref>{{rp|228–9}}
== Education == Goldsmith attended Eton College, an independent English public school, and like his billionaire father, did not attend university.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Edwardes |first=Charlotte |title=Ben Goldsmith comes clean: lies, rewilding and the death of daughter Iris |newspaper=The Times |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/ben-goldsmith-comes-clean-lies-rewilding-and-the-death-of-daughter-iris-97hcpz7l7 |access-date=11 September 2022 |issn=0140-0460}}</ref>
== Career == Goldsmith began his career at private client stockbroker Hargreave-Hale and Co. Ltd., now part of Canaccord Genuity.
In 2003,<ref>Alex Blackburne for Blue & Green Tomorrow. 27 January 2014 [http://blueandgreentomorrow.com/features/leading-sustainable-investor-wheb-on-its-new-branding/ Leading sustainable investor WHEB on its new branding]</ref> he co-founded WHEB Asset Management, a sustainability-themed investment management firm. As well as providing venture capital to the European clean technology sector,<ref name="StandardGoldsmiths">Christopher Silvester. ''Evening Standard''. 13 May 2011 [https://www.standard.co.uk/news/the-goldsmith-supremacy-londons-most-compelling-dynasty-6401116.html?origin=internalSearch "The Goldsmith supremacy: London's most compelling dynasty"]</ref> WHEB established a listed equities fund management business. In 2014, he oversaw the demerger of WHEB's private and listed equity businesses, with the former rebranding Alpina Partners.
In 2015, Goldsmith launched Menhaden Resource Efficiency Plc, a London-listed thematic investment trust focused on the efficient use of energy and resources.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Farrell |first=Sean |date=10 July 2015 |title=Ben Goldsmith launches Menhaden green investment trust |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/10/ben-goldsmith-launches-menhaden-green-investment-trust |access-date=24 April 2023 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
He was described by London's ''Evening Standard'' in 2011 as "the quiet force of the Goldsmith family... believed to be a key figure in looking after the family finances."<ref name="StandardGoldsmiths" />
Goldsmith is a co-founder of upmarket betting firm Fitzdares.<ref>{{Cite web |last=London |first=Luxury |date=16 August 2018 |title=Balthazar Fabricius, of Fitzdares Bookmakers, on putting the glamour back into gambling |url=https://luxurylondon.co.uk/culture/entertainment/fitzdares-bookmakers-balthazar-fabricius-interview/ |access-date=24 April 2023 |website=Luxury London |language=en-GB}}</ref>
In May 2023, he published his memoir, ''God Is An Octopus: Loss, Love and A Calling to Nature''. The book explored his struggle to comprehend the sudden death of his teenage daughter Iris, and his search for solace, meaning and hope in nature on his Somerset farm.
== Environmental activity == In 2003, Goldsmith co-founded the UK Environmental Funders Network (EFN) with Jon Cracknell to federate those interested in funding environmental initiatives.<ref name="bluegreenFixing">Alex Blackburne for Blue & Green Tomorrow. 27 January 2014 [http://blueandgreentomorrow.com/features/ben-goldsmith-on-fixing-the-environmental-crisis-through-philanthropy/ Ben Goldsmith on fixing the environmental crisis through philanthropy]</ref> Through JMG Foundation, the family foundation that Goldsmith chairs, he is also directly involved in activist environmental philanthropy.<ref name="bluegreenFixing" /><ref name="BGinPUKM">Ben Goldsmith for Philanthropy U.K. Magazine. 23 August 2010. [http://www.philanthropy-impact.org/article/philanthropy-climate-change Philanthropy in a climate of change]</ref> He provided strategic and financial support to Derek Gow.<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 September 2020 |title='It's going to be our way now': the guerrilla rewilder shaking up British farming |url=http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/04/its-going-to-be-our-way-now-the-guerrilla-rewilder-shaking-up-british-farming-aoe |access-date=10 September 2022 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref>
In 2008, Goldsmith set up The Conservation Collective, a growing global network of local environmental foundations rooted in their communities covering regions from Devon and Tuscany, islands such as Mallorca, Ibiza and Formentera and Lamu and countries including Pakistan and Barbados. By 2022, the group had raised £6.6 million to protect and restore nature.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Conservation Collective – About Us |url=https://conservation-collective.org/our-people/ |access-date=10 September 2022 |website=The Conservation Collective |language=en-GB}}</ref>
In 2016, Goldsmith was appointed a trustee of the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, one of the largest environmental foundations in Europe, founded by financier and philanthropist Chris Hohn.<ref>{{Cite web |last=admin |title=BEN GOLDSMITH |url=https://ciff.org/team/ben-goldsmith/ |access-date=11 September 2022 |website=Ciff |language=en-US}}</ref>
In 2017, he participated in Forces for Nature, a major report released by EFN. The report aimed to encourage more philanthropists to support environmental issues and explores how environmental contributors can be more effective.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Philanthropists urged to catalyse environmental action |language=en |work=businessgreen.com |url=https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/feature/3018723/philanthropists-urged-to-catalyse-environmental-action |access-date=14 October 2018}}</ref>
In 2018, he was appointed non-executive director<ref name="gove-goldsmith-sky">{{cite news|last1=Kleinman|first1=Mark|title=Gove risks new Whitehall row over choice of DEFRA directors |url=https://news.sky.com/story/michael-gove-risks-new-whitehall-row-over-choice-of-defra-directors-11272376|accessdate=27 July 2018|work= Sky News|date=1 March 2018}}</ref> at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This proved controversial as he had previously donated cash to Conservative MP Michael Gove's Surrey Heath constituency<ref name="gove-goldsmith-money" /> and the selection process for the job was overseen by Sir Ian Cheshire, who is chairman of Goldsmith's investment firm, Menhaden.<ref name="gove-goldsmith-money">{{cite news|last1=Vaughan|first1=Richard|title=Michael Gove facing questions over appointment of Tory donor Ben Goldsmith to Defra board|url=https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/michael-gove-questions-appointment-tory-ben-goldsmith/|accessdate=27 July 2018|work= I Newspaper|date=23 March 2018}}</ref> Complaints about the appointment included comments that Goldsmith is a member of the "urban elite", and that though interested in the environment he had no experience with environmental issues facing farmers in the United Kingdom.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Fisher |first=Lucy |date=31 May 2018 |title=Ben Goldsmith too urban for rural affairs, say Tory MPs |language=en |work=The Times |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/ben-goldsmith-too-urban-for-rural-affairs-say-tory-mps-7nxd35bf7 |access-date=23 October 2018 |issn=0140-0460}}</ref>
As a non-executive director of DEFRA, Goldsmith played a leading role in the design and passing of the Agriculture Act 2020. The Act replaces unconditional subsidies for farming, under the EU's Common Agriculture Policy, with a new Environmental Land Management Scheme which rewards farmers directly for the stewardship and restoration of soil and nature.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Goldsmith |first=Ben |date=1 December 2020 |title=Leaving the EU's destructive Common Agricultural Policy enables an unprecedented win for nature in post-Brexit Britain |url=https://reaction.life/leaving-the-eu-cap-is-an-unprecedented-win-for-nature-in-post-brexit-britain/ |access-date=24 April 2023 |website=Reaction |language=en-GB}}</ref>
In 2019, Goldsmith was one of the first funders to support Beaver Trust, a new national charity for beavers. Goldsmith helped to advance government policy to recognise beavers as a native species and give them legal protected status in England in 2022."<ref>{{Cite web |title=WHO |url=https://beavertrust.org/meet-our-team/ |access-date=10 September 2022 |website=Beaver Trust |language=en-GB |archive-date=10 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220910073912/https://beavertrust.org/meet-our-team/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> Working with James Wallace of the Beaver Trust, in 2021 Goldsmith helped instigate a progressive nature restoration programme, a farm payment scheme 'Woodlands for Water' to pay landowners to create thousands of hectares of new woodland buffers along rivers through a partnership between Defra, Forestry Commission and four NGOs, National Trust, Woodland Trust, Rivers Trust and Beaver Trust."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Riverbanks and watercourses to be planted with new woodland |url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/riverbanks-and-watercourses-to-be-planted-with-new-woodland |access-date=10 September 2022 |website=GOV.UK |language=en}}</ref>
In 2021, he established the Nattergal real estate company with Sir Charles Burrell and Peter Davies. The aim of Nattergal is to acquire agriculturally marginal land on which to facilitate nature recovery at scale using rewilding, based upon the learning of over 20 years at Knepp Wildland, while demonstrating a sustainable financial return. Nattergal's first site is Boothby Lodge Farm, a 605 hectare low grade arable farm in Lincolnshire."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nattergal |url=https://www.nattergal.co.uk/ |access-date=10 September 2022 |website=Nattergal |language=en-GB}}</ref>
In 2021, Goldsmith persuaded London Mayor Sadiq Khan to establish the Rewilding London taskforce. Upon his appointment as vice chair of the new taskforce, Goldsmith said, "From green rooftops to pocket parks, nest boxes for peregrines and swifts, rewiggling streams and reintroducing long lost native species, our plan is to weave wild nature back through the very fabric of our city."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Horton |first=Helena |date=14 December 2021 |title=Sadiq Khan leads ambitious plans to rewild Hyde Park |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/14/sadiq-khan-rewild-hyde-park-green-species-london |access-date=24 April 2023 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
== Politics == Goldsmith has been a funder of the Green Party, including giving £20,000 in 2004 to the UK Green Party and again prior to the 2010 General Election, in which Caroline Lucas became first Member of Parliament from the Green Party.<ref>[http://blueandgreentomorrow.com/features/ben-goldsmith-on-fixing-the-environmental-crisis-through-philanthropy/], by Alex Blackburne, Blue and Green, 7 August 2013.</ref> In subsequent years, Goldsmith has also contributed to the UK Conservative Party as well as individual candidates including Conservative MP Michael Gove and the so-called "Notting Hill set of Conservative modernisers".
He is chair of the Conservative Environment Network (CEN), which he co-founded in 2010.<ref>Ben Caldecott and Gavin Dick in the Telegraph. 10 Mar 2010 [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/7407578/David-Camerons-environmentalism-will-succeed-where-Labours-failed.html David Cameron's environmentalism will succeed where Labour's failed]. Quote: "That is why the Conservative Environment Network, which launches today, has been formed. We are determined to support the current environmental leadership the Conservative Party is showing and to make the case to other Conservatives who may not recognise our Party’s proud environmental heritage."</ref> The CEN seeks to raise the issue of environmental protection up the agenda of the UK Conservative Party.<ref name="WEF">World Economic Forum. [http://www.weforum.org/young-global-leaders/benjamin-goldsmith Benjamin Goldsmith profile at World Economic Forum] Page accessed 27 June 2015</ref> By 2021, the CEN parliamentary caucus had grown to comprise more than 130 MPs.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Our Parliamentary Caucus |url=https://www.cen.uk.com/our-caucus |access-date=11 September 2022 |website=Conservative Environment Network |language=en-US}}</ref>
At a talk at the UK Centre for Jewish Life in 2013, Goldsmith said that a Zionist is simply someone who believes that the Jews have a right to have their own state in Israel, and therefore described himself as an "ardent Zionist."<ref>Centre for Jewish Life. 3 July 2013. [http://www.centreforjewishlife.org/images/uploads/resources_docs/Ben_Goldsmith.pdf Ben Goldsmith: The Green Revolutionary. Entrepreneurship, Environment & Impressions from Israel Centre for Jewish Life Business Forum] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702075855/http://www.centreforjewishlife.org/images/uploads/resources_docs/Ben_Goldsmith.pdf |date=2 July 2015 }}</ref>
In 2016, he campaigned for his brother Zac Goldsmith, who was running for mayor of London.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Steerpike |title=Ben Goldsmith gets behind his brother's campaign: 'back Zac or crack!' {{!}} The Spectator |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/ben-goldsmith-gets-behind-his-brother-s-campaign-back-zac-or-crack- |access-date=11 September 2022 |website=www.spectator.co.uk |date=20 April 2016 |language=en-GB}}</ref>
Goldsmith was a key signatory to a petition sent to Prime Minister Theresa May and Michael Gove urging them to ban all crop spraying and pesticide use in UK rural residential areas.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://theecologist.org/2018/sep/14/new-uk-agriculture-bill-triumph-or-travesty|title=Is the new UK Agriculture Bill a triumph or a travesty?|work=The Ecologist|access-date=14 October 2018|language=en}}</ref>
In January 2026, ''The Guardian'' reported that Goldsmith had been approached by Reform UK to construct a new nature policy for the party in collaboration with party leader Nigel Farage and policy adviser James Orr. According to figures in the party, this was in an effort to win over Conservative voters who had been put off of supporting Reform by Farage's stance on the environment.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The Guardian|title=Reform UK enlists Boris Johnson ally to write party nature policies|author1=Helena Horton|author2=Kiran Stacey|date=30 January 2026|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/30/reform-uk-enlists-boris-johnson-ally-ben-goldmsmith-write-party-nature-policies}}</ref>
==Personal life== On 20 September 2003, at St Mary's Church in Bury St Edmunds, Goldsmith married heiress Kate Emma Rothschild (b. 1982), the daughter of the late Amschel Rothschild and his wife, Anita Patience Guinness, of the Guinness Brewery family.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Leppard |first=David |title=Golden dynasties to merge down aisle |newspaper=The Times |language=en |url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/golden-dynasties-to-merge-down-aisle-h8w7jt0css7 |access-date=11 September 2022 |issn=0140-0460}}</ref>
The couple were married for nine years and had three children: Iris Annabel (2004–2019), Frank James Amschel (b. 2005) and Isaac Benjamin Victor (b. 2008).{{citation needed|date=September 2022}} On 2 June 2012, it was reported that Rothschild, a music producer, had been having an extramarital affair with rapper Jay Electronica for a year.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ben Goldsmith admits Twitter spat with wife Kate Rothschild was wrong |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9890941/Ben-Goldsmith-admits-Twitter-spat-with-wife-Kate-Rothschild-was-wrong.html |access-date=17 December 2020 |website=The Telegraph}}</ref> In the same month, he was arrested for domestic violence against his wife before being released without charge. Goldsmith later announced that he was filing for divorce, citing his wife's adultery. They divorced in April 2013.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/ben-goldsmith-and-kate-rothschild-divorce-is-settled-in-65-seconds-8587671.html |title=Ben Goldsmith and Kate Rothschild divorce is settled in 65 seconds |work=London Evening Standard |date=25 April 2013}}</ref>
Goldsmith married Jemima Jones in 2014. She runs the catering company Tart London and the restaurant Wild by Tart.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Ellie |date=1 April 2021 |title=Interview with Wild By Tart's Jemima Jones and Lucy Carr-Ellison |url=https://www.countryandtownhouse.com/food-and-drink/jemima-jones-lucy-carr-ellison/ |access-date=11 September 2022 |website=Country and Town House |language=en-GB}}</ref> The couple has five children: Eliza Margot (b. 2016), Arlo Edward Zac (b. 2017), Vita Iris (b. 2020), Vincent Oliver Robin (b. 2022), and Paloma Quentin (b. 2024).
Since 2009, Goldsmith and his family have owned a former dairy farm, Cannwood, in North Brewham, Somerset, which is managed to support nature-friendly farming and rewilding. On 8 July 2019, Goldsmith's 15-year-old daughter, Iris, died in a quad bike accident at the farm.<ref>{{cite news |date=12 July 2019 |title=Iris Goldsmith: Father pays tribute to 'beautiful little girl' |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-48961808 |work=BBC News |location=Somerset |access-date=30 June 2023}}</ref> Part of the land at Cannwood is now a memorial stone circle for Iris.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Higgins |first1=Ria |title='This piece of land is filled with life': Ben Goldsmith on the special place he created for his late daughter |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/how-to-grow/ben-goldsmith-iris-daughter-stone-circle-nature/ |website=Telegraph |date=4 November 2023 |access-date=6 November 2023}}</ref>
On December 29, 2000, Goldsmith and his family were passengers on British Airways Flight 2069, which was the subject of a failed hijack attempt.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15HvsnVL3zs</ref>
==Ancestry== {{ahnentafel |collapsed=yes |align=center |boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc; |boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9; |boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc; |boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc; |boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe; |1= 1. '''Benjamin Goldsmith''' |2= 2. Sir James Goldsmith |3= 3. Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart |4= 4. Major Frank Goldsmith |5= 5. Marcelle Mouiller |6= 6. Robin Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 8th Marquess of Londonderry |7= 7. Romaine Combe |8= 8. Adolphe Goldschmidt |9= 9. Alice Emma Moses Merton |10= 10. Pierre Mouiller |11= 11. |12= 12. Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry |13= 13. Edith Vane-Tempest-Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry |14= 14. Major Boyce Combe |15= 15. Mabel Tombs |16= 16. Benedict Hayum Salomon Goldschmidt |17= 17. Jeannette Kann |18= 18. Joseph Moses |19= 19. Caroline Königswarter |20= 20. |21= 21. |22= 22. |23= 23. |24= 24. Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of Londonderry |25= 25. Lady Theresa Helen Talbot |26= 26. Henry Chaplin, 1st Viscount Chaplin |27= 27. Lady Florence Sutherland-Leveson-Gower |28= 28. Richard Henry Combe |29= 29. Esther Hollway |30= 30. Sir Henry Tombs |31= 31. Georgina Janet Stirling }}
==References== {{reflist|2}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goldsmith, Ben}} Category:1980 births Category:Living people Category:English environmentalists Category:English businesspeople in finance Category:English people of French descent Category:English people of German-Jewish descent Category:People educated at Eton College Category:English Christians Ben Category:21st-century English philanthropists Category:English company founders Category:People named in the Pandora Papers