Rishi Sunak, former partner at global long/short equity hedge fund Theleme Partners and Sir Chris Hohn’s The Children’s Investment Fund Management, has been named Chancellor of the Exchequer after Sajid Javid resigned on Thursday.
Rishi Sunak, former partner at global long/short equity hedge fund Theleme Partners and Sir Chris Hohn’s The Children’s Investment Fund Management, has been named Chancellor of the Exchequer after Sajid Javid resigned on Thursday.
Sunak, the Conservative MP for Richmond in Yorkshire and Chief Secretary to the Treasury until today, began his career as an analyst at Goldman Sachs before joining The Children’s Investment Fund Management (TCI), the activist-focused hedge fund firm founded by Sir Chris Hohn alongside Patrick Degorce in 2003.
Sunak became a partner at the USD27 billion firm in 2006, before joining Degorce as a partner at London-based Theleme in 2009. Theleme, which launched with some USD700 million, has generated a strong 10-year track record betting on global equities markets, growing its assets to more than USD2 billion over the past decade.
Sunak campaigned for the UK to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum, and was a director of investment firm Catamaran Ventures, set up by his father-in-law, the Indian billionaire NR Narayana Murthy, before entering politics full-time.
Sajid Javid resigned on Thursday after reportedly refusing to sack his own special advisers and replace them with a team of Downing Street-approved aides, amid a cabinet reshuffle by prime minister Boris Johnson. Javid, who began in his role in July after Boris Johnson took office, is the only UK chancellor never to deliver a budget, which had been scheduled for next month.
