TCI Fund Management

Chris Hohn

Sir Chris Hohn runs TCI Fund Management, the activist shop he founded in 2003. He studied accounting and economics at the University of Southampton, graduating with first-class honors, then took an MBA at Harvard Business School, where he finished as a Baker Scholar. Before starting his own firm he worked at the private equity house Apax Partners and at Perry Capital, where he became head of the London office in 1998. TCI was born out of a charity. The year before he launched the fund, Hohn and his then-wife set up the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, and TCI was built around it — a share of the firm's fees flows to the foundation each year, tying the investing to the giving. Hohn manages a concentrated portfolio, taking large positions in a small number of high-quality companies with predictable cash flow, and he holds them for the long term. When he thinks a company is leaving money on the table, he pushes: he has campaigned for cost cuts and cost control, and his "Say on Climate" initiative pressed companies to disclose their emissions plans. His name was made early. In 2005 TCI opposed Deutsche Börse's proposed takeover of the London Stock Exchange, arguing the bid was value-destructive; the campaign forced out the German exchange's chief executive. He was knighted in 2014 for services to philanthropy and international development.