Type Private Founded 1999 | Website NaissanceCapital.com | |
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Industry Private Equity, Hedge fund Headquarters Zurich, Switzerland,
Switzerland Founders R. James Breiding, Dr. Francois Mayer | ||
Naissance Capital is a Swiss Investment Boutique that finds or creates niche investment opportunities. Naissance Capital was founded in 1999 with the assistance Sir John Templeton and several families of considerable means.
Contents
Overview
Naissance was founded in Switzerland in 1999 by R. James Breiding and the late Dr. Francois Mayer with the assistance of Sir John Templeton and a few families of considerable means.
James Breiding has considerable experience in investment management, most recently as managing director of Templeton in Switzerland. He served in prior positions as a director of Rothschild Corporate Finance and as vice president of Bank Julius Baer responsible for alternative investments. He qualified as a chartered accountant and served as a Senior Manager with Price Waterhouse Coopers. He graduated with a master's degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and International Institute for Management Development, Lausanne. He was awarded a fellowship from Harvard’s Center for International Development, He is responsible for the day-to-day management of Naissance and for identification and execution of its investment projects.
Dr. Francois Mayer was formerly chief executive of J. Rothschild Holdings (controlled by Lord Jacob Rothschild) and senior executive of other companies owned by the Rothschild family. He graduated from the University of St Gallen (HSG) where he received his doctorate degree.
Naissance provides service to small number ultra-high-net-worth clients. Clients are viewed as sparring partners that provoke the organization to higher expectations.
Funds
Naissance has organised investment vehicles around carefully researched ‘themes’ offering two characteristics (1) opportunities for superior capital appreciation and (2) not readily available through traditional banking and investment channels. The themes of the funds thus far have included: generic pharmaceuticals (2002); emerging India (2004); natural resources (2006) ; a vehicle to invest in local shares of Gazprom selling at a considerable discount (2006); Naissance is also targeting investment themes to support positive public policy and /or to bring attention to deficiencies in the public’s understanding of sound investment criteria. Naissance collaborated with the IFC to demonstrate that companies that recruited employees based on merit and irrespective of gender, substantially outperformed companies following more prejudiced policies. Naissance also supported a task force from the Harvard Kennedy School that showed that companies run by those who have distinguished themselves in the military services outperformed their peers.
Other works
R. James Breiding is a founding board member for Shiksha Sankalp, together with Mikul Bhatia and Professor Deborah Hughes Hallet. Shiksha Sankalp is a program designed to provide access to equal opportunity education to underprivileged children in India. The model is based on ‘conditional cash incentives’ to encourage parents to promote their children’s education. It was conceived by Mikul Bhatia, a classmate of Breiding’s at the Harvard Kennedy School with the help of Professor Deborah Hughes Hallet. Naissance Capital has committed to a certain level of donations and will assist with further capital raising. James Breding has published articles for The Economist, The Neue Zuercher Zeitung and the ETH. He is co-author with Dr. Gerhard Schwarz, The CEO of Avenir Suisse, Switzerland leading ‘think-tank’ of a book entitled "Wirtschaftswunder Schweiz" (The Swiss Economic Miracle).
Recent history
Naissance hosted a gathering of influential women during Clinton Global Initiative to discuss the importance of meritocracy as a means of securing and keeping the most talented employees.