Board of directors

Jacob Rothschild has chaired the Board of Directors of the Company since its inception in its present form in 1988. He also serves as Chairman of the Nominations Committee. Having left NM Rothschild & Sons in 1980, he co-founded companies in money management, insurance and investment, Including Global Asset Management and St James's Place Capital plc. He served as Deputy Chairman of BSkyB Plc for five years, from 2003. He Serves on the International Advisory Board of Blackstone plc and on three family office Advisory Boards as well as chairing his own family's office.

In addition to his career in finance he has been involved in public service including the arts, heritage and philanthropy having chaired The National Gallery, The National Heritage Memorial Fund and The Heritage Lottery Fund.

Appointed as Investment Director of the Company in 2008 having been a non-executive Director since 1998. Since 1994 he has been the principal investment adviser to philanthropic foundations connected with Lord Rothschild's family interests. Prior to this, he spent eight years at Mercury Asset Management Group plc as an investment manager, including a period of secondment to Odyssey Partners L.P. in New York.

A chartered accountant and was appointed a non-executive Director in January 2008. He is Chairman of the Audit and Risk Committee and the Valuation Committee and a member of both the Remuneration and Conflicts Committees. Previously he was a partner at Deloitte LLP where he led the firm's services to the investment trust industry. He served as Chairman of Framlington Innovative Growth Trust plc for four years until 2010 and currently he is a director of Henderson EuroTrust plc, RCM Technology Trust plc and Strategic Equity Capital plc.

Joined the Board of the Company as non-executive Director in July 2010. He has broad experience in banking and finance, having served as Chairman of Sun Life and Provincial Holdings from 1995 to 2000 and of the Framlington Group from 1994 to 2005. He is currently a director of Compagnie Financière Richemont and Sanofi-Aventis. Until 31 March 2011, he was a member of the Board of Abengoa Bio-Energia; on 1 April 2011 he was appointed to the International Advisory Board of Abengoa SA. Until 31 March 2011, he was a director of Pernod Ricard SA. He is Chairman of Richemont Holdings (UK) Limited and is a senior advisor to the Crédit Agricole Group. He is also Chairman of the Council of King's College, London. He was a member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1989. Lord Douro is Chairman of the Conflicts and Remuneration Committees and a member of the Nominations Committee.

Mr Leigh-Pemberton was appointed as a non-executive Director in August 2004. He has worked at Credit Suisse since 1994, holding positions as Head of Equity Syndicate, Head of Equity Capital Markets and from 2001 to 2004, Head of European Investment Banking. He is currently Chief Executive Officer of Credit Suisse, UK. Mr Leigh-Pemberton began his career at S.G. Warburg & Co., where he worked for fifteen years. He is a member of the Company's Audit and Risk, Conflicts, Nominations and Remuneration Committees.

He is the Chairman of NewSmith Capital Partners LLP, which he founded in 2003. He was formerly co-Head of the Global Equities business of Merrill Lynch, which he joined in 1995, and where he subsequently held positions as Chief Operating Officer of Merrill Lynch Europe, Middle East and Africa and was subsequently named Executive Chairman. He was also Executive Vice President of Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. He was appointed as a non-executive Director of RIT Capital Partners plc in 2004 and its Senior Independent Director in 2010. He sits on the Company's Conflicts, Nomination and Remuneration Committees.

Lord Myners was appointed as a non-executive Director in August 2010. He is Chairman of Justice Holdings and Autonomous Research, and a former chairman of Marks & Spencer and Land Securities. He has also served as a member of the Court of the Bank of England and a member of the Investment Committee of Singapore's sovereign wealth fund. His early career was spent in investment management. He was a Treasury minister in the last British government. He is a member of the Company's Audit and Risk and Valuation Committees.

Ms Robertson was appointed to the Board in July 2008 and also serves on the Board's Valuations Committee. She is the Chief Investment Officer of Oxford University Endowment Management. Before her appointment at Oxford in 2007, she spent the previous the 14 years at Wellcome Trust, where she became the co-Head of Portfolio Management.

Appointed as a non-executive Director in December 2010. He is the Managing Director of LCF Edmond de Rothschild Asset Management and is Chairman of the Board of Management of Leveraged Capital Holdings NV, the flagship investment vehicle of the Edmond de Rothschild Group, as well as several related multi-manager funds. He was awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur by President Chirac in 2007.

Bill Winters was appointed as a non-executive Director in October 2011. He is CEO and Chairman of Renshaw Bay, an alternative asset management and advisory company founded in partnership with Mr Johann Rupert's Reinet Investments and RIT Capital Partners plc. He was a member of the UK Independent Commission on Banking, established to make recommendations to the Government on the structure of the UK financial industry. His early career was at JPMorgan from 1983 - 2010, where he held management roles across Markets areas and Corporate Finance and was appointed Co-CEO of the JPMorgan Investment Bank in 2003. He is a member of the Boards of the International Rescue Committee, the Young Vic Theatre and The Print Room. He is also a member of the Market Monitoring Group of the Institute of International Finance, having previously served on the board of the IIF and served as co-Chair of its Committee on Effective Regulation.

Jean Laurent-Bellue joined the Board in March 2012. He is Group Secretary General of Edmond de Rothschild Holdings in Geneva and Board member of the Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild. He joined LCF Edmond de Rothschild Group in 2004 as a member of the Executive Board of La Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild Banque and was Chairman of the Executive Board of Edmond de Rothschild Corporate Finance from 2004 until 2009 when he became General Secretary at Compagnie Financière Saint Honoré for two years. Previously, he was a member of the Executive Board of Clinvest (Investment Banking arm of the Crédit Lyonnais) and worked at Crédit Commercial de France where he led both the Corporate Finance and Equity investments divisions. He is a member of the KPMG Supervisory Board in France.