Well-off chiefs turn to charity

Some chief executives, chastened by rising anger over executive pay and bonuses, are setting up charities, giving away money or waiving their salaries. Senior managers at Porsche and Volkswagen, who made millions on the back of controversial share price gains, have led the way with charitable donations. Wendelin Wiedeking, chief executive of Porsche, earned almost €80m (£72m) last year at the German sports carmaker, drawing scorn from some in Germany. He has set up two charities with €5m each to help needy families in the small German towns where he grew up and now lives. This is just small change, however, compared with Christopher Cooper-Hohn, a hedge fund manager who has given £463m to children’s charities in one year.

His foundation is run by his American wife Jamie and is funded by profits and capital from his hedge fund, the Children’s Investment Fund. The Cooper-Hohns initially planned to give a minimum of £5m a year to the foundation, but donations soared with the success of the hedge fund.

Cooper-Hohn is the son of an immigrant and studied at Southampton University and Harvard Business School. He met his wife while studying in America and they now live in north London.

It recently emerged that Lord Sainsbury has become the first Briton to give away more than £1 billion. He is inspired by Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish-born American industrialist, who became one of the world’s richest men. He argued that the rich had a moral duty to give away their fortunes.

By the time of his death in 1919, Carnegie had given away $350m. In today’s money, he donated the equivalent of $40 billion. This exceeds even the $29 billion that Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder, has put into his charitable foundation.

Like Carnegie, Sainsbury’s name will live on through the legacy of his charitable works. His funds have been used particularly to help scientific research in some of the world’s leading universities.