Jacob is chairman of the J Rothschild group of companies and is chairman of RIT Capital Partners plc, the investment trust company. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has net assets in excess of £1.5bn. In 2004 the company was given two awards – from the Association of Investment Trusts and Bloomberg as the best performing international investment trust of the year. In addition, Jacob is chairman of Five Arrows Limited, a family investment company and a number of other companies.

Lord Rothschild has been involved extensively in public service for many years. He has been a prominent philanthropist, notably in the arts, and is an active supporter and benefactor of a number of key British institutions. He was chairman of the board of trustees of The National Gallery from 1985 to 1991 and of the British National Heritage Lottery Fund, where he oversaw the distribution of £1.2 billion worth of grants, between 1994 and 1998. He was instrumental in the restoration of Somerset House and Spencer House and was heavily involved in securing financing for the Courtauld Institute, where he served on the Board. He has been a major benefactor of the restoration of Waddesdon Manor, the great Rothschild house built and created by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in the 1880s, and remains actively involved in the management of this National Trust property.

As well as being Chairman of the Rothschild Foundation in the UK, he is also active in Jewish philanthropy as Chairman of Yad Hanadiv, the Rothschild family foundation operating in Israel which funded the creation of the Knesset and is currently involved in the renewal of the National Library of Israel. He is also President of Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe

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