Thomas Kaplan
Thomas S. Kaplan | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1962 |
| Nationality | United States |
| Alma mater | B.A., M.A., P.H.D. Oxford University |
| Occupation | Investor |
| Spouse | Dafna Recanati |
| Children | three |
| Parent(s) | Jason Kaplan Lillian Jean Kaplan |
Thomas S. Kaplan is an American entrepreneur, natural resources investor, philanthropist and art collector. He is the Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of The Electrum Group LLC, a New York City-based investment, advisory and asset management firm with a principal focus on the natural resources sector.
Early life and education
Kaplan was born in 1962 to Lillian Jean and Jason "Jay" Kaplan. He holds Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral degrees in history from Oxford University. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the Malayan counterinsurgency and the way commodities influence strategic planning. While earning his Phd, he earned extra money on the side by analyzing Israeli companies that were publicly traded in the US. The job involved traveling to Israel, where he met his future wife, Dafna Recanati, the daughter of Israel investor Leon Recanati. Kaplan had attended the same boarding school as Dafna, who as an Israeli citizen, returned to Israel to complete her mandatory military service. Dafna's mother introduced him to Israeli-investor, Avi Tiomkin who hired him on as a junior partner in 1991. He left in 1993 after Tiomkin decided to concentrate his investments solely in Israel.[3]
Career
Inspired by Marc Faber, who held that precious metals were insurance against the "monetary foolishness" of central governments, Kaplan focused on natural resources investing.[3] In 1993, he founded Apex Silver Mines to capitalize on the improving supply/demand fundamentals of metals.[4] While he was Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Apex, Kaplan's team discovered and financed the San Cristobal deposit in Bolivia, now one of the largest producers of silver and zinc in the world.[5][6] Kaplan retired from Apex Silver at the end of 2004 to focus on his new exploration projects.[7]
In 2003, a company related to Kaplan became the largest investor in African Platinum Plc (then known as Southern African Resources Plc), enabling it to explore and develop one of the largest platinum group metals projects in South Africa. In 2007, Kaplan sold his position in African Platinum as part of a transaction in which the company was acquired by Impala Platinum Limited, at a valuation of $580 million.[8]
Also in 2003, Kaplan co-founded Leor Exploration & Production LLC, which became the fastest-growing privately held hydrocarbon exploration and production company in the United States. In 2007, Leor’s natural gas assets were sold to EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. for $2.55 billion.[9]
Kaplan invested in gold in 2000. Since the sales of African Platinum and Leor in 2007, Kaplan focussed on the Electrum Group. Its exploration arm, Electrum Ltd., which he co-founded with Dr. Larry Buchanan, owns a diversified international portfolio of gold exploration assets. Its other entities hold interests in several publicly traded companies, including NovaGold Resources Inc.[10] and Gabriel Resources Ltd.,[11] two companies that own several of the largest proven gold resources in the world.[12]
His view on gold has not changed.[13] On February 25, 2009, he commented in Marc Faber’s Gloom, Boom & Doom Report: “Some will say that $800 gold seems expensive. I would suggest the contrary: that a few years from now, sub-$1000 gold will feel like a true gift... The forced liquidation of leveraged positions of all kinds in late 2008 and early 2009 has presented an extraordinary opportunity to build long gold positions at low prices… [I]t should not be a surprise to see gold set new highs against all currencies, including a strong dollar, and an acceleration of the most enduring bull market in the world.”[14]
In a January 2011 op-ed in the Financial Times’ Market Insights column, Kaplan discussed the Prudent Man construct as a tool to evaluate the benefits and risks of investing in gold. In that piece, he explained that a variety of factors – including the supply of and demand for gold, the devastation of financial industry and government balance sheets and the fact that gold is not tied to another person’s ability to pay – are causing asset managers and general banks to begin readmitting “gold back into the select group of prudent asset classes.” According to Kaplan, these developments suggest “interesting times ahead” for those who own the precious metal. Therefore, “the Prudent Man rule may well be golden indeed.”[15]
As a investor in gold, Kaplan is credited with correctly predicting that gold prices would increase. His investment strategy and commitment to gold led Bloomberg Businessweek to refer to him as "Gold’s Evangelist."[3] In a May 2010 profile piece in the Wall Street Journal, Kaplan said, “I’ve reached a point where I feel the only asset I have confidence in is gold,” adding, “You’ve got a perfect storm with no apparent solution. If the world does well, gold will be fine. If the world doesn’t do well, gold will also do fine … but a lot of other things could collapse.”[16]
Kaplan’s being in the gold market was recognized in a December 2010 Wall Street Journal article, which described Kaplan along with other investors including John Paulson, David Einhorn and John Burbank. The article stated that Kaplan is “making a bigger wager on gold than almost any investor,” noting that he believes junior miners provide the “greatest leverage to a bull market” and that the world is “entering an era defined by the scarcity value of great precious-metals assets.”[17]
Philanthropy
Kaplan and his family support a number of philanthropic and conservation causes in the United States and the developing world. Kaplan serves as the Executive Chairman of Panthera Corporation, a charity which he and his wife co-founded in 2006. Panthera is devoted to preserving the big cats and their ecosystems around the globe and has been recognized as a force in felid conservation.[18][19] Among its many endeavors, Panthera created and maintains the largest protected jaguar corridor in the Americas.[20][21] In particular, the work of Panthera’s CEO, Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, and Kaplan to balance the preservation of the jaguar corridor in Brazil with sustainable ranching was the focus of a January 2011 profile by CBS's 60 Minutes.[22] In that piece, Kaplan outlined his thesis for utilizing sustainable ranching and community development to protect the apex predator and its environment: "There is no better way to stop poaching than to make the local community say: 'Hey, wait a minute, our children have medicine and education because of the jaguar.' When you show that, you have won their hearts and their minds. Then you have won the war."[23] For his work as an environmentalist, Kaplan was the recipient of the "Hero of the Year Award" by the IWFF in 2012.[24]
Further to their commitment to ensuring the long-term survival of the big cats, in 2009 Kaplan and his wife, Dafna Recanati Kaplan, endowed the Recanati-Kaplan Center at Oxford University's Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, the WildCRU, and the university's Postgraduate Diploma in International Wildlife Conservation Practice, which has revolutionized access to Oxford for talented young conservationists from developing countries. This collaboration with Dr. David MacDonald resulted in the university-based felid conservation program. In November 2011, Oxford's WildCRU was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher Education in recognition of WildCRU's outstanding work in wildlife and environmental conservation.[25]
The Kaplans also founded Project Orianne Ltd., a historic effort focused on the conservation of the eastern indigo snake and its habitat, the last remaining long-leaf pine forests of the Southeastern United States.[26]
Kaplan is also active in community philanthropy. After having served as its President from 2009-2012, he is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the 92nd Street Y, Jewish community and cultural center. His wife and Robert Gilson conceived of the Recanati-Kaplan Program for Excellence in the Arts, which funds scholarships based on artistic merit for children and teens to study with the 92Y's renowned School of the Arts.[27]
In medicine, the Kaplans have funded the Lillian Jean Kaplan Renal Transplantation Center at the University of Miami as well as a variety of prizes and grants for medical science research.[28] In 2012, the Kaplans created the Daisy and Paul Soros/Recanati-Kaplan Family Assistant Professor in Preventive Cardiology, a position held by Dr. Bassem Masri.[29]
Kaplan donated $4.8 million to the Eternal Jewish Family[30] and $36 million to the Lillian Jean Kaplan Foundation, named after Kaplan’s mother.[31]
Personal life
He is married to Dafna Recanati Kaplan, daughter of Israeli artist Mira Recanati and businessman Leon Recanati. They have three children.[3][32] His nephew is businessman Guma Aguiar.[33][34]
References
- ^ Forbes: The World's Billionaires - Thomas Kaplan March 2013
- ^ Forbes Israel: Jewish Billionaires - Profile of Thomas Kaplan April 14, 2013 (in Hebrew)
- ^ a b c d NBC News: "Meet gold’s evangelist - Thomas Kaplan doing everything he can to get his hands on the stuff" by Jason Kelley August 29, 2010
- ^ "Is silver the glitter of yesterday? Or is it the new ingredient of the reasonably prudent portfolio?". The New York Times. 19 February 1998.
- ^ "Silver Strike!". Forbes. 8 July 2000.
- ^ "Sumitomo to lift San Cristobal production". Mining Journal. 3 June 2009.
- ^ "Big picture man". Mining Journal. 8 October 2004.
- ^ "Southern African Resources Raises £400,000 Through Private Placing". St Brides Media & Finance
Ltd. 12 September 2003.
{{cite web}}: line feed character in|publisher=at position 26 (help) - ^ "EnCana buys Leor Energy's interests in Deep Bossier gas fields for 2.55 bln usd". Thomson Financial. 5 November 2007.
- ^ "NovaGold Announces US$60 Million Financing with Electrum Strategic Resources". NovaGold. 2 January 2009.
- ^ "Gabriel gets help from Wall Street investor". The Globe and Mail. 28 August 2011.
- ^ "NovaGold Resources (NG): Lundin's Look at Gold". BloggingStocks.com. 8 April 2010.
- ^ Thomas Kaplan (24 May 2010). "Gold Will Keep Going Up". Forbes.
- ^ Kaplan, Thomas (25 February 2009). "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ... I Have a Hot Tip for You". The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report.
- ^ Thomas Kaplan (18 January 2011). "Brace for a 'perfect storm' in gold". Financial Times.
- ^ "A Billionaire Goes All-In on Gold". The Wall Street Journal. 22 May 2010.
- ^ "Gold: How Einhorn, Paulson and Other 'Smart Money' Play it". The Wall Street Journal. 17 December 2010.
- ^ "Q&A with the Chairman". Panthera.
- ^ "From Making a Killing to Saving a Species". Science. 313 (5791): 1226–1227. 1 September 2006.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ "Can They Stay Out of Harm's Way?". The New York Times. 1 January 2008.
- ^ "Tom Kaplan: 'I have big plans for big cats'". The Daily Telegraph. 11 August 2009.
- ^ "Extra: The Manhattan Project for big cats". 60 Minutes. 30 January 2011. Retrieved 8 September 2013.
- ^ "In Search of the Jaguar". 60 Minutes. 30 January 2011.
- ^ "Tom Kaplan Receives 2012 IWFF "Hero of the Year Award"". Panthera. 11 May 2012.
- ^ "Queen's Anniversary Prize for WildCRU". Oxford University. 25 November 2011.
- ^ "Conservation Initiative: Indigo News". The Florida Wildlifer. 15 (2): 6. October 2008.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: year (link) - ^ "Recanati-Kaplan Program for Excellence in the Arts". 92nd Street Y.
- ^ "UM School of Medicine dedicates Lillian Jean Kaplan Renal Transplantation Center". University of Miami. 10 December 2002.
- ^ "Bassem Masri, M.D." Weill Cornell Medical College.
- ^ The Tablet: "Among Friends" By Allison Hoffman January 19, 2010
- ^ Forbes: "The Tragedy Of Guma Aguiar And A $2 Billion Texas Gas Fortune" by Nathan Vardi June 28, 2012
- ^ "When money and money meet". Globes (in Hebrew). 16 November 1999.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - ^ The Tablet: "Prodigal Son - A look at Guma Aguiar, who with his uncle bankrolled a New York rabbi trying to control the standards for conversion to Judaism" By Allison Hoffman January 15, 2010
- ^ ABC News: "Missing Millionaire Guma Aguiar's Even Richer Uncle Suspicious of Disappearance" By CHRISTINA NG July 3, 2012