Ruffer started as a stockbroker, before becoming a barrister.[6] He is now a Bencher of the Middle Temple. He worked in corporate finance for Schroders, an accepting house bank.[5][7] He worked for Dunbar, a private bank,[8] from 1980 to 1985.[1] He was also on the board of directors of one of its subsidiaries, Dunbar Fund Management, from 1981 to 1985.[8] He was then on the board of CFS (renamed Rathbone plc) from 1985 to 1994.[1] He was on the board of Odey Asset Management, founded by Crispin Odey, from 1992 to 2005; Fuel Tech from 1994 to 1998; and Electric & General Investment Trust from 2001 to 2011.[1]
In 1994, he co-founded Ruffer Investment Management Limited, an investment management firm with Robert Shirley, 14th Earl Ferrers (then Viscount Tamworth) and Jane Tufnell.[2][9] The firm was renamed Ruffer LLP in 2004 and is now based at 80 Victoria Street in London.[2][10] Ruffer was its chief executive officer from 1994 to 2012[1] and has been its chairman since 2011.[1] The firm managed £15.4 billion on behalf of its clients in 2012–2013.[8] In 2014, it had 199 employees,[2] and additional offices in Edinburgh and Hong Kong.[11]
Ruffer credits William Rathbone VI as a source of inspiration for his philanthropy.[13] He believes nobody needs more than £20 million.[13] However, he is critical of William Temple's Christian socialism.[13]
He expressed an interest in reviving County Durham through philanthropy in 2012.[3] That same year, he donated £1 million to the Durham Foundation.[15] A year later, in 2013, he donated £15 million to preserve Auckland Castle, the historical palace of the Bishop of Durham, through the Auckland Castle Trust,[13][16] of which he is the chair.[17][18] This included the preservation of 12 paintings by Francisco de Zurbarán, present in the palace since 1756.[13][18][19] In 2013, he donated £18 million to restore the Bishop's Palace and create a museum on the history of Christianity and faith in Britain, which had been expected to open in 2018.[13][16]
The restoration project was completed in 2019 and the Castle was scheduled to re-open to visitors in November;[20][21] three new restaurants for visitors were added, with one in operation by early November 2019.[22][23] Nonetheless, the Scotland Wing still houses the offices of the Bishop of Durham.[24] In 2019, he worked with Sotheby's James Macdonald (an expert on the Spanish school) to assemble a collection displayed at the Spanish Gallery.[25]
In 2014, Ruffer donated the endowment to create Kynren, a night show telling the history of England, in nearby Bishop Auckland to aid in wider regeneration.[26]
He has endowed the Jonathan Ruffer curatorial grants at The Art Fund, which give £75,000 to curators every year.[27]
Art collection
Ruffer collects Spanish old masters, which can be viewed in the Spanish Gallery in Bishop Auckland which opened in 2021. The Gallery contains works by El Greco, Murillo, and Juan Bautista Maíno, among others.[13] He also owns paintings by Thomas Gainsborough.[28]
Ruffer is married to Jane Sequeira, a doctor, and palliative care specialist.[5][29] They have a daughter.[5] While he is a great-grandson of Maurice Ruffer (1857-1935), a French-born British banker, she is a descendant of Isaac Henrique Sequeira (1738-1816), a Portuguese Jewish doctor, who was painted by Thomas Gainsborough, one of his patients, and that oil painting now hangs in Madrid's Museo del Prado.[30][31]
As of 2014, he had an estimated wealth of £380 million.[13] As of 2020, Ruffer was worth £159 million according to the Sunday Times Rich List.[32]
Ruffer gave an estimated £160 million to the development of Bishop Auckland Town in 2020. In total he has given one third of his wealth to the development of the Town.
Ruffer purchased Auckland Castle to save the collection of paintings by Zuburan, that were going to be sold.
Ruffer has since opened: the Mining Art Gallery (to showcase local miners' work), the Northern Museum of Archaeological Importance, the Spanish Gallery, the Auckland Tower, the Auckland Project, the Auckland Castle, Kynren, the Deer Park, Eleven Arches, and most recently Weardale Railway which will provide a direct link from Killhope Lead Mining Museum to Bishop Auckland.[citation needed]
.jpg)
