Google billionaire family office hires ex GIC head of sustainability for green deals

The family office of Google co-founder Sergey Brin has hired the former head of sustainability for Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund to help find and manage green investments, according to people familiar with the matter.

Rachel Teo has joined Bayshore Global Management at its Singapore office, established in 2020. Teo worked for 18 years at GIC until last year, when she left the Singapore fund.

Teo did not reply to a request for comment sent via LinkedIn. Bayshore chief investment officer Marie Young, who helped found the Singapore office, did not reply to an e-mail seeking comment.

Teo joined GIC in 2005, after working for the Monetary Authority of Singapore, according to a bio on the fund’s website. She took on the sustainability role in 2022, and previously led a futures unit that researches long-term trends for the fund’s portfolios.

Family offices are emerging as key backers for deals and funds that include environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns, thanks to their deep pools of capital and ability to withstand political pressure. At the same time, these offices, set up to manage the lives and finances of the super rich, are ramping up their scrutiny of ESG deals to reduce greenwashing.

Singapore is accelerating efforts to become a global hub for green investments and philanthropy, with increased tax incentives for donations to eligible charities, along with new carbon trading markets.

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Brin is the world’s 10th-richest person with a net worth of US$118 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He co-founded Google – now a unit of Alphabet – with Larry Page in 1998. BLOOMBERG