The daughter of David Rubenstein, a private equity millionaire, quit her job on the board of Alaska’s $80 billion sovereign wealth funds after being accused of using her position to help her family and friends.
Gabrielle (Ellie) Rubenstein, 36, runs the investment company Manna Tree in Colorado. At a board meeting of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, she said she would be stepping down on August 1.
“I can’t lead my private equity firm and make the changes that are needed to fully institutionalize the fund at the same time,” she said Wednesday.
The Financial Times claimed earlier this year that managers at the APFC thought she was trying to give state money to family and friends. This led to her resignation.
David Rubenstein is a co-founder of the investment company The Carlyle Group and recently bought the Baltimore Orioles baseball team. He is in charge of managing about $800 million of APFC’s holdings, which are worth almost $80 billion.
The fund handles the money that Alaska’s huge oil reserves have brought in. It also pays for most of the state’s roads, schools, and cops.
Being on the APFC’s six-person board gives you a lot of power over how the money is spent.
Chris Ullman, a spokesman for both Rubensteins, told The Post that Ellie Rubenstein was put on the board with the promise that she would set up talks with private equity professionals who would suggest investment opportunities for the fund.
During her time on the job, she sent almost 20 people to fund staff, but she denied setting up meetings for her father.
Alaska Landmine, a local news site, says that Ellie Rubenstein used her job to try to set up meetings between the fund’s top investment officer and the head of Churchill Asset Management, a company that invests in Manna Tree.
Ken Kencel is the president and CEO of Churchill Asset Management. He used to work for Carlyle Group as a managing director.
“I told you I’d do something! Also, is everything okay with APFC? “Elie Rubenstein sent you to Ross, as Steve told him,” she told Kencel in an email on October 3.
“But if you need it, I can put you in touch with our chief executive officer Marcus Frampton.” If that helps, he will be in Miami with me for a week in January.
Ellie Rubenstein told Alaska Landmine that she did not set up meetings between other firms’ employees and her father or anyone else with ties to other companies.
“I’ve introduced people, but I follow the rules.” She said, “I have nothing to do with whether or not to invest.”
Ullman told The Post that the fund did not invest with any of Ellie Rubenstein’s names after she sent them to him.
The Post has asked APFC for a response.
FT says that private emails that were leaked also showed that Ellie Rubenstein tried to get a fund worker fired because her father was “not impressed” by her.
Some people also said she tried to steer APFC funds toward businesses that they thought were riskier and less stable.
From 2022 to 2023, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy put Ellie Rubenstein on the board.
FT was told by a spokesperson for the governor that Rubenstein “brought valuable new ideas and energy to the Alaska Permanent Fund, setting it up for continued success for all Alaskans.”
