The daughter of private equity billionaire David Rubenstein has resigned from the board of Alaska’s $80 billion sovereign wealth fund after being accused of using her position to benefit friends and family.
Gabriel (Ellie) Rubenstein (36), who runs the Colorado-based investment firm Manna Tree, announced at a meeting with the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation’s board of directors that she will step down effective August 1.
“The scope and pace of change required to fully institutionalize the fund is incompatible with the demands of leading a private equity firm,” she said Wednesday.
Her retirement The Financial Times reported earlier this year. APFC administrators suspected her of trying to divert state assets to friends and family.
David Rubenstein, co-founder of the investment firm Carlyle Group, which recently bought the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, manages about $800 million of APFC’s roughly $80 billion in assets under management.
The fund manages assets accumulated from Alaska’s vast oil reserves and also provides most of the funding for the state’s police, schools and roads.
A seat on APFC’s six-member board comes with significant influence over how funds are spent.
Chris Ullman, a spokesman for the Rubensteins, told The Post that Ellie Rubenstein was appointed to the board with the understanding that she would set up meetings with people in the private equity industry who would recommend how to invest the fund.
She made nearly 20 introductions to fund officials during her tenure but denied setting up any meetings involving her father.
according to Local news site Alaska LandminesEllie Rubenstein tried to use her position to set up a meeting between the fund’s chief investment officer and the head of Churchill Asset Management (also an investor in Manna Tree)..
Ken Kensel, president and CEO of Churchill Asset Management, previously served as a managing director at The Carlyle Group.
“You promised something would happen! BTW, is APFC OK? Steve said he sent you to LA,” Ellie Rubenstein wrote to Kensel in an Oct. 3 email.
“But you can contact Marcus, our CIO. [Frampton] What if I need it? He’s coming to Miami with me for a week in January, would that help?
Ellie Rubenstein denied to Alaska Landmine that she set up meetings between APFC staff and her father or anyone with ties to the other companies.
“I made introductions but I followed the rules. I was not involved in any investment decisions,” she said.
Ullman told the Post that Ellie Rubenstein had not introduced the fund to use her connections to make investments.
The Post has reached out to APFC for comment.
According to the Financial Times, leaked internal emails also showed that Ellie Rubenstein was trying to fire an employee at the fund because her father was “not impressed” with her.
She was also accused of trying to steer APFC’s funds into investments that were perceived by some as riskier and more volatile.
Ellie Rubenstein was appointed to the board in 2022 by Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy.
A spokesman for the governor told the Financial Times that Rubenstein “brought invaluable fresh perspective and energy to the Alaska Permanent Fund and laid the foundation for continued success for all Alaskans.”
