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, said people familiar with the matter.
Rachel Teo has joined Bayshore Global Management at its Singapore office, which was established in 2020. Teo worked for 18 years at GIC Pte until last year, when she left the Singapore fund.
Teo didn’t reply to a request for comment sent via LinkedIn. Bayshore Chief Investment Officer Marie Young, who helped found the Singapore office, didn’t reply to an email 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 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.
The city-state has also been pushing for transition finance deals to retire coal plants early and decarbonize electricity grids in the region.
Brin is the world’s 10th-richest person with a net worth of $118 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He co-founded Google, now a unit of Alphabet Inc., with Larry Page in 1998.