Gordon Brown to advise Swiss private equity firm Partners Group on impact investments

Gordon Brown is to become an ­adviser for the Swiss private equity firm Partners Group on its so-called impact investments.

Zug-based Partners, which has $78bn (£61bn) of assets under management, started its $1bn “impact” fund PG Life last year. The fund is focused on investments that meet the United Nations’ sustainable development goals such as eliminating poverty and improving access to healthcare.

The former prime minister is joining Partners’ co-founder Urs Wietlisbach and the ­former UN General Assembly president Vuk Jeremić on the fund’s advisory council, which examines how PG Life is meeting its goals..

Mr Brown’s appointment, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, means the former Labour prime minister is following in the footsteps of the pop star Bono, who advises TPG on a similar impact fund. 

His fees will be paid to The Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown, a business set up to support the couple’s charity work. 

Politicians’ experience and contacts books have long been valued by private equity firms, and Mr Brown’s Conservative predecessor John Major worked for Carlyle at the turn of century. The Washington-based private equity firm was at one point nicknamed “the ex-presidents club” because of the number of former politicians, including US president George Bush Snr, it had on its books.