David Yarrow: founder of the 'celebrity' hedge fund

Date: Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Author: Andrew Pierce, Telegraph

David Yarrow, a member of the Yarrow shipbuilding dynasty which created the Royal Navy’s first destroyers, is the founder member of the London-based Clareville Capital. It’s known in the Square Mile as the “celebrity hedge fund”.

The board members include the former Formula One team leader Eddie Jordan, Charles Dunstone who created Carphone Warehouse, and Lord Marland who was a treasurer of the Conservative Party.

The multi-millionaire Mr Yarrow lives in a large town house in a quiet tree-lined street off the Kings Road in Chelsea. Mr Yarrow, who eschews publicity, graduated in business studies and accountancy from Edinburgh University.

A generous host, the party which Mr Ross attended was, he says, a quiet affair for family and friends. Some 200 people attended.

He was married to Jane, a public relations director, who is credited with putting Elizabeth Hurley into the Versace dress, complete with safety pins, which first brought her to prominence. The couple, who are divorced, have remained good friends. They have two young children. After their divorce Mrs Yarrow was briefly linked to Earl Spencer the brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

Mr Yarrow set up Clareville Capital in 1996 after 10 years at County Natwest where he was director of UK Equities. The main fund, Pegasus has over more than 200 investors, including David Ross.

He once commissioned a naked portrait of himself to hang in his weekend cottage in Devon.

A keen philanthropist Mr Yarrow launched a book of his own photography to raise money for Eddie Jordan’s Clic Sargent cancer charity.

“I want to raise £1 million,” he said. “I love photography, but I don’t have lofty ambitions. This is instead of paying at charity dos to play tennis with Tony Blair. It’s my way.”