From Jersey Roots to the King’s Court

For Keith Breslauer, MBA ’88, life has followed a dramatic trajectory. “I grew up in a poor neighborhood in Jersey City, and Booth was my way of escaping that background,” he says.

Now home is in Great Britain, where Breslauer is managing director at Patron Capital. He is also—by decree of His Majesty, King Charles—a colonel (hon) of the Royal Marines.

Breslauer founded Patron, a London-based private equity firm, after nearly a decade in the London office of Lehman Brothers. The firm has assets of about €5.8 billion and focuses primarily on residential, industrial, retail, commercial, hospitality, and healthcare real estate projects throughout Western Europe, with an emphasis on projects that integrate environmental, social, and governance concerns.  

When asked what he misses about the United States, Breslauer says, “Everything!” But he is also an unabashed fan of the royal family. “I’ve known King Charles for 20 years through our charitable activities, and he is a fantastic person,” he says. “The amount of work he takes on is incredible, and the differences that his charities have made are staggering, effecting millions of people over many years.”

Breslauer is no slouch himself. He is lead private donor and vice patron of the Royal Marines Charity, which provides support and programs to veterans. Over the past 16 years, he has raised more than £7.3 million for the RMC and has helped swell its membership to more than 27,000.

In 2024, Breslauer kayaked 120 miles following the D-Day path across the English Channel with a group of Royal Marines veterans to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy. The journey took 26 hours.

Breslauer says he enjoys helping people and estimates he devotes about 10 hours of his approximately 70-hour workweek to charitable activities. In addition to his work with the RMC, he is chairman and trustee of the PTI (formerly the Prince’s Teaching Institute) and founder and lead sponsor of the Women in Safe Homes Fund. At Booth, he’s on the advisory council of the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation and is a member of the Global Leaders Group.

“I have a busy and stressful professional life, and I balance that out with a combination of family, faith, and sport,” Breslauer says.