Everything about Charles Ratelband

Charles Ratelband is founder and Managing Director of WindShareFund, an investment company in wind turbines. WindShareFund originated from his passion for nature and entrepreneurship.

Inspired by films

Charles Ratelband started his career at an investment company. Here, and later at other investment companies, he gained experience before starting his own company. “With my first company, I advised individuals, pension funds and institutional parties in various types of transactions, among others. I have always enjoyed doing this, but at a certain point I noticed that I wanted more. I thought: I only live once and that is why I would like to set up a company that contributes to a greater whole.” Charles Ratelband was inspired by the films 'Into the Wild', 'The King's Speech' and the book 'Ethica Nicomachea' by Aristotle. He realized that he wanted to combine his passion for nature with entrepreneurship in order to be able to contribute to society in this way. “I started researching where my interests lie and how I can use them to have a social meaning. Ultimately, I came up with the idea of creating sustainable and profitable financial products that can have a major impact on the energy transition.”

WindShareFund

The idea for WindShareFund arose in 2011, ready to be put into practice. Charles Ratelband has gathered a lot of knowledge in collaboration with other entrepreneurs, but also professors and specialists in the field of sustainable energy. His ideas eventually translated into wind energy investment funds. “I explicitly opted for wind energy because one wind turbine can generate as much energy as one hectare of solar energy. With this I hope to be able to increase the share of sustainable energy more quickly.” Investment funds are created in which both companies and individuals can invest. In order to make the funds attractive to private individuals, a low entry level of five hundred euros has been chosen. The first WindShareFund fund was launched in 2015 and it proved to be a success: the fund was fully subscribed within a year. “We started from scratch and it turns out that within a relatively short period of time the fund that was started was fully subscribed, which is something we are proud of!” The second fund was opened in 2016 and the third fund in 2017. The three funds together have more than a thousand participants and represent a total invested capital of just under 25 million euros.

Passion for nature and entrepreneurship

Charles Ratelband has a huge passion for his company. His goal is therefore to make WindShareFund bigger, better, stronger and, if possible, even more sustainable. “In five years I hope to have 250 million euros of invested capital under management, which means that the current invested capital will be tenfold. I also want to work in pleasant conditions with all stakeholders in and around the company. It should also be fun and energizing. I see myself as a happy person who tries to contribute in his own way to what is really important, such as the climate.” His passion for nature regularly manifests itself in long walks. “I often go out into nature. Go for a nice walk with a backpack, with friends or alone. I sleep in mountain huts and I like to live sober and simple. Waking up in the morning in nature, I think that's wonderful. Then you see the importance and beauty of nature again. I regularly go into nature close to home, such as the Hoge Veluwe or the Black Forest in Germany. But I also like to travel to distant continents, such as America, Asia or Africa.”