Dunleavy appoints new member to Permanent Fund board, and it’s a name you’ll recognize

By
Suzanne Downing
-
25

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has appointed Gabrielle “Ellie” Rubenstein to the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation Board of Trustees. 

Rubenstein replaces Bill Moran, a Ketchikan banker who is retiring from the board after 16 years. Rubenstein will serve a four-year term beginning July 1.

Rubenstein is the daughter of famed billionaire and philanthropist David Rubenstein, founder of the Carlyle Group, which has had management of a small portion of the Permanent Fund, of up to $1.75 billion. David Rubenstein is among the world’s wealthiest and most influential individuals, a frequently featured guest at the World Economic Forum that takes places in Davos, Switzerland each January.

Ellie is also the daughter of the notorious former owner of the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska Dispatch), Alice Rogoff, who left the state after driving the state’s largest newspaper into bankruptcy. During her time at the ADN, Rogoff meddled in state government and politics, and steered Gov. Bill Walker through her election coverage. She famously hosted President Barack Obama at her home on Campbell Lake in Anchorage, and crashed her floatplane in Halibut Cove.

Ellie Rubenstein first moved to Alaska in 2001, and after completing her undergraduate degree, she moved to Anchorage. She has been a resident of the state for the last decade. She is a co-founder and CEO of Manna Tree Partners, a growth equity food investment fund that focuses on investing in family-owned food companies.

“Manna Tree closed its first fund just last year with $141.5 million,” Pitchbook wrote in 2021, “but the firm has already scored an exit with the IPO of pasture-raised egg maker Vital Farms, which went public at $657 million pre-money valuation last July. It has also backed indoor farming startup Gotham Greens, grass-fed beef producer Verde Farms and Evolve BioSystems, the maker of a probiotic supplement for infants.”

Ellie Rubenstein is said to be an avid angler, hunter, and pilot. She is the founder of a nonprofit that promotes outdoor wilderness, youth education, and military health and recovery programs.

She has dedicated time to the American Red Cross since first volunteering with the Red Cross of Alaska in 2014. Rubenstein earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Harvard University, her master’s degree in agriculture economics from Purdue University, and her MBA from Indiana University’s Kelly School of Business.

The Alaska Permanent Fund is an $80 billion sovereign wealth account that was established to secure oil royalties for the future, when Alaska would not be receiving as much from oil taxes and yet would still need revenues to run state operations. It is a constitutionally established perpetual fund that has been managed by the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation since 1976. Alaskans receive a dividend from the fund’s earnings.

Alice Rogoff’s terrifying crash landing: NTSB report

25 COMMENTS

  1. Ellie will be a great fit for the PFD fund board she seems to have a very high level of energy and an unbounded love for Alaska.

    • Charlie, My kid has an unbounded love for Alaska and is also very high energy…But I’ll personally guarantee that the kid is not qualified to balance a checkbook….

  2. “Nepotism”……. It sounds like a “conflict of interest” to me.
    Are you saying no life-long Alaskans qualified? Just rich-elite-connected transplants. This is disappointing.

    • “Nepotism” is an integral part of Alaska’s history. Can You say “Lies A Lot”?? She is part of Alaska’s herstory…..

  4. Another disciple of Epstein and Maxwell. Great pick if you’re into trafficking, diddling and murdering of little children. You have to be a great useful idiot for these satanic, pedophilia billionaire elites or or a family member is being paid fairly well to supply you with debit cards with cash on it. Where is the integrity in the state. Oh my bad this has been a good old boy state since the 60s if you don’t get along you’re found in a crab pot or you go on a crazy helicopter flight to Kodiak.

    • Look what happened to the elder Begich. Young Nick is taking a risk speaking so much truth in this state.

    • @C,
      A little too close with familial ties to Bill Walker.
      And there’s another name synonymous with enabling groomers and pedophiles (think Byron Mallot, which the ADN refused to comment and elaborate on until a year after the fact).
      I hope Dunleavy did his research, or had some reassurances on his pick. Is she a supporter of a statutory PFD payout?

  6. Really unbelievable! Besides being the daughter of an Uber rich father and of a woman who did her best to screw up Alaska, she has no skill to make policy decisions for a body that manages nearly 90 Billion dollars. She has spent most of the past years outside of Alaska. And she has no clue what the PF means to Alaskans. This is a shockingly bad appointment that no doubt will result in large campaign contributions to the Dunleavy campaign which will
    be offset by Alice’s support of Walker.

  8. Her Dad is a friend of Klaus Schwab!! Danger. Dunleavy is Done. Kurka didn’t sell out do your homework, He is the best choice

  10. Sheesh. We should never ever let anyone related to Rogoff anywhere close to public money. It looks as though somebody needs to get the Governor away from all of his handlers and ask some very pointed questions to make sure he is not under duress….

  11. It wasn’t enough that the WEC took over our country, now Dunleavy wants it to manage our local government! Our governor has spent much of his time cowering from responsibility while prostrating himself before the wealthy donor class (he should hang out with Cocaine Mitch, and Lyndsey Gungrabber), and I’m disgusted with him.

  12. > Rubenstein is the daughter of famed billionaire and philanthropist David Rubenstein, founder of the Carlyle Group

    Carlyle group. More enforcers of ESG BS. I don’t know her, but based on this little factoid I’m inclined to assume she’s a bad pick. But it’s the sort of thing I’d expect from a corporatist like Dunleavy.

  14. She’s a billionaire. She must have a better “head shot” then that Suzanne.
    LOL …. where did you find it? Was it PFD/government released?

  15. No background in finance. No Masters. Let’s give her the highest finance position in the State of Alaska since she’s so connected to the oligarchy which really runs the USA.

    PS
    Does Mr. Rubenstein need a son-in-law?

    • She does have a masters; but in agriculture? And a BA in sociology?

      The way things are going in this country, this sort of seems like to me an acquiescence of Dunleavy to the ruling class, in the hopes they’ll spare us the worst if we give their offspring plum jobs and can get get good inside info through their networks. God how far this country has fallen.

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