Keith Brackpool (born 1957) is a British-American investor and business executive. After starting his career as an investment banker and CEO for Albert Fisher's North American operations, he co-founded the water resource company Cadiz Inc. in 1983, holding a number of executive positions including CEO, and is currently chairman of the board. In 1989 he started the company 1334 Partners LP., which owns and invests in residential and commercial properties in California. From 2013 - 2018 he served as a shareholder and executive board member for the Stronach Group, a thoroughbred horse-racing company, and chairman of West Coast operations, including Golden Gate Fields and Santa Anita Park racetracks. Brackpool has also held public policy positions in California, including co-chairman of the Agriculture and Water Transition Task Force in the administration of California Governor Gray Davis, a member of the Commission on Building for the 21st Century, and chairman of the California Horse Racing Board.
Biography
Early career
Keith Brackpool was born in 1957 in England, with his childhood spent in Surrey and London. Described by The Guardian as “a buccaneering self-made businessman," in the 1980s he came to the United States, after pleading guilty to criminal charges relating to securities trading in Britain. In the United States, he headed the American division of the food distribution company Albert Fisher, serving as both director and CEO of North American Operations from 1989 until 1991. In 1983, Brackpool partnered with geologist Mark Liggett to found Cadiz Inc., a company focused on locating water sources for development and sale to municipalities. Studying satellite images, Liggett located an aquifer in the Mojave desert and Cadiz bought a patchwork of plots from the railroads in the area, amassing 55 square miles of "creosote crumb." Brackpool became a Cadiz Inc. director in September 1986. In 1989 he started the company 1334 Partners LP., which owns commercial real estate, and was a shareholder in a Polly Peck subsidiary.
Cadiz Inc. In the mid-1990s, Cadiz developed a water transport plan that involved storing excess water from the Colorado River in an aquifer on Cadiz property, with the water to be sold to California communities during droughts. The proposal was developed with and then pitched to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MET) of southern California, and at the time was considered “the largest public-private project in the state's history." In 2001 Brackpool was appointed chairman of the Cadiz Inc. board of directors in addition to his roles as president and CEO. After federal approval of the project in 2002, controversy surrounded the water proposal, with critics such as Senator Dianne Feinstein disagreeing with the U.S. Interior Department’s assessment that "any negative effects on the environment could be prevented."
During early processing of the water proposal with MET, Cadiz was also involved in agricultural development. In 1993, Cadiz secured permits from San Bernardino County to expand its agricultural operations and develop up to of its properties in the Mojave Desert. In 1996 the Cadiz Land Company acquired Sun World International Inc., which had been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since 1994. At the time, Cadiz Land grew fruit and vegetables and owned 42,000 acres in Southern California. Brackpool also expanded into international projects, exploring a development in Egypt which the company hoped would "become the largest single agricultural project in the world." In 1998 Brackpool was appointed co-chairman of the Agriculture and Water Transition Task Force in the administration of California governor Gray Davis, and in 1999 Davis appointed him to the Commission on Building for the 21st Century. In October 2002 the board of the MET voted against the project "by a razor-thin margin." Sun World filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in early 2003 and was sold by Cadiz in 2005 to Black Diamond Capital Management for $127.8 million.
