Trian Co-Founder Launches Family Office

Trian Fund Management co-founder Ed Garden has established a family office following his departure from the activist-investment firm last month.

Garden launched Garden Investments alongside his former colleague Chad Fauser, who is a partner in the firm, according to a statement provided to The Wall Street Journal. 

The new firm will focus on making opportunistic investments, which are likely to include taking activist positions in public companies, people familiar with the matter said. It is primarily investing Garden’s own personal fortune and not currently raising outside money. 

Fauser played a role in forming and developing Trian—having worked there for the first decade of its existence—and before that, he had worked with its founders. Since leaving Trian, Fauser co-founded an activist fund, Venetus Partners, which has since shut down, and oversaw shareholder activism at private-equity firm New Mountain Capital. 

Garden co-founded Trian in 2005 with his father-in-law, Nelson Peltz, as well as Peter May. The firm is known for high-profile campaigns at companies including DuPont, H.J. Heinz and Procter & Gamble.

Garden, who was Trian’s chief investment officer when he stepped down, planned to remain a senior adviser to the firm while focusing on his personal investments, the Journal reported at the time. 

Trian’s co-heads of research, Josh Frank and Matt Peltz, Nelson Peltz’s son, were appointed co-chief investment officers following Garden’s exit. The elder Peltz and May continue to serve in their roles as chief executive and president, respectively. 

Garden has served on the boards of a number of key Trian holdings over the years, including Wendy’s, Family Dollar Stores and Bank of New York Mellon. He landed a seat on General Electric’s board in 2017 after Trian took a $2.5 billion stake in the industrial conglomerate, an investment that soured as the stock continued a yearslong slide. In 2021, GE said it would split into three public companies.

Write to Cara Lombardo at [email protected] and Lauren Thomas at [email protected]