Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital Was Spiraling, and Then Came FTX (Bloomberg)
On Jan. 31, Anthony Scaramucci sat onstage at a hedge fund conference in Miami, answering questions about, among other things, his former business partner Sam Bankman-Fried. Seven weeks earlier, Bankman-Fried had been arrested for allegedly stealing billions of dollars from clients of FTX, the crypto brokerage he founded. A few months before that, he’d bought a 30% stake in Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital, which earns fees by investing in hedge funds and digital assets. Despite the recent drama, the Mooch, as he’s known, looked relaxed in a Brioni suit and Prada lug-soled loafers, his forehead Botoxed to a smoothness unnatural in a 59-year-old. “I’m not gonna let Sam or anybody, any bad outcome like that, dissuade me from further risk-taking or some big opportunities,” he said. Or, as he’d put it on a recent episode of the finance podcast Capital Allocators: “I’m like a f—ing cockroach. If you think I’m going down after the nuclear bomb goes off, you’ve mis-sized me. I’m a little tough son of a bitch, and so I will find a way hook or crook to make this work for the firm.”
Protean Strengthens Team Ahead of Long-Only Launch (Hedge Nordic)
Stockholm (HedgeNordic) – Up-and-coming fund boutique Protean Funds is strengthening its investment team with the hiring of Ramil Koria ahead of the planned launch of a long-only fund in the summer. Koria will join Protean’s investment team consisting of co-founding duo Pontus Dackmo and Carl Gustafsson on July 1. “We strengthen the investment team with a great guy and stock nerd Ramil Koria, who will join us on July 1st,” the team at Protean announces on LinkedIn. “Ramil will be part of the fund management team, and strengthen our analytical capacity ahead of the Protean Small Cap launch,” the team adds. “We are chuffed to have Ramil on board and he will be an important contributor as our new Protean Small Cap fund is launched shortly.”
Marshall Wace’s Compliance Boss Urges Female Hedge Fund Managers to ‘Seek Out Other Women’ (Financial News)
Marshall Wace’s chief compliance officer Courtney Lewis grew up in a family of psychotherapists. Surrounded by people navigating how society shapes behaviour, Lewis developed an interest in law. In her two-decade professional career, Lewis has seen improvements in the inclusion of women across the hedge fund industry. She also believes that female hedge fund managers can “honestly assess their skillset” by reaching out to other women in the industry.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
A Summer Internship at D.E. Shaw Can Pay Up to $20,000 a Month. Here’s What It Takes to Land a Coveted Spot. (Business Insider)
D.E. Shaw has a history of unconventional hires who do not necessarily have a background in finance. The hedge fund typically hires up to 90 interns a year, and many convert to full-time employees. Jeremy Reff, D.E. Shaw’s recruiting head, took us inside the firm’s process for finding talent. “I don’t know.” You might think that’s an answer you would best avoid in a job interview. At quant hedge fund giant D.E. Shaw, however, it could be interpreted as a sign of intellect.
Hedge Fund Wages Proxy Battle with Exelexis Over R&D (PharmaLive.com)
Farallon Capital Management is waging a proxy battle with Exelixis over R&D spending. The hedge fund issued a letter to the company’s board of directors on Wednesday. Farallon has a 7.2% stake in the genomics-based drug discovery company, making it the largest active shareholder, according to the letter. The biotech has three approved medicines on the market for kidney, liver and thyroid cancers and advanced melanoma. Despite generating over $2 billion a year in revenue from these, the hedge fund’s letter called the biotech a “disappointment for shareholders,” citing a shareholder return of less than 1% per year.
