Ken Brodkowitz used to be an equity trader at Goldman Sachs and a portfolio manager at Rajaratnam's Galleon. Mike Vermut was an analyst at Harvest Management. The duo met at Dmitry Balyasny's Balyasny Asset Management and were managing an industrial-focused portfolio from 2003 to 2007. Brodkowitz and Vermut left Balyasny and launched Newland Capital, a long/short equity hedge fund, in 2007.