Anyone who thinks women don’t make good traders should meet Nehal Chopra, founder of New York hedge fund firm Ratan Capital Management. Chopra is one of an elite handful of managers singled out by Julian Robertson Jr.’s Tiger Management Corp. for special support from among those it has seeded.
Like many of the 30 executives and investment professionals on Institutional Investor’s 2013 Hedge Fund Rising Stars list, Chopra shows how much more diverse the hedge fund industry has become since the 1990s, when it was dominated by middle-class white men with Ivy League educations who launched their firms in New York or Connecticut. Hedge funds have benefited from admitting a wider range of talent, from Andrew Adams, an Iraq combat veteran who is investor relations director at Capula Investment Management, to Hong Kong–raised Heidi Poon, investment officer at San Jose, California’s employee retirement system.
As institutional investors embrace hedge funds, this year’s list also reveals a geographic shift. After working in New York and London, for example, Edmond Fong became an investment director with the University of California treasurer’s office. Ryan Randall left the San Francisco area and is now an investment officer for Virginia’s Fairfax County Retirement Systems.
Of course, there are still plenty of traditional markers on the road to hedge fund success. At least five of the Rising Stars have degrees from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Most of them hold MBAs, and many started out at major investment banks.
The fourth-annual Rising Stars list began with a February call for nominations. Our editorial staff vetted the nominees before we gathered more names by reaching out to the industry. Given the difficulty of succeeding in today’s market, the talent pool celebrated here is arguably stronger than ever.
Fong, Randall and others highlight another growing trend: hedge fund employees becoming allocators at pension funds, foundations and endowments. This shift is helping to create a sophisticated and knowledgeable group of hedge fund investors — one that is keen to foster the next generation of talent.
Click name to view ranking profile.
| Name | Firm |
| Andrew Adams | Capula InvestmentManagement |
| Garrett Berg | BlueCrest Capital Management |
| Wai Yee Cheng | Texas TreasurySafekeeping Trust Co. |
| Nehal Chopra | Ratan Capital Management |
| Mark Cohen | Stone House Capital Management |
| Sara Cotton | Bessemer Trust |
| Jame Donath | Magnolia Road Capital |
| Edmond Fong | Office of the Treasurer of the Regents, University of California |
| Michael Grad | Millennium Management |
| Imran Hussain | Infineon Capital Management |
| Jeff Kelly | Summit Rock Advisors |
| Soohyung Kim | Standard General |
| Rachel Kort | Hall Capital Partners |
| Samantha Levenstein | Aksia |
| Robert Little | Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System |
| Thierry Lucas | Portland Hill Capital |
| Meaghan Mahoney | River Birch Capital |
| Apurva Mehta | Cook Children’s Health Care System |
| Marc Mezvinsky | Eaglevale Partners |
| Eric Pellicciaro | Mariner Investment Group |
| Robert Polak | Anchor Bolt Capital |
| Heidi Poon | Federated City Employees’ Retirement System |
| Terrence Purcell | Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds |
| Ryan Randall | Fairfax County Retirement Systems |
| Elliot Ruda | Fir Tree Partners |
| Nicole Solomon | Ocean Road Advisors |
| David Swift | Fortress Investment Group |
| Vikas Tandon | Bastogne Capital Management |
| Pasy Wang | California Institute of Technology |
| Jesse Watson | Virgo Investment Group |
