Hedge funds titans, their family offices, and what they’re investing in (outside of hedge funds)

Hedge fund managers aren’t quite such a powerful force in the world of finance as they were before the 2008 financial crisis, but the best managers are still making a lot of money. Others have left the sector altogether, and some of the richest ones have converted their hedge funds into family offices, particularly as regulation cracked down on hedge funds post the financial crisis.

Here is a list (in alphabetical order) of the more active/famous ones, their family office, and what their family offices are investing in.

Bill Ackman

Family office: Table Management

Ackman is best known for his hedge fund Pershing Square Capital Management, which has suffered losses in recent years. These days, Ackman might be concentrating more on the investments linked to his family office, Table Management. But what those investments are is difficult to uncover. Table hasn’t left much of a footprint, but media reports say it has invested in venture, private equity and real estate.  

Louis Bacon

Family office: Kendall Family Investments

Bacon is one of a number of top hedge fund managers with a big profile through the hedge fund group he founded, Moore Capital Management. In recent years, Bacon has gained a reputation as a prominent conservationist, but he continues to invest.

Kendall Family Investments is Bacon’s private investment office, which has been active in taking positions in a number of businesses, either directly or indirectly, including Laureate Education, more about this here, Riverstone Energy, and Tempus Applied Solutions.

John Burbank

Family office: JHB Ventures

Burbank is the founder and CIO of Passport Capital, a San Francisco based hedge fund. His private investment office JHB Ventures has holdings in Quotient Technology, a marketing technology group; Guardant Health, a biotech group; among other companies.

Steve Cohen

Family office: Cohen Private Ventures

Cohen runs Point72 Asset Management, which last year converted back into a hedge fund open to outside money after managing Cohen and his family’s money.

Stamford, Connecticut-based Cohen Private Ventures is run by Andrew and Steve Cohen. It’s been active in taking positions in a number of businesses, including Laureate Education, more about this here. It also backed an initial coin offering last year called Autonomous Partners, which is an investment fund focused on cryptocurrencies and digital assets.

Stanley Druckenmiller

Family office: Duquesne Family Office

Druckenmiller first made serious money working for Soros and his Quantum Fund. Later he set up his own hedge fund Duquesne Capital, which he converted into a family office in 2010.

Duquesne Family Office has taken various positions in businesses, including Addepar, a finance reporting performance platform, Relationship Science, a technology solutions business, and Oscar Health, a healthcare insurance company. It has also taken positions in many listed businesses, including a few of the big tech companies.

Noam Gottesman

Family office: TOMS Capital

Gottesman is best known for co-founding GLG Capital in 1995, which was later sold to the Man Group. His private investment office, TOMS Capital, has been active in a number of areas. Its biggest profile investment is its holding in the UK frozen food group and acquisition company, Nomad Foods. TOMS also owns shares in a number of high profile listed businesses, including Microsoft and Colgate Palmolive. It also backed a few years ago a fashion lifestyle group called Into The Gloss.

Bruce Kovner  

Family office: Cam Capital

Kovner, best known for his hedge fund Caxton Associates, set up his private investment office Cam Capital in 2012. It’s CEO is David Ben-Ur, and Cam Capital has been pretty active in venture investing, particularly startups related to biotech.

Traci Lerner

Family office: Chescapmanager

Lerner is one of the few women to reach the top of the hedge fund world. She converted her hedge fund into a family office in 2016. Chescapmanager has done well in the legal cannabis world, buying a stake in Canadian pot producer Cronos Group, which listed a few years back. Year to date, Cronos’s share price has surged 115%, and Chescapmanger is one of its biggest shareholders. Chescapmanager also has holdings in a number of big listed businesses.

Eric Mindich

Family office: Everblue Management

Mindich’s hedge fund career may have taken a bit of a tumble in recent years after he shut down his company, Eton Park Capital Management, in 2017, but his family office, Everblue Management continues to be active.

Overseen by Kerrie Juras Ferrentino, New York City-based Everblue has been very active in the venture space since it was set up three years ago. It has led investment rounds in four startups since March last year, including most recently into  German-based esports group G2 Esports.

Dan Och

Family office: Willoughby Capital Holdings

Hedge fund manager Och set up his family office Willoughby Capital Holdings tens years ago. It’s overseen by Morgan Rutman, himself a former hedge fund manager. Mira Muhtadie is its CIO. What it invests in is difficult to decipher, given there are no records of direct investment purchases.

James Simons

Family office: Euclidean Capital

Perhaps the most cerebral of all of the big hedge fund managers, maths professor Simons set up one of the world’s most successful hedge funds, Renaissance Technologies. He’s since taken a back seat, but his family office, Euclidean Capital, is very much an active player in public and private markets.

Euclidean has been particularly active in backing biotech businesses, including investing in Alector, a San Francisco group developing antibody technology for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Earlier this year, Euclidean led an investment round worth $18 million into Peltarion, which is creating AI applications.

George Soros

Family office: Soros Fund Management

Arguably the most famous hedge fund manager of them all, Soros made billions from his hedge fund groups, the Quantum Fund and Soros Fund Management. Now a family office, Soros Fund Management continues to pursue hedge fund strategies, but has also diversified into private equity, private debt, and venture investing.

Indeed, venture investing has become a bit of a speciality for Soros Fund Management. The New York City-based family office has made numerous investments in startups, including five in the last year. These included backing an Initial Coin Offering called Hashrental.

Jonathan Soros

Family office: JS Capital Management

Jonathan is the son of George Soros and he worked for Soros Fund Management before setting up his own private investment office, JS Capital Management. The investment office has backed a number of businesses including a blank cheque group called One Madison Corporation.

Paul Tudor Jones

Family office: Jones Family Office

Tudor Jones is best known for founding hedge fund Tudor Investment Corporation and the Tudor Group. His family office has offices in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Palm Beach, Florida. It has made investments in fintech investment group, North Capital Investment Technology; Singita, an eco-tourism company in Africa; Reykjavik Geothermal, an Icelandic clean-energy company; and trading firms Castleton Commodities and Engineers Gate.