Point72 Founder Steve Cohen Makes More Room at the Top as Hedge Fund Expands

Batter up. New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is letting another heavy hitter step up to the plate at his hedge fund Point72 Asset Management. Cohen is relinquishing the title of president to his co-chief investment officer, Harry Schwefel, as he works on forming an executive committee to assist him in the firm’s strategy, according to Bloomberg, which cited an internal memo. He’ll still be chairman and CEO. “Over the past few years, our firm has grown across virtually every metric — AUM, headcount, global footprint,” Cohen wrote. “As we continue to pursue the growth of existing and new strategies, I want to ensure our management structure matches our current scale and growth ambitions.” The Mets may be pricey losers at the moment, holding titles for both the team with the worst record and the second-highest payroll, but Cohen’s other venture has been on a comeback tear. After the war in Iran rattled markets in March, hedge funds worldwide took a hit, with Point72 losing 0.7%. But the firm recouped losses in April, gaining 3.5% through April 23 and pushing its returns for the year up to 7.5%, Bloomberg reported. Point72 and most of its top-tier rivals, including Citadel and Millennium, run multi-strategy funds or “pod shops,” which generate returns (and ideally, reduce risk) by diversifying their strategies. For Cohen, whose $3.4 billion payday last year made him the world’s highest-paid hedge fund manager, the strategy has paid off. As of April 1, Point72 has more than $50 billion in assets and over 3,300 employees globally. It has broken into strategies including macro, private credit and venture capital. So it makes sense that Cohen is looking to add more players to the field with a new committee (though Cohen will still oversee investments, run daily morning risk meetings and mentor traders, and has no plans to leave Point72 anytime soon). It’s common for hedge fund founders to have an Elon Musk-like persona in which they’re just as well-known as the firms they run, but lately some major players have invited other leaders into the fold: - Millennium Management founder Izzy Englander sold a minority stake in his investment firm last year, and Citadel’s Ken Griffin said in 2024 he’d be open to doing the same. - The D.E. Shaw group, founded by David E. Shaw in the ’80s, is now led by a seven-person executive committee. Balyasny Asset Management continues to add members to its leadership team, too. Little League Letdowns: Smaller hedge funds are facing an increasingly competitive market dominated by behemoths like Point72 and Citadel. AllianceBernstein shuttered its hedge fund AB Arya last month. Eisler Capital shut down following poor performance and high costs last year. The post Point72 Founder Steve Cohen Makes More Room at the Top as Hedge Fund Expands appeared first on The Daily Upside.