The 2013 Hedge Fund Rising Stars

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亚博赞助欧冠’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