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2016年对冲傅nd Rising Stars: Brandon Levin

Levin covers the waterfront as head of trading and syndicate at event-driven JANA Partners.

    Brandon Levin
    Jana Partners

    Brandon Levin fell in love with trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The Potomac, Maryland, native started out as a premed student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, thinking he would follow in the footsteps of his dad, a thoracic and cardiac surgeon. But his heart wasn’t in it. So, having always been good at math, Levin switched his major to economics. His uncle, who headed the trading desk at investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, set him up with a summer internship at the NYSE. Levin, now 39, had found his calling.

    In 1999 he joined the Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst training program in New York. Levin requested to go into, and was picked by, the equities business, which returned him to the NYSE’s trading floor for a year. He enjoyed his work so much that he even convincedhis younger brother (and fellow Hedge Fund Rising Star), Jonathan, to go into the industry.

    After four years in equity trading with Merrill Lynch, Levin was ready for a bigger challenge. Keen to be more than a sector-focused execution trader, he wanted to expand his range and contribute to a profit-and-loss bottom line. He found a job at Och-Ziff Capital Management, where as the hedge fund firm’s No. 2 trader in the U.S. he spanned every equities sector and learned the syndication business. When former SAC Capital Advisors star trader Matthew Grossman launched his own firm, Plural Investments, in 2008, he tapped Levin. Within a few months Levin was running the trading desk at Plural; he got his own tactical trading allocation and built up a syndication franchise.

    In 2012, Levin moved to event-driven hedge fund firm JANA Partners, which manages approximately $10 billion, as head of trading and syndicate. Over the past four years at New York–based JANA, he has operationally restructured and greatly improved the efficiency of the trading desk.

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    Hedge Fund Rising Stars of 2016

    Jessye Ball
    Millennium Mgmt
    Sarah Berner
    Aristeia Capital
    Jenna Bussman-Wise
    AIG Investments
    莫林常
    Point72 Asset Mgmt
    Dennis Chenfu
    Pershing
    Charles Dufresne Jr.
    Sciens Capital Mgmt
    William Freda
    Graticule Asset Mgmt Asia
    Samantha Greenberg
    Margate Capital
    Mark Gurevich
    Ropes & Gray
    Tal Gurion
    Mariner Glen Oaks
    Craig Huie
    University of California
    Yusef Kassim
    Blue Harbour Group
    Florian Kronawitter
    White Square Capital
    Vikram Kumar
    TT International
    Brandon Levin
    Jana Partners
    Jonathan Levin
    George Weiss Associates
    Brett Minarik
    Aksia
    Ian Monroe
    Etho Capital
    Jason Morrow
    Utah Retirement Systems
    Pierre-Adrien Nicolas
    Squarepoint Capital
    Jamie Pabst
    Green Owl Capital Mgmt
    Parag Pande
    Blackstone Group
    Agata Praczuk
    MetLife
    Max Saffian
    Fortress Investment Group
    Matt Satnick
    MSD Partners
    Eric Singer
    Viex Capital Advisors
    Katina Stefanova
    Marto Capital
    Reginald Tucker
    New York State Common Retirement Fund
    Michael Wang
    Cypress Funds
    Sean Wygovsky
    Polar Asset Mgmt Partners

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