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The 2016 Hedge Fund Rising Stars: Max Saffian

With Fortress Investment Group in San Francisco, New Yorker Saffian has adapted to a West Coast state of mind.

    Max Saffian
    Fortress Investment Group

    A born-and-bred New Yorker, Max Saffian got into finance the old-fashioned way — as a runner. The son of a stockbroker-turned–research analyst and a prekindergarten teacher, Saffian, 36, who majored in political science at Columbia University, knew from a young age he wanted to work in finance. By 16 he was running for a high-yield bond broker. (Before the universal adoption of electronic trading and Bloomberg terminals, someone would sprint between traders to deliver bids and offers.)

    After graduating from Columbia in 2002, Saffian continued kicking it old-school, landing a job as a junior analyst with W.R. Huff Asset Management Co., a high-yield bond fund firm based in Morristown, New Jersey. Huff took a traditional, research-intensive approach to investing, and Saffian learned the art of lengthy research memos.

    2006年,在寻找新朋友rtunities, he got a call from a recruiter hiring forPeter Briger Jr.’s credit team at Fortress Investment Groupin New York. Saffian interviewed with Briger lieutenants Andrew McKnight and Leslee Cowen and landed the job, starting out as an associate. He has been with the $70 billion publicly traded alternative-investment firm ever since, becoming a core member of its credit investment group.

    In 2011, Saffian moved to a new San Francisco office with Briger, McKnight and others on the credit team. For Saffian, now a managing director with FIG, the change was quite an adjustment: He didn’t even have a driver’s license. In the month before the big West Coast move, he took lessons and passed his road test (though on hearing the news Briger swore he will never get in a car driven by his young trader). Saffian has adapted to the healthy, outdoorsy San Francisco Bay Area lifestyle. He even took up jogging, but now having sons aged three months and one year has put pay to such a workout regime.

    Visit the2016 Hedge Fund Rising Stars: Ivy League Schools Pave the Wayfor more.

    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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