The 2016 Hedge Fund Rising Stars: Samantha Greenberg

When New York–based asset manager Ramiusannouncedthis April that it was seeding new long-short equity hedge fund firm Margate Capital Management with a three-year, $130 million stake in return for an equity slice, it marked a rare ray of sunshine in a dismal year for hedge fund start-ups. The Margate Capital deal was all the more significant given the résumé of the New York firm’s founder, managing partner and CIO, Samantha Greenberg, an alumna of Goldman Sachs Group and hedge fund firm Paulson & Co.

Precocious as they may have been, few future hedge fund stars grew up saying they wanted to head their own firms, but Greenberg, 40, came close. As a child, the Bucks County, Pennsylvania, native liked to watch television financial news. While studying for her degree in finance and strategic management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Greenberg interned with Goldman Sachs during the summers. After graduating in 1998 she became an investment banking analyst with the firm’s mergers and acquisitions department, then worked at Francisco Partners, a San Francisco–based private equity house, as an associate before earning her MBA at Stanford University.

In 2003, Greenberg joined New York–headquartered hedge fund firm Chilton Investment Co. as a long-short equity analyst specializing in media, telecommunications and Internet. Four years later she returned to Goldman to cover those sectors for its Special Situations Group. She departed for Paulson in 2009; having made billions betting against the subprime mortgage market, the growing New York–based outfit founded by merger arbitrageurJohn Paulsonwanted someone with her media expertise. Greenberg led the firm’s media and consumer investment teams and was promoted to partner in 2011.

Deciding that she was ready to go out on her own, she launched Margate Capital this January. Named for the Jersey Shore town where she spent many childhood summers at the beach, the firm runs a long-short equity fund with an emphasis on the media and consumer sectors. Greenberg puts her investment acumen to philanthropic use too: At Jewish group UJA-Federation of New York, she’s co–vice chair of the investment management division, whose senior chair is fellow Goldman Special Situations desk alumnusDaniel Och.

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