Alternative Market Briefing

Byron Wien’s Farewell Commentary as Pequot shuts

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Byron R. Wien, who joined Pequot in December 2005 as chief investment strategist after two decades as Morgan Stanley’s chief strategist, writes in an investor communication obtained by Opalesque that "What has happened to Art and the firm is sad. I have been in the investment business for close to half a century and I have never worked with a group of finer professionals. We will all go on to other challenges...."

Here is the full text: "Back in the 1970s, Art Samberg, the founder of Pequot, and I were partners at a small Wall Street money management firm. We were both analysts and portfolio managers, but Art had a special talent for technology stocks and special situations. He also managed something called “The ‘57’ Account”, named after Heinz’ 57 varieties because its holdings leant new meaning to the concept of diversification. I left the firm in the mid-1980s to go on to two decades as a strategist at Morgan Stanley and Art left a year later to become an investment management entrepreneur.

When Art started his hedge fund in 1986 I was a charter investor because I wanted to benefit from what I knew by then was his special talent for stock picking. Over the years I referred many friends to Pequot because I believed that Art not only had the ability to manage money well, but also could attract other able investment professionals and guide them as the firm grew. And grow it did. With strong results throughout the 1990s, it had accumulated more than $17 bi......................

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