By Benedicte Gravrand, Opalesque London:
Julian Robertson, a legend in the hedge fund world for having run a highly successful hedge fund for 20 years, is also known for having mentored some of the brightest in the field, now known as the “Tiger Cubs.” What is less known about him, though, is that after his fund closed in 2000, he seeded quite a few young sparks too. He revealed, in a video interview with Opalesque, the decisive factors for selecting managers – and many other things.
About the Tiger
Julian H. Robertson was born in 1932 in North Carolina, served as an officer in the U.S. Navy until 1957, then worked as a stock-broker. He later spent a year in New Zealand with his family to write a novel. When he returned in 1980, Robertson launched Tiger Management, one of the earliest hedge funds, and one that was to become a legend in the industry.
Robertson is credited with turning $8m in start-up capital from friends and family into $22bn in 1998, and performing returns of more than 20% net yearly for 20 years. He gathered the smartest stock-pickers on Wall Street to work on the fund – which closed in March 2000, when poor stock picking – a lesson about the smartest -, together with the shorting of technology stocks caused sharp losses and investor withdrawals.
Tiger Cubs
Many of the traders and managers Robertson employed and mentored at Tiger Management – the “Tiger Cubs” – are now running some of the best-known hedge fund firms. And a lot of them are part of the Tiger Foundation, a New York charity. Here is the list of the 32 cubs, supplied by Tiger Management:
- Argonaut Capital Management – David Gerstenhaber
- Blue Ridge Capital – John Griffin
- Bowman Capital Management – Lawrence Bowman
- Bridger Management – Roberto Mignone
- Coatue Capital Management – Philippe Laffont
- Deerfield Capital – Arnold Snider
- Discovery Capital Management – Rob Citrone
- Duff Capital Advisors – Philip Duff
- Elmwood Advisors – Quinn Riordan
- Healthcor – Arthur B Cohen
- Hoplite Capital – John Lykouretzos
- Impala Asset Management – Robert Bishop
- Intrepid Capital Management – Steve Shapiro
- Joho Capital – Robert Karr
- Lone Pine Capital – Stephen Mandel
- Longhorn Capital Partners – Kris Kristynik
- Maverick Capital – Lee Ainslie
- Millgate Capital – James Lyle
- North Sound Capital (Rolled into Duff Capital) – Tom McAuley
- Pantera Capital Management – Dan Morehead
- Ridgefield Capital Management – Robert Ellis
- Roundrock Capital Management – Peter Vig
- Second Curve Capital – Tom Brown
- Shumway Capital Partners - Chris Shumway
- Speedwell – Fuyuki Fujiwara
- Sun Valley Gold – Peter Palmedo
- Suranya Capital Partners – Anu Murgai
- Toscafund – Martin Hughes
- Touradji Capital – Paul Touradji
- Valinor Management – David Gallo
- Viking Global Investors – Andreas Halvorsen
- Williamson McAree Investment Partners – Ed McAree & Robert Williamson
Tiger Seeds
Currently “retired,” Robertson manages his own money and also seeds smaller hedge funds. His net worth was enhanced over the years, and estimated by Forbes at $2.2bn in Sept-09.
“The Tiger Seeds are people that we have backed and we have a small piece of their company,” Robertson told Opalesque’s founder Matthias Knab in a recent video interview (here) in his Park Avenue offices. “And the Tiger cubs, most of them just went out on their own, having worked with me at Tiger.”
When shutting his fund in 2000, Robertson was left with a large, empty office space. He told Opalesque that he then persuaded three of his most successful analysts to stay. They were Robertson’s first seeding ventures – and turned out to be more successful than he had imaged.
He has seeded 38 funds so far:
- Axial Capital Institutional, LP - Marc Anderson / Eliav Assouline
- Apos Capital Partners, LP - Alok Agrawal
- Cascabel Scott. - Sinclair, Laurence Chang
- Catalpa - Joseph McAlinden
- DLH - David Henle
- ESG - Kevin Kenny
- ESG "Cross Border Equity" - Kevin Kenny
- Eastern Advisors - Scott Booth
- Fox Point Fund QP, LP - Charlie Andersen
- Goshen Global Equity, L.P. - Christopher J. Burn
- Green Eagle Credit Fund, LP - Glenn ...
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