This is how eager people are to join ExodusPoint
Flush with a record $8.5 billion in seed money, Michael Gelband's hedge fund - ExodusPoint, is still hiring. And it's becoming apparent how much people are willing to give up to go and work there.
Titles don’t mean quite as much on the buy-side as they do on the sell-side. However, being a portfolio manager (PM) usually comes with more gravitas than being an analyst, even though the latter can conceivably earn more than the former, depending on the firm. It therefore says a lot about ExodusPoint’s reputation in the industry – and their ability to pay a premium – that people are willing to downshift from a PM role to join the firm.
Ronald Buesinger, a former PM at Carlson Capital who joined in March alongside Ivan Ross, Carlson’s former head of fixed income, lists himself as a mere analyst at ExodusPoint. Josh Powers, another ex-PM from First New York, also came aboard as an analyst when he started in December. And ExodusPoint's latest analyst hire, Phil Covello, spent the last three years of his decade-long career as a vice president at Evercore. Covello just started last month.
If you're not a portfolio manager who's accepting a lesser title to join ExodusPoint, you might want to be a junior coming from a top tier bank. The hedge fund's most green analyst may be Manan Bhandari, who spent more than two years working on Goldman Sachs’ macro equities team before being poached in September. Quant developer Yixiang Wang interned at now-defunct Hutchin Hill Capital and Goldman Sachs, and then worked for a year as an associate at J.P. Morgan before signing on with ExodusPoint last summer. Associate Matthew James also worked at Hutchin Hill previous to five years at Morgan Stanley, where he rose to the level of director in 2016.
If you fall into either of these buckets (senior, accepting a demotion, or junior with big names on your resume), you may have a chance. ExodusPoint hasn’t let off the gas this year, hiring several new PMs, quants and risk professionals so far in 2019. While the fund maintains operations in London as well, ExodusPoint made its presence felt in New York last fall when it doubled the size of its office footprint, despite opening its doors less than nine months earlier.
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