Citadel adds quant research head for convertible arbitrage team

Hedge fund giant Citadel has hired a former managing director at BlackRock to head up quantitative research for its convertible arbitrage team. Dr. Johnny Kang started earlier this month as an MD in New York.

Kang spent the last four years working on BlackRock’s systematic fixed income team as the global head of research and innovation. He’d previously spent two stints at hedge fund rival AQR Capital Management, working across both equities and credit. Kang filled the gap by earning his PhD in business economics and his M.S. in applied mathematics from Harvard University. He also has his bachelor’s in finance and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

If you’re looking for a pattern in its recent hires, Citadel has shown a propensity to add recruits with extensive and often eclectic educational backgrounds, including multiple post-graduate degrees. The strategy seems to be working. Citadel’s flagship funds gained 13.6% during the first six months of 2019, well above the average for similar multi-strategy hedge funds, according to Bloomberg.

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