The ex-Citadel, ex-Millennium portfolio manager taking a huge pay cut in the public sector

When you leave hedge fund Citadel, you go to hedge fund Millennium. When you leave Millennium you go to Citadel. Xavier Martini has been at both and now he's managing a very big fund for the World Bank in Washington DC instead.

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Martini, who declined to comment for this article, is understood to be joining the World Bank's multilateral investment guarantee agency (MIGA), where he will run its multi billion dollar investment portfolio as principal investment officer. 

MIGA provides risk insurance for investors and lenders in developing companies that are members of the World Bank, with the intention of shielding them from non-commercial risks. A long list of the projects it's involved in can be viewed here. MIGA has the worthy aim of of investing in a world free of poverty and creating a liveable planet. Neither Millennium nor Citadel have this as their primary intention.

Martini is a macro relative value hedge fund manager of the type that's popular with hedge funds right now. He first joined the World Bank in November 2022, shortly after leaving Citadel in Paris. In doing so, he was presumably able to continue working during his non-compete period; the World Bank and Citadel are not in competition. 

Martini's Citadel non-compete is now over, however. He could probably join Balyasny if he so wished. But he has chosen MIGA instead, and seemingly taken a huge pay cut in the process. 

The World Bank wants to triple the value of all the investment guarantees it issues to $20bn by 2030 and MIGA is expected to play a significant role in this. It's expected to offer more guarantees for investments in areas like solar energy. 

Martini may therefore be hiring. MIGA employees need to have a strong understanding of tactical and strategic asset allocation. They also need to be willing to walk away from hedge fund pay packages and to willingly work for governments instead.

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