Investment firm launched by former 'Big Short’ mastermind keeps adding Goldman alums

A real estate investment firm founded by former Goldman Sachs partner Don Mullen Jr. continues to add to its bench as capital keeps rolling in. And more often than not, the new hires have deep ties to Goldman, where Mullen oversaw the bank’s infamous bet against the subprime mortgage market eventually known as “The Big Short.”

The latest addition to New York’s Pretium Partners is Eric Bothwell, who spent nearly nine years at Goldman Sachs specializing in collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) before a few different stops on the buy-side. He began with Pretium earlier this month. Kunal Shah, Goldman’s former head of mortgage and structured products trading desk strategies, joined the investment firm in March. Two other former Goldman MDs, Jonathan Babkow and Stephen Byrne Jr., arrived at Pretium late last year.

The four fresh faces join at least another dozen Goldman alums currently working at Pretium Partners, including three former partners and several former managing directors. Not every new hire jumped directly from Goldman, though nearly all of them were at the firm during Mullen’s reign. Roughly half of its management team has Goldman ties. Even the firm’s chief talent officer, Donna Winston, spent more than two decades at the New York bank.

Launched in 2012, Pretium, the third-largest owner of U.S. single-family rentals, closed yet another fund with north of $1 billion in commitments last July. Late last year, Pretium was said to be considering the sale of thousands of its homes to provide liquidity to early investors. It’s unclear if the firm followed through on those plans.

Either way, Pretium continues to make senior hires. Having the name Goldman Sachs on your resume certainly seems like a value-add.

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