Hedge fund Brevan Howard hired 300 new people
It's been another year of heavy hiring at big multistrategy hedge funds and their aspirants. As we reported last week, Eisler Capital Management has increased its investment teams by 50% to 60 this year, while its population of strats (hybrid quants and technologists) is up 60%. Eisler is not alone in raking in staff: Brevan Howard has increased its headcount by circa 40% too.
Brevan Howard now employs 1,000 people globally. In February, Bloomberg put its headcount at 'more than' 700 people. The implication is that staff are up 43% in eight months.
Get Morning Coffee in your inbox. Sign up here.
Brevan Howard isn't commenting, but we've noted its recruitment before. Under its former chief risk officer Aron Landy, who became CEO in October 2019, the fund has expanded and diversified into new strategies away from its historic macro base. Many of this year's new recruits have been into systematic strategies, technology and data. It's also opened a new office in Abu Dhabi, where it plans to have 100 people by next year working under Oualid Lahsini who joined from Ares in August, up from 50 right now. Recent recruits include the likes of Seth Osher, formerly of HSBC, who joined as head of credit technology in September, Markus Hveem, who joined from JPMorgan's Paris office in September, or Gianluca Delli Rocioli, formerly head of RMS FX at Deutsche Bank in Italy, who joined in Geneva this month.
While some hedge funds have a reputation for churning staff, Brevan Howard lays claim to being more stable. Three years ago, Landy told the Financial Times that “Brevan Howard is a family, we care deeply about our business but we care deeply about every individual.” While other funds impose strict loss limits and instantly cut people who exceed then, Brevan likes to be more gentle and will work to rehabilitate traders who have a period of poor performance, Landy said.
This doesn't mean that people stay forever. Several of this year's exits have been from the crypto team, which grew during the pandemic and was reportedly laying people off at the end of last year. They include Jonathan Cheung, a crypto investment analyst in London, and Shrey Rastogi, who was working on DeFi investments in Hong Kong.
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, Whatsapp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. Signal also available.
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)
Photo by Ernie Journeys on Unsplash
