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| 3. (tie) David Siegel / $750 million | ||
| Title: Co-founder and co-chairmanFirm: Two Sigma (New York)Age: 552016 Rank: No. 3 (tie)2016 Earnings: $750 million2015 Rank: No. 7 (tie)2015 Earnings: $500 millionYears on list: 2 | Source of BS in electrical engineering and computer science, Princeton University, 1983 | |
Artificial-intelligence expert and Two Sigma co-founder David Siegel has long been interested in building intelligent computational systems, but last year he warned that there is a large potential cost in relying on machines to do traditionally low-tech human tasks. “Most people in the bulk of the job market are not involved in super-high-value jobs,” Siegel said, speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills. “They are doing routine work and tasks, and it’s precisely these tasks that computers are going to be better at doing.” He compared this phenomenon with the combustion engine, which helped replace horse-drawn transportation, and ATMs, which displaced many bank tellers.
Siegel met Two Sigma co-founder John Overdeck at D.E. Shaw & Co. before moving to Paul Tudor Jones II’s Tudor Investment Corp., where he served as chief technology officer and managing director before launching his quantitative trading firm. It was a good move: After years of success 2016 was no different thanks to the Two Sigma Compass Fund posting its third straight double-digit gain (but its worst performance since 2012).
Two Sigma views itself as a technology firm as much as an investment management firm. Its lesser-known Two Sigma Ventures, a venture capital arm, launched approximately five years ago and has invested in about 50 companies in 100 or so different rounds. It seeks early-stage companies that are driving innovation using technologies Two Sigma is familiar with, such as artificial intelligence, data science, and machine learning, and works with these companies to try to add value postinvestment through access to the Two Sigma network. It mostly participates in seed financing and other early-round stages, and in some cases provides real estate space for incubator companies. None of these investments, however, is made by the hedge funds.
Siegel sits on the board of Hamilton Insurance Group and is a trustee of Carnegie Hall, an executive advisory committee member of the National Science Foundation–MIT Center for Brains, Minds & Machines and an advisory board member of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.
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