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| 3. (tie) Raymond Dalio / $1.4 billion | ||
| Title: Founder, co–chief investment officerFirm: Bridgewater Associates (Westport, Connecticut)Age: 662015 Rank: No. 3 (tied)2015 Earnings: $1.4 billion2014 Rank: No. 32014 Earnings: $1.1 billionYears on list: 13 | Source of BA in finance, Long Island University, 1971 | |
Talk about alignment of interests. Raymond Dalio qualifies for the Rich List for the 13th straight year after earning $1.4 billion in 2015. During that period he personally earned $14.2 billion. However, his investors cumulatively earned multiples of that. According to London-based fund-of-funds firm Leveraged Capital Holdings, Dalio’s Westport, Connecticut–based firm has made $45 billion for investors since its 1975 launch. At the beginning of 2016, Bridgewater remained the largest hedge fund firm in the world, with $104 billion in hedge fund assets, up about 17 percent from the previous year. In 2015 its main funds got off to a very strong start. In the first quarter Bridgewater’s Pure Alpha II strategy gained 14 percent while Major Markets surged 22 percent, driven by a big short position in the euro as the European Central Bank instituted quantitative easing measures. Bridgewater also enjoyed very strong gains from equities — especially European stocks — and developed-market currencies. However, as the markets became much more volatile in the second half, Dalio’s firm started to relinquish some of the gains. Pure Alpha II finished the year up 4.7 percent despite losing about 5 percent in December; Pure Alpha Major Markets fell more than 6 percent in December but still managed to post a 10.6 percent gain for the year. All Weather, Bridgewater’s smaller risk-parity fund, lost 7 percent last year. Dalio, who is accustomed to defending his firm’s unique corporate culture, found himself in the headlines last year when heir apparent Greg Jensen (No. 16) accused him of not fulfilling his succession plan. The firm played down the incident as part of its culture, which encourages disagreement. In March, Bridgewater stunned the hedge fund world when it announced that Jon Rubinstein will become co-CEO later this year. The engineer worked closely with Steve Jobs at NeXT and Apple, and is credited with playing a major role in creating the iPod. Bridgewater also said Jensen will relinquish his co-CEO title, which he currently shares with Eileen Murray, but will retain his co-CIO title along with Dalio and Robert Prince (No. 16).
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