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D.E. Shaw & Co.
$275 Million
David Shaw has put greater emphasis on preserving capital than on generating outsize returns since he founded his eponymous hedge fund firm two decades ago. That approach served the former computer science professor well during last year’s tumult. D.E. Shaw & Co.’s $13 billion macro fund was up about 7 percent, offsetting most of the loss from its flagship $15 billion multistrategy fund, which ended 2008 down 8 to 9 percent.
Shaw, 57, is one of the few hedge fund managers who can say he’s created a firm that may well outlive him. Since 2002 he hasn’t been involved in the day-to-day activities at $30 billion New York–based D.E. Shaw. Rather, a group of six managing directors runs the company, which with 1,700 employees on three continents is the largest hedge fund in the world (as measured by head count). These days Shaw, who still owns at least half of the firm, is chairman and chief scientist of D.E. Shaw Research, leading a team of 75 scientists who have built a supercomputer capable of performing complex molecular simulations.
