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Duquesne Capital Management
$260 Million
The usually supersecretive Stanley Druckenmiller was thrust into the limelight last year when he offered $800 million for football’s Pittsburgh Steelers, the hometown team of his $10 billion Duquesne Capital Management. Druckenmiller, 55, who lives in New York City, dropped the offer because of squabbling among Rooney family members, owners of the franchise, as well as mixed feelings about devoting a big chunk of time to running the team at the expense of managing his funds.
When it came to investing, Druckenmiller adopted a fiscal version of the Steelers’ vaunted “Steel Curtain” defense, enabling him to achieve single-digit returns in most of them in 2008. He held the line by reducing both his long and short exposures, building up cash. At year’s end he had just $745 million in U.S. stocks, down from $5.8 billion as recently as midyear. He did well last summer on a long position in the U.S. dollar, catching its reversal.
Druckenmiller is best known for his stint as George Soros’ chief investment strategist at Soros Fund Management, where he racked up a 30 percent annualized return from the time he joined in 1989 until he left in 2000.
