As Steve Cohen steps back, who exactly is Harry Schwefel at Point72?
Now that Steve Cohen is sailing off into a sunset of baseball and mentoring and won't be actively managing client money at hedge fund Point72 any more, attention is turning to his second in command.
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Cohen is remaining as Point72's co-chief investment officer alongside Harry Schwefel, the portfolio manager whom Cohen appointed as co-CIO in 2018. In 2021, Cohen said Schwefel had "liberated" him to have other interests and get a good night's sleep.
Who is Schwefel exactly?
Firstly, he's older than the photograph above (which features on Point72's website), suggests. Born in 1979, Schwefel is 45 years old. However, even aged 30 he had the sort of resume that might make some people feel inadequate.
After graduating from Harvard, Schwefel began his career at Bear Stearns. He then left to work as an analyst with Keith McCullough, founder of site HedgeEye, who was launching his own hedge fund. McCullough described Schwefel as "super talented" and said he was incredibly fortunate to have him. In 2007, when Schwefel was just 28 their fund was absorbed by/sold to Magnetar Investment Management.
A year later, Schwefel left Magnetar and first went to work with Steve Cohen at what was then SAC Capital.
Although SAC seems to have been a slightly unhinged place to work and although Cohen was considerably less mellow two decades ago, Schwefel appears to have thrived. SAC Capital was shut down in 2013 after insider trading charges, but Schwefel - who specialized in consumer stocks - stuck with Cohen and was one of the first employees at Point72 when it was first launched as a vehicle to manage Cohen's own money.
When he's not making investment decisions or mentoring juniors at the Point72 Academy, Schwefel can probably be found at Nantucket. His wife, a psychologist who has authored books on the challenges faced by Women in STEM and microaggressions, runs Pilates classes there.
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