Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Soros Hires BlackRock's Anderson as Investment Chief

(Bloomberg) -- George Soros's hedge-fund firm named BlackRock Inc. co-founder Keith Anderson as its new chief investment officer, according to a letter sent to shareholders.

``Keith will assume responsibility for managing all investment activities at Soros Fund Management,'' said the letter, dated yesterday and signed by Soros's sons Robert, 44, and Jonathan, 37, deputy chairmen of the New York-based fund- management group. Anderson, 48, starts his job next month.

Anderson takes the helm after a year in which the $17 billion fund returned 32 percent, outpacing the average hedge- fund gain of 10.4 percent. In 2007, the senior Soros, 77, was more involved in Quantum Endowment Fund's investments than he has been in years. Money-making trades in the portfolio included investments in China and India and in the currency markets.

Robert, who stepped down at the end of July as chief investment officer but continues to manage money, also contributed to the outsize return.

Anderson is the fourth chief investment officer at Soros since the billionaire philanthropist decided to scale back risk at the Quantum Endowment Fund following the departures of star traders Stanley Druckenmiller and Nicholas Roditi in April 2000.

In addition to Robert, the other investment executives were Robert Bishop, previously a principal at hedge fund Maverick Capital Ltd., and former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. partner Jacob Goldfield.
 
 

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