Investment forum set for Nov.
Amajor new investment conference, featuring top hedge fund executives including Ray Dalio and Paul Tudor Jones II, is coming this fall to Greenwich.
The Greenwich Economic Forum is set for Nov. 15 to 16 at the Delamar hotel, at 500 Steamboat Road, overlooking Greenwich Harbor. The Greenwich Economic Forum will bring together 300 leaders in finance and public policy to discuss the “global risk environment,” according to the hosts, which include the Connecticut Hedge Fund Association, the Greenwich town government and the state Department of Economic and Community Development.
“We want to leverage our position, here in Greenwich and Stamford, as a global center of the investment industry,” said Bruce McGuire, president of the Connecticut Hedge Fund Association. “We thought Greenwich would be a great backdrop for this annual gathering of senior-level people from the buy side and sell side from all over the world. It’s like our answer to the World Economic Forum in Davos.”
Dalio and Jones, who respectively founded Westportbased Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, and Stamford-based hedge fund Tudor Investment Corp., comprise two of the approximately 30 investment executives listed as program contributors on the conference’s agenda.
At 8:55 a.m., Nov. 15, Dalio is set to participate in a panel discussion on global capital markets with Balyasny Asset Management CEO Dmitry Balyasny. Dalio is also scheduled to give a presentation at 10:40 a.m., Nov. 16. Jones is set to be publicly interviewed at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 15.
Other events at the forum include panels on institutional investing, central banks, private-market investing, China’s financial markets, venture-capital investing, lending, portfolio management, artificial intelligence and alternative investing.
Public officials who plan to speak at the conference include Greenwich First Selectman Peter Tesei and Catherine Smith, the state’s economic development commissioner.
Last month, about 127,000 people in Connecticut worked in financial activities, down 500 positions from a year ago, according to the state Department of Labor.
The state is a major investor in Bridgewater and Greenwich-based AQR Capital Management. Through the First Five Plus program, Bridgewater and AQR are, respectively, eligible for up to $52 million in loans, grants and tax credits and up to $35 million in loans and grants, depending on the firms meeting certain job targets.
As of May 31, Bridgewater employed about 1,625 in the state, while AQR’s Connecticut contingent totaled 770, according to the DECD.
Among major changes in the industry, Tudor Investment earlier this year signed a lease to take about 25,000 square feet in the office complex at 200 Elm St., in downtown Stamford. The firm had previously been based on King Street in Greenwich, on the town’s line with Westchester County, N.Y.
Afew miles away, in Stamford’s Waterside section, Point 72 Asset Management has moved this year from family-office operations into hedge fund management.
For two years, until the end of last year, the firm had been barred by federal authorities from taking outside funds because of 2013 insider-trading violations at founder Steven Cohen’s previous firm, SAC Capital Advisors.
Point72 has raised about $4 billion in outside capital this year, bringing its total assets under management to approximately $13 billion. The balance represents assets belonging to Cohen and his family and a select group of Point72 employees.
About 500 Point72 employees are based at the firm’s headquarters at 72 Cummings Point Road.