Steven A. Cohen

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For the American politician, see Steve Cohen.
Steven Cohen at his trading desk in Stamford, Conn.
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Steven Cohen at his trading desk in Stamford, Conn.

Steven A. Cohen (born circa 1956), a self made billionaire hedge fund investor, is the founder and manager of SAC Capital Partners, a Stamford, Connecticut-based hedge fund. Cohen lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, with his wife and five of his children. His two eldest children from a previous marriage live in New York City. [6].

Cohen grew up in Great Neck, New York, and he attended the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. After Wharton, Cohen got a Wall Street job as a junior trader in the options arbitrage department at Gruntal & Co. in 1978. On his first day on the job, he made an $8,000 profit, and eventually was making around $100,000 a day for the company. Cohen was running his own trading group at Gruntal by 1984, and continued running it until he started his own company, SAC.[1] Cohen started SAC with $25 million in 1992; today the firm controls $10 billion in assets [7]. With an estimated current net worth of around $3 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 85-richest person in America.

Contents

[edit] Art collector

Cohen began collecting art in 2000, and over the past several years has become a prominent collector, appearing on Art News magazine's "Top 10" list of biggest-spending art collectors around the world each year since 2002,[2] and Forbes magazine's "Top Billionaire Art Collectors" list in 2005.[3] To date, Cohen has bought around $700 million worth of artwork [8]; in 2003, the New York Times reported that in a 5 year period, Cohen spent 20% of his income at art auctions [9]. He is reportedly building a private museum for some of his artwork on his Greenwich property [10]. In the winter of 2005 it became known that Cohen had been the buyer of Edvard Munch's "Madonna", which was reported sold for $11,5 million in 1999. The record price for any Munch painting to this date. This painting, although famous, was made world famous in 2004 after a version of it was stolen alongside "The Scream" from The Munch Museum in Oslo.

His tastes in collecting changed "quickly" from Impressionist painters to contemporary art. He also collects 'trophy' art-- signature works by famous artists -- [3], including a Pollock "drip" painting from David Geffen for $52 million and Damien Hirst's embalmed shark, a piece that the artist had bought back from Charles Saatchi for $8 million. In the last two years, he reportedly paid $25 million each for a Warhol and a Picasso. He is a top patron of the Mariane A. Boesky art gallery.

In 2006, Cohen remarked that repairing his suspended shark artwork, a cost estimated to be a minimum of $100,000, was an "inconsequential" expense. Since the shark itself is over 10 years old, it has begun to rot and requires replacement. [11] The replacement shark has already been caught [12]; once the exhibit is fixed, Cohen will have it moved into his SAC office [13]. Cohen has also placed a head sculpture made of frozen blood entitled Self in the SAC lobby [14].

In addition, in 2006 Cohen bought a landscape entitled "Police Gazette” by artist Willem de Kooning for $63.5 million from David Geffen [15]. Also in 2006, Cohen attempted to make the most expensive art purchase in history when he offered to purchase Picasso's Le Reve from casino mogul Steve Wynn for $139 million. Just days before the painting was to be transported to Mr. Cohen, Mr. Wynn, who suffers from poor vision, accidentally thrust his elbow through the painting while showing it to a group of acquaintances inside of his office at Wynn Las Vegas. The purchase was cancelled, and Mr. Wynn still holds the painting. Nora Ephron has written an eyewitness account. In November 2006, Cohen purchased another Willem de Kooning painting from David Geffen for $137.5 million [16].


Steven Cohen
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Steven Cohen

[edit] Secrecy

Despite his wealth and the influence of SAC, information about Cohen is limited.Very few photos of him are public. This is a common practice on Wall Street. Cohen has purchased the media rights to publish his photographs. As a result, unless one doles out very high amount, one cannot publish his photographs. Cohen is also known to guard his secrets and is never known to share his ideas with others. Traders in his group are usually sworn to secrecy. If they try to leave his group, they realise that they signed multiple documents on the first day of their job which prevent them from disclosing anything. He is said to control the funds of former members of his groups too. In 2005, SAC sued two former employees for breaching such contracts [17].

In March 2005, the New York Times referred to Cohen as "A New Prince of Wall Street" [18]. In 2006 Cohen granted a rare interview to the Wall Street Journal; the article's title referred to him as "the hedge fund king" [19].

[edit] Wealth

With a fortune estimated by Forbes at $3 billion, Cohen is the 85th richest American[4]. His $15 million house is 31,000 square feet and sits on 14 acres in Greenwich, Connecticut.[5] His 2005 compensation was reportedly $1 billion,[5] considerably higher than his 2004 compensation ($450 million) [20] and 2001 compensation ($428 million)[1] and 2003 compensation ($350 million) [21]. In addition, Cohen owns 7% of search engine Baidu [22].

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ a b [1] Vickers, Marcia, "The Most Powerful Trader on Wall Street You've Never Heard Of" cover story, Business Week, July 21, 2003, accessed on July 25, 2006
  2. ^ [2] "Top 10" article, Art News magazine, Summer 2006 issue; also see the "Past Issues" section, Summer 2005, Summer 2004, Summer 2003, Summer 2002, accessed July 25, 2006
  3. ^ a b [3]Haden-Guest, Anthony "Top Billionaire Art Collectors," article "slideshow" Web page, Forbes magazine Web site, March 8, 2005accessed July 25, 2006
  4. ^ [4] Forbes magazine Web site
  5. ^ a b [5] The Wall Street Journal

[edit] External links

[edit] Forbes rankings

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