David Alexander Segel (born April 10, 1964 in New Haven, CT) is an American businessman, currently residing in the State of California with his wife and three children. Segel is an active investor in financial services and media assets. He has a history of entrepreneurial business activity and a commitment to philanthropy and culture reform.
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David Segel grew up in Connecticut, Chicago and New York. He graduated from Yale University in 1986 with a B.A. in Physics and Philosophy. In 1992 he relocated to London, England, where he lived for 16 years with his wife, Tina, and their children. The Segel family returned to the USA in 2008.
Segel is an options market maker and open outcry trader by training. He traded as a member of the Coffee Sugar Cocoa Exchange, the Pacific Stock Exchange, the CBOE, LIFFE, and Eurex Exchanges during his trading career. In 1999 David launched a London-based derivatives trading firm, the Mako Group[1] which has become one of Europe’s leaders in options market-making.
In 2007 Segel and his peers at Mako partnered with Bruno Usai to set up The Pelagus Fund, a fixed income relative value hedge fund. The Pelagus Fund was awarded the European Fixed Income Hedge Fund of the Year by EuroHedge in 2008 and 2009.[2]
David currently operates SGL as a family office to serve the various investments of the Segel’s portfolio. George LeBeau is David’s business manager responsible for the commercial activity of SGL.
Segel is active in growing media interests. In 2007 he founded Mpower Pictures[3] with Steve McEveety, John Shepherd and Todd Matthew Burns.
Segel's credits include serving as the Executive Producer of The Stoning of Soraya M. (2008) which won numerous awards including the Los Angeles Film Festival "Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature". He was also a producer of the film Snowmen (2011). He is currently producing the film Hello I Love You slated for production in 2011 with Mpower Pictures.
Segel is committed to philanthropy and exercises this through The Promise Fund, managed through National Christian Foundation (NCF).[4] NCF is committed to supporting social and cultural causes. NCF also invests in evangelism and other Christian causes. Jen Alt manages philanthropic activity for the team.
An avid sailor, Segel leads a racing campaign in the Nautor Swan class of sailing yachts out of Southampton, England.
Segel is also an adventurer. He trekked on skis 100 miles across the polar ice cap with adventurer Alan Chambers MBE and team to reach the geographic North Pole. He recently completed a 2010 expedition through the Northwest Passage, sailing from East to West in an open Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB) with adventurer Bear Grylls and traveling 2500 km from Baffin Island to the Beaufort Sea. Footage from the expedition aired on CNN September 2010.