| Steve Cohen | |
|---|---|
| Born | Steven A. Cohen June 11, 1956 Great Neck, New York, U.S. |
| Residence | Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S.[1] |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (B.A.)[1] |
| Occupation | Founder, SAC Capital Advisors Hedge fund manager |
| Salary | $1 billion (2005) |
| Net worth | $9.3 billion (Sept. 2011)[1] |
| Religion | Jewish |
| Spouse | Alexandra Cohen |
| Children | 7 [1] |
Steven "Steve" A. Cohen (born 11 June 1956) is an American hedge fund manager. He is the founder of SAC Capital Advisors, a Stamford, Connecticut-based hedge fund focusing primarily on equity market strategies.
He has an estimated net worth of $9.3 billion as of September 2011, ranked by Forbes as the 35th richest man in America.[1]
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Cohen grew up in Great Neck, New York, where his father was a dress manufacturer in Manhattan's garment district, and his mother was a part-time piano teacher.[2] He took a liking to poker as a high school student, often betting his own money in tournaments. Cohen credits the game to teaching him "how to take risks."[2] Cohen received a B.S. in economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1978. He was a brother of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, Theta Chapter. [3][4] While in school, a friend helped him open a brokerage account with $1,000 of his tuition money.[2]
After Wharton, Cohen got a Wall Street job as a junior trader in the options arbitrage department at Gruntal & Co. in 1978, where he eventually managed a $75 million portfolio and six traders.[2]
His first day on the job at Gruntal & Co., he made an $8,000 profit. He would eventually go on to make the company around $100,000 a day.[3] Cohen was running his own trading group at Gruntal by 1984, and continued running it until he started his own company, SAC.[3]
In 1992, Cohen started SAC Capital Partners with $20 million of his own money; today the firm manages $14 billion in equity.[5] Originally known as a rapid-fire trader who never held trading positions for extended periods of time, Cohen now holds an increasing number of equities for longer periods of time.[2][6]
Forbes Magazine estimates Cohen's fortune at $8.3 billion in September 2011, ranking him the 35th richest man in the United States.[7]
In 1998, the Cohen family purchased a 35,000 square feet (3,300 m2) home on 14 acres (57,000 m2) in Greenwich, Connecticut.[8]
His 2005 compensation was reportedly $1 billion,[9] considerably higher than his 2004 compensation ($450 million),[10] 2001 compensation ($428 million),[3] and 2003 compensation ($350 million).[11]
In addition, Cohen owns 7% of search engine Baidu[12] and owns 5% of SSD design firm OCZ Technology.[13]
Cohen lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, with his wife, Alexandra, and seven children — two being from a previous marriage.[2][14]
Cohen serves on the Board of Trustees of Brown University and the New York-based Robin Hood Foundation.[4][15][16]
In 1999, the publicity-shy[2][3] trader granted one of his first on-the record interviews to Daniel Strachman for his book Getting Started In Hedge Funds (Wiley 2000).
In December 2009, Steven A Cohen and his brother Donald T Cohen were sued by Steven's ex-wife Patricia Cohen for racketeering and insider trading charges.[17] On March 30, 2011, the United States District Court in Lower Manhattan dismissed the case, saying Ms. Cohen’s claims amounted to little more than speculation and rumor.[18]
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,[19] and Forbes magazine's "Top Billionaire Art Collectors" list in 2005.[20] To date, Cohen has bought around $700 million worth of artwork;[21] in 2003, the New York Times reported that in a five-year period, Cohen spent 20% of his income at art auctions.[22]
Cohen owns between 4.7% and 5.9% of the stock of Sotheby's auction house, which has been described as a "significant stake."[23]
He is reportedly building a private museum for some of his artwork on his Greenwich property.[24] In the winter of 2005, it became known that in 1999 Cohen had bought Edvard Munch's "Madonna". Reportedly, this was for $11.5 million, a record price for any Munch painting to this date.
His tastes in collecting changed "quickly" from Impressionist painters to contemporary art. He also collects 'trophy' art—signature works by famous artists[20][25]—including a Pollock "drip" painting from David Geffen for $52 million and Damien Hirst's The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 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 Marianne 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.[26] The replacement shark has already been caught;[27] once the exhibit is fixed, Cohen will have it moved into his SAC office.[21] Cohen has also placed Marc Quinn's Self, a head sculpture made of frozen blood, in the SAC lobby.[21]
In addition, in 2006 Cohen bought a landscape entitled "Police Gazette” by artist Willem de Kooning for $63.5 million from David Geffen.[28] 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 Cohen, Wynn, who suffers from poor vision due to retinitis pigmentosa , 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 Wynn still holds the painting.[29] In November 2006, Cohen purchased another Willem de Kooning painting, Woman III, from David Geffen for $137.5 million.[30]
Dubbed "the hedge fund king" in a 2006 Wall Street Journal article, Time Magazine ranked him 94th in 2007 on its annual Time 100 list of most influential people.[2][6]