Jeffrey Tarrant

Jeffrey Tarrant
Born Stockton, CA
Residence Manhattan, NY
Nationality American
Alma mater University of California, Davis (BA, 1978)
Harvard Business School
(MBA, 1985)
Occupation Founder,
Altvest (1996-00)
Founder, CEO & CIO,
Protégé Partners (2001-present)
Founding partner,
Candescent Films (2010-present)
Years active 1986–present
Website protegepartners.com

Jeffrey Tarrant is an American investor. He is the founder, chief executive officer and chief investment officer of Protégé Partners, a firm specializing in seeding and early stage investing in hedge funds. He is also a founding partner of film production company Candescent Films.

Education

Tarrant received a BA in economics from the University of California, Davis in 1978, and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1985.[1]

Career

Early career

After graduating from Harvard Business School, Tarrant joined Berkeley Asset Management in Berkeley, California, as vice president, co-managing the Sequoia Fund, one of the first fund of hedge funds in the United States.[1][2] He went on to manage assets for private family fortunes, including Sidney Kimmel (film producer and founder of the Jones Apparel Group).[3] For the Thurn und Taxis family of Germany, he managed their marketable securities hedge fund portfolio and investments in the US, UK and Europe.[2][3]

In 1996, Tarrant founded Altvest, the first Web-based directory of hedge funds and managers.[4][5] InvestorForce purchased it in 2000,[6][7] and it was made a division of investment research firm Morningstar in 2006.[4][8]

Protégé Partners

Tarrant served from 1998 to 2002 on the board of directors of The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF), an investment advisory firm for charitable foundations, and advised TIFF on building its first hedge fund of funds.[1] In 2001, Tarrant was introduced to Ted Seides by TIFF founder David Salem, which led to the formation of Protégé Partners. Based in Manhattan, Protégé specializes in seeding and early stage investing in hedge funds.[1][3][9] Tarrant initially served as chief investment officer and chief executive officer, with Seides as president.[10][11] Seides took over as co-CIO in 2011 until leaving the firm in 2015, at which point Tarrant resumed his role as sole CIO.[11] The University of Texas and the New Jersey pension system were early investors with Protégé.[9] As of 2016, Protégé manages $1.6 billion.[12]

Tarrant is featured in Gregory Zuckerman's 2009 nonfiction book The Greatest Trade Ever, about John Paulson's use of credit default swaps to bet against the US subprime mortgage bubble. Tarrant and Paulson were discussing issues with the housing market as far back as 2004. Tarrant was the lead investor in Paulson's new fund, putting in $60 million on behalf of Protégé clients in 2006 (out of a total of $147 million Paulson would raise).[13]

Buffett bet

In early 2008, Warren Buffett bet Protégé Partners that over a 10-year period, the S&P 500 Index would outperform a portfolio of hedge funds.[11] For the bet, done through the Long Now Foundation, Protégé built an index of five funds that invest in hedge funds, placing its bet on the average returns of those funds after all fees. Buffett bet on a low-cost S&P 500 index fund sold by Vanguard. Each side put up $320,000, with the money used to buy a US Treasury bond that will be worth $1 million at the conclusion of the bet, on December 31, 2017. The $1 million will be donated to the winner’s choice of charity.[10][14]

Digital currency

Tarrant was one of the backers of the MIT Media Lab's Bitcoin Developer Fund. It provides financial support for the three bitcoin developers working for the Media Lab's Digital Currency Initiative, which was launched in 2015 to explore issues involved in blockchain technology and cryptocurrency.[15][16][17]

Tarrant was an investor in early iterations of quantitative hedge fund investing, including Renaissance Technologies.[5][18][19] Around 2016, he began focusing on machine learning and data science, exploring hedge funds built on concepts of artificial intelligence, crowdsourcing and digital currencies.[5][18] In 2017, Tarrant began building a directory for this new wave of modern technology-driven funds, which he terms Autonomous Learning Investment Strategies (ALIS).[5][20]

Documentary films

Tarrant is a founding partner in the production company Candescent Films, which was founded in 2010 to produce and finance documentary films exploring social issues.[21][22] With Candescent, Tarrant has been an executive producer on films including Sons of the Clouds, narrated by Javier Bardem, which premiered at the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival and won the 2013 Goya Award for Best Documentary Film;[23] The Queen of Versailles,[24] which won the 2012 Sundance Film Festival U.S. Directing Award for Documentary;[25] Who Is Dayani Cristal? starring Gael García Bernal, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival;[26] and Trophy, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was acquired by CNN Films and The Orchard.[22]

Prior to his work with Candescent, Tarrant executive produced the 2007 documentary The Third Wave, based on a book written by Alison Thompson about her work aiding Sri Lankan survivors of the 2004 Asian tsunami.[27] Tarrant and Bill Ackman executive produced the 2010 documentary Smash His Camera, about the life and career of paparazzi photographer Ron Galella. Directed by Leon Gast, it won the US Directing Award: Documentary at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and was later picked up by Magnolia Pictures and HBO.[28][29]

Philanthropy

In 2002, Tarrant helped launch the London-based charity Absolute Return for Kids.[12] He is the vice chairman of its US affiliate, Friends of ARK.[2]

In 2011, Tarrant joined the board of WITNESS, a nonprofit focused on human rights issues, founded by musician Peter Gabriel and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights in 1992. In the fall of 2016, Tarrant and Gabriel launched WITNESS Innovation Initiatives, whose goal is to collaborate with technology companies, schools, developers and activists to create human rights documenting skills.[12]

Bibliography

Filmography

Year Title Credited as Notes
2006 God Grew Tired of Us Executive producer Won 2006 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize: Documentary, Audience Award: Documentary
2007 The Third Wave Executive producer
2010 Smash His Camera Executive producer Won 2010 Sundance Film Festival U.S. Directing Award: Documentary; nominated for 2011 News & Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Arts & Culture Programming; nominated for 2011 PGA Award for Documentary Producing
2012 The Queen of Versailles Co-executive producer Won 2012 Sundance Film Festival U.S. Directing Award: Documentary; nominated for DGA Award for Documentary Directing
Sons of the Clouds Executive producer Won 2013 Goya Award for Best Documentary Film
2013 Who Is Dayani Cristal? Executive producer Won 2013 Sundance Film Festival Cinematography Award: World Cinema Documentary
Remote Area Medical Executive producer
Likeness Executive producer Short film; nominated for 2014 Webby Award for Drama: Long Form or Series
2017 The Departure Executive producer
Fantasy Island Executive producer
Trophy Executive producer

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Christine Williamson, "Smaller is better," Pensions & Investments, February 4, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 Randolph B. Cohen and Brian DeLacey, "Protégé Partners: The Capacity Challenge," Harvard Business School Case 205-100, Brighton, MA: Harvard Business Publishing, April 2005 (rev. January 2006), p. 10.
  3. 1 2 3 James Williams, "Protégé Partners: The art of seeding talent," Hedgeweek, December 19, 2016.
  4. 1 2 Cathleen M. Rittereiser and Lawrence E. Kochard, Top Hedge Fund Investors: Stories, Strategies, and Advice, Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2010, p. 179.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Cade Metz, "AI and Bitcoin Are Driving the Next Big Hedge Fund Wave," Wired, February 13, 2017.
  6. ↑ "InvestorForce plans to provide users of its Altvest online hedge fund database with risk monitoring capabilities through a partnership with Measurisk, New York-based firm," Institutional Investor's Alpha, March 19, 2001.
  7. ↑ Susan Barreto, "$10 Million Funding CalPERS buys into firm," Pensions & Investments, September 18, 2000.
  8. ↑ "Morningstar Boosts Hedge Fund Resources With Altvest Acquisition," FIN Alternatives, July 21, 2006.
  9. 1 2 Claire Makin, "Small managers and mainstream strategies are keys to Protégé's success," InvestHedge, March 2010.
  10. 1 2 Carol J. Loomis, "Buffett's Big Bet," Fortune, November 23, 2009.
  11. 1 2 3 Rebecca Spalding and Saijel Kishan, "Protégé's Ted Seides Joining Credit Suisse to Build Fund," Bloomberg Businessweek, July 17, 2015.
  12. 1 2 3 Stephen Taub, "Good Guys: Protégé's Jeff Tarrant Partners with Witness to Document Injustice," Institutional Investor's Alpha, September 19, 2016.
  13. ↑ Gregory Zuckerman, The Greatest Trade Ever: The Behind-the-Scenes Story of How John Paulson Defied Wall Street and Made Financial History, New York: Crown Business, 2009, pp. 70, 129, 151.
  14. ↑ Linette Lopez, "Buffett Is Still Crushing That Bet He Made Against Two Hedge Fund Managers In 2008," Business Insider, January 2, 2013.
  15. ↑ Ilan Mochari, "MIT Announces $900,000 Bitcoin Developer Fund," Inc., March 29, 2016.
  16. ↑ Michael del Castillo, "Fred Wilson, Reid Hoffman Back MIT's $900k Bitcoin Developer Fund," CoinDesk, March 28, 2016.
  17. ↑ B. Holmes, "Blockchain initiatives going mainstream," Brave New Coin, April 9, 2016.
  18. 1 2 Nishant Kumar and Taylor Hall, "Why Machines Still Can't Learn So Good," Bloomberg Businessweek, November 9, 2016.
  19. ↑ Gregory Zuckerman, "Renaissance's Man: James Simons Does The Math on Fund," Wall Street Journal, July 1, 2005.
  20. ↑ Laura Shin, "This Is The World's First Cryptocurrency Issued By A Hedge Fund," Forbes, February 21, 2017.
  21. ↑ Ade Adeniji, "Let's Talk About This Wealthy Couple's 'Filmanthropic' Mission," Inside Philanthropy, December 3, 2015.
  22. 1 2 Graham Winfrey, "The Orchard and CNN Acquire Documentary 'Trophy' – Sundance 2017," Indiewire, January 20, 2017.
  23. ↑ “Javier Bardem All Smiles at Goya Awards,” Fox News Latino, February 18, 2013.
  24. ↑ Justin Chang, "Review: 'The Queen of Versailles'," The Hollywood Reporter, January 19, 2012.
  25. ↑ Melissa Silverstein, "Lauren Greenfield and Ava Duvernay Win Top Directing Honors at Sundance," Indiewire, January 30, 2012.
  26. ↑ John DeFore, "Who Is Dayani Cristal?: Sundance Review," The Hollywood Reporter, January 17, 2013.
  27. ↑ Rob Nelson, "Review: 'The Third Wave'," Variety, May 18, 2008.
  28. ↑ Alessandra Stanley, "Mystery Hotel: They Check In, but They Don’t Check Out," New York Times, June 6, 2010.
  29. ↑ Frank Scheck, "Smash His Camera," The Hollywood Reporter, October 14, 2010.
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