Plenty of hedge fund managers own jets. Few have jumped out of them for their country. Ralph Nacey, 38, earned a BS in physics with a minor in nuclear engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point. He went on to serve as a captain in the U.S. Army. Among his assignments: executive officer of Delta Battery 319th, 1-508th Airborne Battalion Combat Team, ranger, airborne and senior parachutist. After leaving the military in 2001, Nacey got a job in investment banking with Credit Suisse. By 2006 he was heading a North American derivatives structuring desk and running a proprietary trading book at Merrill Lynch. That year he and his colleague Eric Phillipps left to build a hedge fund business for credit-focused investment firm Cohen & Co. in New York (between June 2006 and February 2009, their credit-­focused fund had net annualized returns of 26.3 percent.) In 2009 they co-­founded WestSpring Advisors in New York, taking their track record with them.

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