Lansdowne Partners, founded in 1998 by Paul Ruddock, a former head of international business at Schroders, and former Harvard Management Company equity arbitrage specialist Steven Heinz, is one of the world's oldest and longest-running funds. The long-short hedge fund firm has held its spot among the 100 biggest hedge funds in the world and 50 biggest hedge fund firms in Europe since the inception of both rankings. In its early days the London-based firm was one of only two European hedge funds managing more than $1 billion. Performance rocketed when the European equity-focused firm diversified into global macro and emerging markets strategies…