Michael Hintze, founder and CEO of hedge fund firm CQS, has expertly combined two very complex worlds: those of mathematics and finance. The native Australian, who is trained in physics, pure mathematics and electrical engineering, developed winning quantitative strategies that propelled his hedge fund’s assets from $5.2 million at inception to $13.7 billion today. The firm’s flagship Directional Opportunities Fund was up 40 percent in 2012, driving its annualized returns up to 21 percent since its 1999 inception. Consequentially, the fund was among the best-performing hedge funds in the world that year. CQS, which stands for “convertible and quantitative strategies,” clinched the No. 49 spot in the 2015 Hedge Fund 100 ranking, falling from No. 46, its highest position since the ranking was first introduced in 2002. The firm ranked as the eleventh-largest hedge fund in Europe in 2014…