The 2016 Hedge Fund Rising Stars: Brandon Levin

Brandon Levin fell in love with trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. The Potomac, Maryland, native started out as a premed student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, thinking he would follow in the footsteps of his dad, a thoracic and cardiac surgeon. But his heart wasn’t in it. So, having always been good at math, Levin switched his major to economics. His uncle, who headed the trading desk at investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, set him up with a summer internship at the NYSE. Levin, now 39, had found his calling.

In 1999 he joined the Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst training program in New York. Levin requested to go into, and was picked by, the equities business, which returned him to the NYSE’s trading floor for a year. He enjoyed his work so much that he even convinced his younger brother (and fellow Hedge Fund Rising Star), Jonathan, to go into the industry.

After four years in equity trading with Merrill Lynch, Levin was ready for a bigger challenge. Keen to be more than a sector-focused execution trader, he wanted to expand his range and contribute to a profit-and-loss bottom line. He found a job at Och-Ziff Capital Management, where as the hedge fund firm’s No. 2 trader in the U.S. he spanned every equities sector and learned the syndication business. When former SAC Capital Advisors star trader Matthew Grossman launched his own firm, Plural Investments, in 2008, he tapped Levin. Within a few months Levin was running the trading desk at Plural; he got his own tactical trading allocation and built up a syndication franchise.

In 2012, Levin moved to event-driven hedge fund firm JANA Partners, which manages approximately $10 billion, as head of trading and syndicate. Over the past four years at New York–based JANA, he has operationally restructured and greatly improved the efficiency of the trading desk.

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Hedge Fund Rising Stars of 2016

Jessye Ball Millennium Mgmt Sarah Berner Aristeia Capital Jenna Bussman-Wise AIG Investments Maureen Chang Point72 Asset Mgmt Dennis Chenfu Pershing

Charles Dufresne Jr. Sciens Capital Mgmt William Freda Graticule Asset Mgmt Asia Samantha Greenberg Margate Capital Mark Gurevich Ropes & Gray Tal Gurion Mariner Glen Oaks

Craig Huie University of California Yusef Kassim Blue Harbour Group Florian Kronawitter White Square Capital Vikram Kumar TT International Brandon Levin Jana Partners

Jonathan Levin George Weiss Associates Brett Minarik Aksia Ian Monroe Etho Capital Jason Morrow Utah Retirement Systems Pierre-Adrien Nicolas Squarepoint Capital

Jamie Pabst Green Owl Capital Mgmt Parag Pande Blackstone Group Agata Praczuk MetLife Max Saffian Fortress Investment Group Matt Satnick MSD Partners

Eric Singer Viex Capital Advisors Katina Stefanova Marto Capital Reginald Tucker New York State Common Retirement Fund Michael Wang Cypress Funds Sean Wygovsky Polar Asset Mgmt Partners