Hedge Fund Rising Stars: Ricky Nardis

Ricky Nardis
UBS Alternative Investment Solutions
When Rick Nardis graduated in 1998 from Columbia University with a BA in economics, the dot-com boom was in full swing. But a family friend who happened to be a big-name money manager advised Nardis to not get distracted by investment banking opportunities created by the boom, as the real opportunity lay in institutional investors’ embrace of hedge funds. Nardis, 36, heeded that advice and took a junior-level job at a fund of hedge funds catering to institutions. He moved on from that position, joining UBS in 2001 as a senior investment officer working for the fund-of-hedge-funds business that had been developed at O’Connor & Associates, the Chicago-based derivatives specialist acquired in 1992 by Swiss Bank Corp., which later merged with UBS. The group’s assets under management grew from $900 million when Nardis joined to $48 billion in 2008, the year Nardis was named co-CIO. After losing assets during the financial crisis, the fund has inched back to $28.5 billion and gone from being one of six fund-of-hedge-fund platforms at the bank to the only one standing. Hedge fund managers and investors alike say they have the utmost respect for Nardis.