Hedge Fund Rising Stars: Dean Curnutt

Dean Curnutt
Macro Risk Advisors
Hedge fund managers getting their arms around risk are likely to get to know Dean Curnutt sooner or later. Curnutt, who earned a BA in economics from St. John’s University and an MBA in analytical finance from the University of Chicago, founded Macro Risk Advisors in 2008. The New York–based broker-dealer devises options trading strategies that help hedge fund managers hedge risk and identify mispricings in derivatives. The 43-year-old Curnutt’s familiarity with that market dates to at least 1995 when, after business school, he worked in equity derivatives structuring and sales for Lehman Brothers. In 2001 he launched an Internet start-up that was an early attempt to create a customer-to-dealer OTC derivatives platform. After the dot-com bubble burst, in 2001, Curnutt went to work for Banc of America Securities (now Bank of America Merrill Lynch), where he was instrumental in building the firm’s variance swap business and rose to head of equity sales trading.