Public criticism of Jon Wood has not dampened the enthusiasm for a new hedge fund he’s launching, which, if he reaches his goal, will be the biggest to hit Europe. The Times of London reports that Wood will be leaving UBS at the end of the summer to launch of his SRM Global Fund, a multi-strategy offering that Wood hopes can raise US$6 billion. That would be a record in Europe, and match the fund-raising effort of former Harvard University endowment chief Jack Meyer, who set that mark last September. According to The Times, Wood is almost halfway toward his goal, which just goes to prove that investors don’t care what they hear as long as they hook up with someone whom they perceive is a winner. A High Court judge in the U.K. gave Wood a dressing down in November after tossing a £100 million (US$188.2 million) lawsuit the UBS manager brought against two entrepreneurs in a case involving the Gadget Shop, which happens to be a UBS client. In dismissing Wood’s action, the judge called him “a very hard and calculating man,” but that appears to be the qualities investors like in their hedge fund managers. Wood’s departure from UBS, says The Times, is not related to the case involving the Gadget Shop. And just to show its faith in Wood’s proven ability, UBS, the fund’s sole prime broker, plans on investing US$500 million in it. Wood’s new firm is actually a spinout of UBS’ Strategic Risk Management team (hence the SRM in the fund name), and will require a lockup of three to five years.