New York Times – The head of global stocks at the Citadel Investment Group, a $12 billion Chicago-based hedge fund, has left the firm, according to a person briefed on the situation.
The executive, Anand Parekh, formerly head of the North American structuring group at Deutsche Bank, left Citadel on Friday. He was one of seven business heads at the giant hedge fund, and was seen by some investors as among those who could be a potential successor to Kenneth Griffin, the 38-year-old billionaire founder and chief executive of Citadel.
Bryan Locke, a spokesman for the fund, said Citadel did not comment on personnel issues. Mr. Parekh could not be reached for comment.
Performance within the equities division started the year strong, but lagged as the year wore on. While those results remain positive for the year, they are not as strong as other areas of the fund’s portfolio. Citadel was up about 2.5 percent in October and is up 20 percent for the year, according to an investor.
James Yeh, who is head of global markets and quantitative strategy, will now be involved in the equities business, according to the person briefed on the situation.
Mr. Griffin is among a handful of hedge fund giants who aspire to create a diversified investment group, potentially one that could be publicly traded in the future and one that extends beyond a hedge fund that bets for and against stocks. Citadel has seven main business areas that include stocks, market making, quantitative strategies and energy trading. It is a major Wall Street darling as a result of its extensive trading, which can represent up to 2 percent of activity on major stock exchanges.
