With its massive on-hand cash pile, Apple could easily be mistaken for a bank disguised as a tech firm. Modern hedge funds, on the other hand, are increasingly tech firms disguised as banks.
Which is one reason it kind of makes sense why one of Steve Jobs’ most trusted former lieutenants, ex-Apple exec Jon Rubinstein, has just been announced as the new co-CEO of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund — with a massive $169 billion in assets.
That’s an amount that would even make Apple sit up and pay attention!
Rubinstein worked for almost 16 years alongside Steve Jobs, first at NeXT, before jumping to Apple with him upon Jobs’ return. At Apple, he was SVP of hardware engineering for the iPod, prior to leaving to head up smartphone company Palm, later acquired by Hewlett-Packard.
Despite the fact that Ruby was no longer employed at Apple when he joined Palm, Jobs apparently viewed the move as tantamount to “treason,” and the two never spoke again. Rubinstein alluded to this in a 2010 interview with TechCrunch when he quipped that, “I’m definitely off the Christmas list” as far as Steve was concerned.
Rubinstein will join Bridgewater Associates in Westport, Connecticut this May.
“Technology is pervasively important at Bridgewater, especially since one of our major strategic initiatives in the coming years is to continue building out the systemized decision-making that has been so successful in our investment area and to extend it to our management as well,” the firm said in a note. “Jon’s track-record of building world class products will be a tremendous boost to the efforts we already have underway. We are thrilled to have him join us and bring his unique management and technology talents to our team.”
Maybe Rubinstein could load up his iPod with ABBA’s “Money Money Money” to mark the occasion.
Via: Business Insider
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
2 responses to “Former Apple exec takes charge of the world’s biggest hedge fund”
It will be bankrupt in a couple of years. Just see what he did to Palm.
My first thought too :(