By the end of the day the five principals of Fortressall youngish men who were present on that winter morning to ring the bell at the N.Y.S.E.were worth a combined $10.7 billion. Ms. Cowen is also a member of the Management Committee of Fortress. Its offices on the 46th floor of 1345 Avenue of the Americas, four blocks from the park, cost some $8.4 million in rent in 2007, but the building is considered more corporate than high hedge-fund style.) Meanwhile, opportunity abounds. Edens was a big proponent of the IPO. Mr. Runt is a member of the firms Management Committee. Mr. Briger received a B.A. In the course of executing investments and operating portfolio companies, Fortress has developed a team of investment professionals with significant sector-specific expertise and relationships with leading companies, institutions and individuals worldwide. Mul went on to form Greenwich, Connecticutbased credit-focused hedge fund firm Silver Point Capital with Robert OShea, another exGoldman partner. Soros told Congress that the amount of money hedge funds manage would shrink by 50 to 75 percent. Unfortunately for Mr. Briger, that high water mark soon receded. Briger had gotten Novogratz a job interview at Goldman after his former college schoolmate left the army. In addition, Mr. Briger serves on the board of several charitable organizations, including the UCSF Foundation and Tipping Point. There was a huge amount of ambition to turn these entrepreneurial businesses into something more permanent. Its just that skill is more scarce than the hedge-fund industry sold it as. There are plenty of funds, from the well known to the not so well known, that did just what they promised, even last year. In Hong Kong, Novogratz was heading up Goldmans trading and risk management for fixed income, currencies and commodities. No silver lining in any of this cloud, says a hedge-fund trader. Mr. The Fortress Investment Group co-chairman prefers it that way. Age Hana Khouri Ms Khouri Lawrence Goodfield Mr Jr Benjamin . in English and Biology from the University of Connecticut and a J.D. By late 2007, Fortress was doing less and less in commercial lending, and it had little presence in the mortgage market. ), Furstein worked in New York for Goldmans vaunted financial institutions group, run by Flowers. His specialty, though, has always been distressed debt. To do so, he needed a loan, and he needed it fast. And the higher the floor the better. Prior to joining Fortress in March 2002, Mr. Briger spent fifteen years at Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he became a partner in 1996. In 2000, Briger briefly quit Goldman and joined Flowers, who had left the bank in 1998 and gone into the private equity business. Fortress Investment Group is an American investment management firm based in New York City. Today they look like arrogant showboats, and their story helps explain why hedge funds are imploding by the thousandsand why theres still a truckload of money to be made. We have great confidence in our analytical ability, and when the world is panicking, we stand up, he says. As the money rolled in, many young managers thought they were geniuses. Bethany McLean is a Vanity Fair contributing editor. Pack was a Vice President with Wells Fargo & Co. in the capital markets group. One manager tells me that he has a debt security that he is valuing at 50 cents on the dollar. Mr. Nardone has been a member of the Management Committee of Fortress since 1998. Crew C.E.O. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. By 2006 you needed to make at least $50 million to make *Trader Monthly*s list of the top 100 traders, ranked by pay, on the Street. Prior to joining Fortress in July 2001, Mr. Furstein co-founded and was the Chief Operating Officer of American Commercial Capital (a specialty finance company) and Coronado Advisors (an SEC registered broker dealer). That group -- famous for its secretive, yet highly profitable, trades -- is sometimes credited with being a primary driver of Goldman revenue during the past decade. After about a year he relocated to Philadelphia, covering the banks there. In 2002, Edens, Nardone, and Kauffman were joined by Peter Briger Jr., 44, and Michael Novo Novogratz, 43. A. Todd Ladda is a managing director and Global Head of Credit for the Fortress Capital Formation Group, LLC, a member of FINRA, where he is responsible for capital raising and investor relationship management for the Credit Funds at Fortress Investment Group LLC. Its a cold, damp October morning in downtown San Francisco. As a proprietary trader, Briger was interested in banks hard-to-value assets: the loans made to bodegas, lumberyards and other noninstitutional borrowers. Its also worth noting that, despite all the problems in hedge-fund land and the clamor for more regulation (and there will be more regulation), you dont see any hedge-fund managers in Washington with their hands outstretched for a piece of the bailout pie. Prior to being with the Fortress Investment Group. Cooperman, for his part, says he gave some advice for those funds that did go public: I said to all of them, within five years you will buy yourself back at 20 cents on the dollar. Indeed, while the few other funds that followed in Fortresss footsteps have fared a tiny bit better, they certainly havent fared well. A company leader and fiscal pro based in San Francisco, California, Peter Briger owns two or more years of expertise in asset management. Part of the day-to-day job of overseeing the Ally loans falls to Furstein, 43, who is responsible for noninvestment functions, including the all-important areas of financing and contracts. Prior to joining Fortress in June 2002, Ms. Cowen was at the Baupost Group, where she was involved in the acquisition of public and private distressed debt and equity securities, as well as non-performing loan portfolios. Prior to joining BlackRock, Mr. Nardone was a partner and a member of the executive committee at the law firm of Thacher Proffitt & Wood. Pack serves as a Director on multiple corporate and philanthropic Boards. If I lose a lot, I dont give anything back.. Daniel N. Bass is the Chief Financial Officer of Fortress Investment Group LLC, and is also a member of the firms Management Committee. Photo illustrations by Darrow. They share DNA, but they are also intensely competitive siblings. And like any siblings, Mudd adds, they have different personalities. Right now he is a very strong tortoise.. The financial crisis started there in July 1997 with the devaluation of the baht after the Thai government decided to cut the currencys peg to the U.S. dollar. in Finance from Oregon State University. Mr. Briger is responsible for the Credit and Real Estate business at Fortress. I have great admiration for Petes commercial skills, says former Goldman Sachs partner J. Christopher Flowers, founder and CEO of New Yorkbased private equity firm J.C. The cost of borrowing money was so insanely low that a hedge-fund manager could make a trade that would earn only a sliver of a return, and then juice that return by using a truckload of borrowed money. (One manager who was at the event emphasizes that Cuomo had targeted only illegal short-selling, and was right to launch an investigation into that.). from Columbia University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2007 the firms private equity business made $312million in pretax distributable earnings; the macro hedge fund business, $161million; and Brigers hybrid hedge fund business, $61million. And those who worried were right to do so. Hedge funds were shooting at each other, says one manager, meaning that some funds would make bets against stocks that were heavily owned by other managers. One manager estimates that roughly half of the hedge funds in existence had at least some exposure to Lehman London. Peter Briger Jr. is a President and a member of the board of directors of Fortress Investment Group LLC. In February 2007 Fortress Investment Group debuted on the public markets in an IPO. By then the investment opportunities created by the fallout from the S&L crisis were coming to an end, and he was ready to move on to the new hot spot: Asia. It invested about $100million with him before the fraud was exposed in late 2008. We care a lot about getting that money back.. That means Briger probably owns the loans of some of the Occupy Wall Street protesters who are camped out a block away from his office. , This content is from: The contrast between Edens and Briger is particularly striking. Fortresss diversification strategy has been far less effective since the financial crisis. Characteristically, Edens is extremely optimistic about the prospects for his private equity portfolios going forward. The flagship hedge fund run by Steve Mandel of Lone Pine Capital, one of the most respected managers, was down 32 percent last year. Edens is unstinting in his admiration of Briger. Elected as co-chairman of the board in 2009, Pete Briger has guided the firm's operations in various . Add to that Arthur Nadel, the Florida hedge-fund manager who allegedly bilked investors out of $300 million before fleeing. Pete Briger and the credit team at alternative-investment firm Fortress know how to turn financial trash into cash. Insiders are officers, directors, or significant investors in a company. Edens still oversees private equity, which represents $12.7billion of assets. Fortress was the first U.S. alternative-investment firm of any size to take the plunge, debuting on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, February 9, 2007. The contagion quickly spread to other Asian countries, including Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines and South Korea. David N. Brooks succeeded as the general counsel of Fortress Investment Group LLC in February 2007. Before that, Mr. He made partner at Lehman when he was barely past 30. Now is a great time for what Pete does, says Mudd. The company also has private equity and liquid markets divisions. The Fortress Investment Group co-chairman prefers it that way. in Economics from California State University, San Marcos. Although a brief collaboration with Flowers ended amicably, Briger later fell out with another former Goldman partner, Edward Mul, with whom he had successfully worked at that firm. One of its most embarrassing and bizarre missteps was an investment in structured notes. Prior to joining Fortress in 2001, Mr. Dakolias was a Managing Director, Chief Credit Officer and co-founder of American Commercial Capital LLC (a specialty finance company) and Coronado Advisors (an SEC registered broker dealer), both of which were sold to Wells Fargo & Co. in 2001. Mr. Furstein received a B.A. His schoolmate Briger went to Goldman, where he traded mortgages. Star manager Bruce Kovners Caxton fund returned a reported 13 percent. The ensuing deleveraging created plenty of intriguing investment opportunities. Bad jokes about cracks in the Fortress and pulling up the Drawbridge are now making the rounds on the Street. We are on a short list in the private markets as someone who can move quickly and get deals done, says Furstein. Second, they sold a 15 percent stake to the Japanese bank Nomura for $888 million right before the I.P.O. [#image: /photos/54cbfd3c998d4de83ba40342]|||Video: Bethany McLean on hedge funds and the financial crisis. and is worth following. One requisite toy of the newly rich hedge-fund managers was expensive art. Jamie Dinan, C.E.O. Although the Fortress credit group did a significant amount of due diligence (the process is a good process, he says), we made a bad judgment. Still, Fortress managed to recover 70 cents of every dollar it lent to Dreier more than any other hedge fund creditor because it had structured protections into the original investment and aggressively pursued its claims. If history is any indication, when this current opportunity dries up, another will present itself. In addition to the opportunity to work with Briger, he says he was attracted to the scale of the Fortress operation. Fortress was founded as a private equity firm in 1998 by Wes Edens, Rob Kauffman, and Randal Nardone. Briger Peter L Jr Mailing Address Above is the net worth, insider trading, and ownership report for Briger Peter L Jr. You might contact Briger Peter L Jr via mailing address: 1345 Avenue Of The Americas, 46th Floor, New York Ny 10105. Mr. Ladda is also a member of the Management Committee at Fortress. He serves on the board of several charitable organizations including Princeton University, the UCSF Foundation, Tipping Point Community, and the Peninsula Arts . The firm also canceled its dividend for the last two quarters of 2008. Such agreements in many instances contain covenants or triggers that require our funds to maintain specified amounts of assets under management. (The firm says it renegotiated those deals, and has already returned 70 percent of investors money. Novogratz was one year behind him and lived in his dorm. Peter Briger attributes his main source of wealth to the fortress investment group. Mr. Briger is responsible for the Credit and Real Estate business at Fortress . When Fortress went public, Briger, Edens, Kauffman, Nardone and Novogratz became billionaires on paper overnight. What the trio came up with did not look like any other hedge fund at the time. His specialty: investing in distressed debt and beaten-down loans that no one else wants or that are being dumped by sellers under financial duress. First, they borrowed money, used $250 million of it to pay themselves a dividend, and used part of the I.P.O. in Finance from Radford University and a M.B.A. in Finance from George Washington University. The way that Dean and I think about the world every day is, we are trying to look at perceived risk and actual risk; and where perceived risk is greatest and we can do our homework and understand the actual risk, thats where we want to invest money, Briger says. The future remains bright for Peter Briger JrWith the financial crisis now seven years in the rearview mirror, Briger still sees ample opportunity to profit from distressed assets, particularly in the financial sector. Jack Neumark is a Managing Director, serving on the investment committee for the Credit Funds. The potential for tensions among the partners has been heightened by the dismal performance of Fortress as a publicly traded company, although, to be fair, its problems have been far from unique in the financial services industry. Other big-name funds, including Thomas Steyers Farallon and Paul Tudor Joness BVI Global, also limited redemptions. Peter Briger currently serves as Principal of Fortress Investment Group, LLC. Those who thought theyd found a way to get in on the miracle snapped up Fortresss shares. Its financial filings note that the funds we manage may operate with a substantial degree of leverage. This leverage creates the potential for higher returns, but also increases the volatility., As another hedge-fund manager tells me, Warren Buffett brilliantly predicted that there would be a day of reckoning: You only learn who has been swimming naked when the tide goes out.. According to sources, when Mul hired a junior investment professional from Fortress, Briger felt it was a violation of that agreement. Brigers investing prowess has earned him respect and friends in high places. The other 200, responsible for deal making and managing the assets, report to Briger and Dakolias. Private equity accounted for the lions share of the assets $19.9billion, including some $2billion in credit funds followed by hedge funds, with $10.5billion (split roughly evenly between the hybrid and liquid funds), and $4.7billion in publicly traded alternative-investment vehicles called Castles. Pulley has over 25 years of real estate investment experience, having started his career at Bankers Trust. Briger had done the same four years earlier for Wormser when he fell and broke his pelvis. The C.E.O.s of investment banks including Bear Stearns, Lehman, and Morgan Stanley blamed short-selling by hedge funds for the declines in their stockno matter that these banks had previously made a lot of money from the industry, and that Morgan Stanleys C.E.O., John Mack, had once worked as the chairman of a hedge fundPequot Capital. Briger currently owns just north of 44 million shares worth roughly $350 million and more Despite this massive hit to his net worth on paper, Briger stays an elite player in the dark world of unique asset investing. Gordon E. Runt is a managing director at Fortress Investment Group LLC and head of public investor relations and corporate communications. Portfolio. Edens has had an apartment on Manhattans Central Park West since his Lehman days, owns land in Montana, and bought an $18 million house on Marthas Vineyard from J. Mr. Briger is Co-Chief Executive Officer of Fortress and has been a member of the board of directors of Fortress since November 2006. Mr. Dakolias received a B.S. A few years later he moved to Tokyo, eventually getting into trading. I remember telling Pete I wanted to run that business, he says. The rest of it will be paid out over the next 18 months.). Many dont actually hedge at all. In November 2000, Mortara suddenly died from a brain aneurysm. That puts a lot of pressure on the banks to sell those risky assets to boost returns on equity. Im upset with the hubris, the lack of humility, the arrogance. You needed $1 billion in annual earnings to crack the top fiveand the top five were all hedge-fund managers. Fortress, for its part, denies any issues. Fortress businesses, across its private equity funds and credit funds specialize in asset-based investing, and bring to bear significant experience in investing broadly and deeply in a diverse set of asset types. But, for now, it appears that the principals are sticking together. Keen on sports, he persuaded his parents to let him go to the Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts. 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