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Generation Y
Kevin Dalmut, 31
Senior Investment Analyst, University of Maryland
On a recent trip to New York City, Dalmut sat at the Harvard Club bar. A gin and tonic was his drink of choice. "I joined the endowment in June 2008—it was the best trade I could have made in 2008, considering where capital markets were," he said. "The first eight months, not surprisingly, were very challenging. To be perfectly honest, the team—it was tough to describe. The kinds of things we had to think about were things that had never been addressed before. It was mind-blowing. Things like counterparties. People had asked about counterparties before, but reassessing those relationship in real time, in a real scenario—that was difficult. I'm certainly not saying I'm glad I experienced that, but it was definitely an experience that I can learn from." And what did the ex-Cambridge Associates Senior Consulting Associate—who has also had to step up mightily since the departure of the fund's CIO in July 2011—learn? "Risk management has become very, very top of our minds, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Now, we are always trying to find things that are completely uncorrelated. My one question is that when everyone is chasing them, will uncorrelated assets become correlated? We have returns we need to hit, and it's a high hurdle. Spending plus inflation—plus the internal cost of running an office—is not an easy target."
And with that, he took another sip.
Generation Y: The title says it all: These are the prodigies of the asset owner universe. Wet behind the ears? Perhaps. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed? Maybe. But these five are no charlatans, and if they tie themselves to the asset-owning mast as the siren song of hedge fund riches sounds, they will be The Establishment of asset owning circa 2025. Our bold guarantee: At least one of the following young'uns will manage one of the top 10 funds in the world in under 15 years.