The popular image of Ken Griffin is that of a master manipulator of financial markets, the bogeyman of a generation of memestockers who spin conspiracy theories about his company, Citadel Securities, interfering with their ability to buy shares of GameStop. But two decades ago, when his hedge fund was still young, Griffin was the one who seemed intimidated.
“I hate this,” said Ken Griffin.
He was panicking. “I hate this,” he said again.
The Citadel hedge fund founder’s palms were sweating as he muttered those words to Mark Yusko, the man seated next to him outside a Chicago hotel ballroom some two decades ago. After years of pleading, Yusko had finally convinced Griffin, then in his early 30s, to speak about his firm’s strategy at an investment conference. “He really did not want to do it,” Yusko recalled.
Yusko, who was running the University of North Carolina’s endowment at the time, had been an early Citadel investor and was wowed by Griffin’s genius in some esoteric trades—Japanese warrants and convertible bonds—and Citadel’s track record. The hedge fund had averaged a 30% annualized net return since Griffin had launched it in 1990 at age 22, earning him the reputation as a boy wonder. Yet Griffin’s onstage delivery was less than impressive: He sounded as if he was “reading a technical manual,” Yusko said.
Those were early, unpolished days for Griffin. But even then Griffin had already started to lay the foundation for the global financial empire that he controls today, which has drawn investment dollars from the likes of Sequoia Capital and intertwines with nearly everyone—and every company—connected to the world’s capital markets.
Constructing such a kingdom has been the slow, steady work of decades that has unfolded in fits and starts. But by the time Griffin agreed to speak at another event thrown by Yusko around 2016, the hedge fund mogul arrived there a different person, toting a personal fortune then estimated at roughly $8 billion. “He was very smooth,” Yusko recalled. “Everyone in the room would have voted for him for president.”
Inside Citadel, employees had a slightly less rosy view of their boss. “Ken is a very, scary imposing figure,” one former portfolio manager said. “Those blue eyes—they look right through you.”
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Michelle Celarier 