Alpha Magazine’s annual ranking of the world’s most highly paid hedge fund managers shows that today’s rich keep getting richer. Three managers on this year’s list each made more than $1 billion in 2006.
Former math professor James Simons, founder of East Setauket, New York-based Renaissance Technologies Corp., hauled in an estimated $1.7 billion in 2006, to lead Alpha’s list of the world’s best-paid hedge fund managers for the second year in a row. (In 2005 he took home $1.5 billion.)
Citadel Investment Group’s Kenneth Griffin and ESL Investments’ Edward Lampert were close behind Simons, making $1.4 billion and $1.3 billion, respectively, to rank No. 2 and No. 3 on this year’s list.
The top ten moneymakers in the hedge fund industry for 2006 are:
1. $1.7 billion James Simons Renaissance Technologies Corp.2. $1.4 billion Kenneth Griffin Citadel Investment Group3. $1.3 billion Edward Lampert ESL Investments4. $950 million George Soros Soros Fund Management5. $900 million Steven Cohen SAC Capital Advisors6. $715 million Bruce Kovner Caxton Associates7. $690 million Paul Tudor Jones II Tudor Investment Corp.8. $675 million Timothy Barakett Atticus Capital9. $670 million David Tepper Appaloosa Management10. $600 million Carl Icahn Icahn Partners