Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Emmanuel
Lemelson By Filipe R. Costa
A Singular Man At par with some odd success stories like solved with this months focus on Em-
Pellegrinis, there are some odd ways of manuel Lemelson, the hedge fund man-
The hedge fund industry is certainly one making money. We must mention, for ager that is actually wait for it... a
of the most exquisite branches of the in- example, Carson Block and his Muddy priest!
vestment world, where one can find the Waters Research. As the name suggests,
most disciplined, the most skilled, and the company looks for trouble, selling From Religion
the most obstinate individuals who hide the shares of companies with suspicious
behind powerful computer algorithms, activities before trying to uncover ac- Emmanuel Lemelson was born in Phoe-
rely on rigorous analysis, and seek the counting scandals. Muddy Waters tar- nix, Arizona in 1976. In fact his name
most mind-boggling opportunities to gets usually experience a downhill ride was Gregory M. Lemelson but, as he was
squeeze alpha from their investments. and in some cases end up being delisted ordained as a Greek Orthodox priest in
from the exchange. 2011, he was granted the ecclesiastical
No one could imagine that a man, at the name Emmanuel.
age of 47, seeking a mere analyst job af- But there are even stranger relations
ter a few failed ones, and upon his third in the hedge fund world. What do you Lemelson studied in Germany for a few
wife, could lead a hedge fund towards think is the connection between Faith, years but returned to the U.S. to attend
the best trade ever. But that was the Investment, and Photography? Do you high school in Washington, where he
case with Paolo Pellegrini who led Paul- believe that studying Theology can help graduated in 1993. At the age of 18, he
son & Co. toward multi-billion dollar you run an e-commerce business? And went to the Jesuits-run Seattle Univer-
gains after betting against the mortgage what about choosing a Masters in Divin- sity to pursue a degree in Theology and
collapse in 2006. ity to run a hedge fund? The puzzle is Religious Studies.
After graduating he continued his stud- business the old-fashioned way we At a time many clothing brands were
ies in Theology and obtained a Master of sell products, and we bring in more than relocating their production facilities to
Divinity from the Hellenic College Holy we pay out, he explains. China to cut costs, Lemelson thought
Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theol- about doing the same for photo acces-
ogy. sories. But in 2000, no one was doing
As a sup-
porter of a
conserva-
tive business
approach,
Lemelson
was always a
critic of the
massive lev-
erage taken
by compa-
nies.
Final Words