Israel Englander (born 1948) is an American investor, hedge fund manager, and philanthropist. In 1989, he founded his hedge fund, Millennium Management, with Ronald Shear. The fund was started with $35 million and as of February 2017 has $34.77 billion in assets under management.
With a personal net worth of $5.2 billion USD, he is the 91st richest man in the United States and was the 8th highest earning hedge fund manager in 2016.
Early life and education
Israel “Izzy” Englander was born in 1948 and was raised in a Jewish family in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn. He was raised in a religious home and attended yeshiva. His parents were immigrants from Poland who arrived in the United States in 1947 after being deported to a Soviet labor camp after the war, where Englander’s two older sisters were born. His father’s entire family was killed during the Holocaust.
Always interested in the stock market, Englander began trading stocks while in high school. During college, he interned at Oppenheimer & Co. (where his future brother-in-law, Jack Nash, would eventually become president and chairman) and at the New York Stock Exchange. In 1970, he graduated from New York University with a B.S. in finance. His first full-time job was with the Wall Street firm Kaufmann, Alsberg & Co. He later enrolled in New York University’s MBA program in the evenings but never completed the degree.
Investment career
Early business career
At Kaufmann Alsberg, Englander focused on trading convertible securities and options. When the American Stock Exchange began to list options, he purchased a seat on the exchange. In 1977, he formed a floor brokerage house, I.A. Englander & Co. in which he still owns a passive interest.
In 1985, Englander and his partner John Mulheren Jr., started an investment firm called Jamie Securities Co. with a $75 million investment from the Belzberg family of Canada. Mulheren had previously worked as a trader for Ivan Boesky. Boesky was later convicted of insider trading, and agreed to testify against Mulheren in a plea deal to receive a lesser sentence. In February 1988, Mulheren was arrested for carrying a loaded assault rifle. Mulheren was convicted of orchestrating illegal stock trades for Boesky, but the ruling was later overturned. Jamie Securities was dissolved in 1988, due to the negative publicity in the aftermath of Mulheren’s situation. Englander was neither charged nor implicated in any way with Mulheren’s activities.
American businessman and hedge fund manager Israel Englander has an estimated net worth of $5 billion as of April 2016, according to Forbes. Englander is known to be the founder of Millennium Management LLC. Of Jewish ancestry, Israel Englander was born in 1948 in New York City, New York, U.S.A. At a very young age, he had already developed a profound interest for the stock exchange. He started trading stocks while he was still in high school and in college, he worked for the New York Stock Exchange and Oppenheimer & Co. as an intern. He finished his degree in finance from New York University in 1970. He also tried getting an MBA from the same university, however, he wasn’t able to complete it. After graduation, he began working full-time for Kaufmann, Alsberg & Co. In 1977, the floor brokerage house I.A. Englander & Co was formed. Together with John Mulheren Jr., he formed the investment firm Jamie Securities Co. in 1985. Four years later, he formed Millennium Management LLC together with Ronald Shear. Through the years, the firm has developed into a multi-billion dollar company that makes use of low-risk management strategies.
Source: