Stephen A. “Steve” Feinberg (born March 29, 1960) is an American financier, who is active in hedge fund management and private equity. He is known for turning around struggling businesses and making them profitable. He is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cerberus Capital Management, L.P.
Early life and education
Feinberg was raised in The Bronx, New York. When aged eight, his family moved to Spring Valley, New York, a suburb of New York City. His father was a steel salesman. He attended Princeton University and graduated with a degree in politics in 1982. While there, he captained the tennis team and joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps.
Professional career
After graduating from college, Feinberg worked as a trader at Drexel Burnham in 1982 and later at Gruntal & Co..
In 1992, at the age of 32, Feinberg co-founded Cerberus Capital Management with William L. Richter. At the time the firm had $10 million under management; its assets under management have since grown to over $30 billion in 2016. In 1999, the firm hired former Vice President Dan Quayle as a Chairman of Cerberus Global Investment. In 2006, the firm hired former United States Secretary of the Treasury John Snow, who serves as a Chairman of Cerberus.
In May 2011, Feinberg stated that he believed residential mortgage-backed securities may present “a real opportunity for continued investment for quite a period of time” and that there were opportunities in buying assets from European banks.
Feinberg has been critical about the pay received by private equity executives, stating, “In general, I think that all of us are way overpaid in this business. It is almost embarrassing.” He has also noted in comments made in 2011 that smaller private equity fund sizes may be better for investor returns: “If your goal is to maximize your return as opposed to assets under management, I think you can be most effective with a big company infrastructure and a little bit smaller fund size.”
Feinberg has been described as “secretive” in The New York Times. In 2007, Feinberg told Cerberus shareholders, “If anyone at Cerberus has his picture in the paper and a picture of his apartment, we will do more than fire that person. We will kill him. The jail sentence will be worth it.”