Madeline Albright’s Bright Hedge Fund Idea
January 2007
Hedge Fund Daily
dailyii.com
Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright becomes the latest former politico to go a-hedging. Albright, who served under President Clinton, has no hedge fund experience, but it didn’t stop Dutch pension scheme PGGM from tossing in $329 million in her direction to get Albright Capital Management on its feet. Slate reports that what Albright lacks in HF experience she’ll handily make up in other ways. A big name makes it easier to attract money, for sure, but the former secretary of state’s views also counts for something. According to Slate, Albright will go further in using her government expertise than former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has done. Kissinger gets paid a lot of money for advising hedge funds and Fortune 500 companies about the impact of geopolitical events on their investments; Albright can do that plus, through her firm, also offer the investment-management services based on what and who she knows. Albright’s entry into hedge funds comes only months after two other former cabinet members joined the hedge force Last fall, Lawrence Summers, secretary of the treasury under Clinton, joined D.E. Shaw as a part-time managing director, and John Snow, former treasury secretary under President Bush, became chairman of Cerberus Capital. And of course, former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Richard Breeden also launched hedge fund last year with no spot-on experience, and he, too, has raised hundreds of millions of dollars. Slate says the payback to high-ranking officials joining or starting a hedge fund sure beats the hourly rates or retainers they would get as consultants.
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