ING portfolio manager moves to hedge fund

Uri Landesman, head of global growth at ING Investment Management Americas, has moved over to the hedge fund arena as president of Platinum Partners LP, a $500 million hedge fund boutique. Mr. Landesman, 48, has worked for more than 25 years in the equity investment business. For the past four years, he was at ING, where he managed $1.7 billion worth of pension account assets. “Something I've learned after working for more than 25 years in the equity space is that I don't see any reason why I or my clients should be limited to equities,” Mr. Landesman said. Although he will technically be employed by ING for two more weeks, an “amicable” departure afforded him the opportunity to start working at Platinum Partners last week. At Platinum Partners, he will co-manage the firm's two multistrategy hedge funds, along with managing partner Mark Nordlicht, who founded Platinum in 2003. Mr. Landesman also will help with business development and staff management. Platinum has 40 employees, including 10 submanagers who specialize in Asian convertible arbitrage, asset-based convertible arbitrage, energy location arbitrage, energy volatility arbitrage, event-driven long-short equity, physical-commodity arbitrage, receivable finance and quantitative trading. “I've known Mark since the beginning of Platinum, and this is an outstanding investment firm,” Mr. Landesman said. “I'm looking forward to learning more about an entirely new area of investing.” Platinum hedge funds have generated annualized returns of more than 20% since inception. E-mail Jeff Benjamin at [email protected].