Money manager Williamson found dead in automobile

B. Robert Williamson Jr., a money manager at Chilton Investment Co. and nephew of hedge fund pioneer Julian Robertson, for whom he once worked, died during a visit to his native North Carolina on April 22.

He was 55.

His body was found in a car pulled from the Intracoastal Waterway near a boat ramp on Figure Eight Island, New Hanover County Sheriff's Sgt. J.J. Brewer said.

Mr. Williamson had been reported missing that day.

No foul play is suspected, Mr. Brewer said.

At Chilton, he was a manager of Chilton U.S. Hedged Equities, according to the firm.

“Robert was a dear friend, and he will be missed,” the firm said in a statement. “His curiosity, enthusiasm, intellect and passion for stock picking were gifts he shared with all who knew him.”

Mr. Williamson joined Chilton in January 2011, one month after the hedge fund that he co-founded, Williamson McAree Investment Partners, closed.

The firm's flagship fund was down 9.7% in the first 11 months of 2010 after returning a net annualized return of 9.8% since its inception, according to a report in the magazine Absolute Return + Alpha. The S&P 500 returned 7.9% in 2010 through November.

At the time of the closure, Mr. Williamson and co-founder Edward McAree wrote in a letter to investors that several large investors had recently chosen to redeem their money.

“Unfortunately, the combination of recent negative performance and the continuing trend of investors' moving towards larger, more institutional management firms proved too much to overcome,” they wrote, according to the magazine article.

The firm had managed $205 million as of mid-2010, the magazine said.

Mr. Williamson was a managing director from 1998 to 2000 at Tiger Management LLC, the hedge fund run by Mr. Robertson, his billionaire uncle.

Mr. Williamson was the son of Mr. Robertson's sister, Blanche Bacon, according to Mr. Robertson's assistant, Julie Depperschmidt.

Mr. Williamson also was the stepbrother of Louis Bacon, founder of Moore Capital Management LLC.

FOCUS ON CLIENTS

Before working at Tiger, he spent 15 years at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, where he managed about 100 discretionary client portfolios, according to his biography on Chilton's website.

Mr. Williamson was born Sept. 18, 1956, in Raleigh, N.C.

He attended Ravenscroft preparatory school, which awarded him its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2008.

Mr. Williamson graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1979 with a degree in business administration. After two years at Sonoco Products Co., a paper products company in Hartsville, S.C., he earned his master's degree in business administration from Wake Forest University in 1983, according to the obituary.

He is survived by his wife of 24 years, Caroline Crook Williamson, and three children: Caroline Costner, 20; Benjamin Robert III, 18; and Wyndham Josephine, 13.

Related Topics: Industry