William Michaelcheck, chairman and chief investment officer of Mariner Investment Group, says that he never set out to build a multi-billion dollar hedge fund business. Not that it happened by accident. Michaelcheck had left Bear Stearns in 1992 to manage his own money. But friends came along with assets of their own, other traders joined to help out, and later that year Michaelcheck set up Mariner in Manhattan.
Twenty years on, in conjunction with its associated advisers, Mariner employs more than 240 people in several US locations plus London, Tokyo, and Seoul, and oversees about $11.6 billion primarily in single and multi-manager corporate and sovereign credit, fixed income, and managed futures portfolios, as well as several equity, real estate, and private equity investments.
According to public filings, among Mariner’s clients are some of the largest US pension funds, including the $50 billion Pennsylvania Public School Employees’...