By Barry Cohen
|
| Michael Hintze: The market environment is fascinating intellectually (photographs by Tony Law) |
MICHAEL HINTZE DOES NOT PROJECT an intimidating persona. In contrast to many hedge fund titans, the amiable Hintze comes across more like an absent-minded professor than a hard-charging deal maker. The tall, white-haired Australian speaks like the excitable engineering geek he once was, firing off ideas and themes in a rapid-fire, staccato fashion, rarely finishing a sentence before he moves on to the next one. His delivery is so manic that one former employee likens it to “driving a golf ball around a tiled bathroom.”
But Hintze’s hyperactive speech patterns and affable nature belie serious investing acumen and business savvy: He is the founder and senior investment officer of CQS, a $10.5 billion hedge fund with headquarters in London and offices around the world. Over the past decade, CQS has evolved from a...