Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones Says ‘I Love Mayor Pete’
Paul Tudor Jones Says ‘I Love Mayor Pete,’ Echoing Tech Bros
(Bloomberg) -- Paul Tudor Jones was at a gala Tuesday night for iMentor, working his way through a crowd thick with his people -- hedge fund managers including Dan Loeb, David Einhorn, Rob Pohly, John Lykouretzos -- when he stopped to take a question about Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.
“He’s my man,” Jones, 65, the billionaire founder of Tudor Investment Corp., said of the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
“I love Pete, I love Mayor Pete, because I think he would be the best administrator to run this country, and he’s got a compassionate heart.”
Buttigieg has emerged as a favorite of Silicon Valley, and a poll Monday had him closing in on Democratic leaders Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden among likely caucus goers in Iowa. That night he came to New York and received a standing ovation from the fashion and celebrity set at a gala for God’s Love We Deliver as he sat for dinner with Anna Wintour, Tiffany Haddish, Michael Kors and Marisa Tomei.
So will Pete be Wall Street’s pick?
‘Desperately Hoping’
Roberto Mignone, founder of Bridger Capital, isn’t so sure. “As a lifelong Republican, I’m desperately hoping we have a Democrat I can vote for,” Mignone said. “And yet I seem doomed.”
Jones, who has given to both Republicans and Democrats in the past, clarified the status of his support. “I’m not politically active at all,” he said. “But right now he’s getting me excited.”
He also got excited about volunteering with iMentor. The organization pairs adults with high school students for mentoring over several years, which takes place via email on its own platform and during face-to-face time.
“I signed up,” Jones told Michael Novogratz, describing how he had previously mentored with other groups and “got a little burned. I realize I miss that boots on the ground, human connection so much.”
Blue Ridge
One of the main concerns of potential volunteers is having the time to do a good job. The idea of iMentor -- founded by John Griffin in 1999 -- was to create a structure that would be effective and efficient.
Griffin was three years into running his own hedge fund, Blue Ridge Capital, after starting out at Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management. He had had been profoundly shaped by Robertson and found himself cast in the mentor role, emailing with a young person. He realized others like him might be able to do the same thing.
“Blue Ridge was an early investor in Amazon,” said Griffin, who was honored Tuesday along with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at the event that raised $4.5 million. “Everyone was imagining the potential of the internet. I could see the South Bronx from my office window, and I wondered how the internet could change the school systems.”
The first mentor pairs were for a class of 49 students in the South Bronx. Now the program is in multiple cities and has involved more than 60,000 people.
“When they started, it was a challenge just to figure out how to get email addresses for the students,” Mignone said.
The mentees now all have email, and some got the chance to interview Bezos during dinner at Cipriani 42nd Street.
One topic was the future of work.
The best way to prepare is understanding how to navigate the “wicked learning environment” as opposed to the “kind learning environment,” Bezos said.
Investing in the stock market is a wicked learning environment, Bezos said, “because it’s not the same this year as it was last year, and oftentimes, when you make an investment, you don’t find out if you’re right or wrong for a really long time.”
Quick Feedback
Golf is a kind learning environment, because the game doesn’t change and you get quick feedback.
“The 18th hole of the golf course, as you get better, it doesn’t say, ‘Oh, I see what he’s doing, I’m going to change myself so he can’t do well on this hole anymore,’” Bezos said.
“I’m pretty sure mine did,” interjected his brother Mark Bezos, who’s on the board of iMentor.
In the future, most work is “going to be wicked,” Bezos said, with “very slow feedback loops and lots of change.”
His suggestion to youngsters: “Play a bunch of instruments. Play a bunch of sports.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Amanda Gordon in New York at agordon01@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pierre Paulden at ppaulden@bloomberg.net, Steven Crabill, Peter Eichenbaum
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