Point72's Haynes Resigns Following Cohen-Ordered Culture Review
Point72's Doug Haynes Resigns as President at Hedge Fund Firm
(Bloomberg) -- Doug Haynes, president at Steve Cohen’s hedge fund, has stepped down after four years, following a lawsuit filed last month that accused the company of discriminating against women and an ongoing independent assessment of the firm’s culture ordered up by Cohen.
The resignation from Point72 Asset Management comes as Cohen stages a comeback as a hedge-fund manager after a two-year ban, raising $3 billion from investors, according to a memo Cohen sent to employees Friday seen by Bloomberg. Cohen said that the transition from a family office “is a natural point to make way for a new, different type of leader.”
Cohen will serve as president and chief executive officer during the search for Haynes’s replacement. Haynes didn’t return an email seeking comment.
Haynes, a former McKinsey & Co. director, was hired in 2014 and led efforts to revamp Cohen’s business after it pleaded guilty to securities fraud and paid a record fine. As president of the firm, Haynes -- known to sport cuff links with the Point72 logo -- said Cohen hired him to “reset” the business, according to a 2016 interview he gave to recruiting website OneWire.
Compliance Team
To help repair the firm and prepare it to accept client money again, Haynes hired a 50-person compliance team that sits in the center of the trading floor with Cohen. They monitor emails and phone conversations and have veto power over hires, Bloomberg has reported.
Yet some of the reset wasn’t all positive, according to former employees and a lawsuit filed against the firm, Cohen and Haynes by Lauren Bonner, an associate director.
Bonner’s suit accused Haynes of having the word “pussy” scrawled on a white board in his office and leaving it there for weeks. The suit, filed in federal court in New York in February, also alleged that the firm paid women less money than male counterparts for doing similar jobs. Point72 denied the claims, and asked a judge to seal her complaint and force the claims to be heard in arbitration.
Cohen’s email to staff didn’t reference the lawsuit.
‘Respectful Workplace’
Following the suit, Cohen hired law firm WilmerHale to conduct an independent assessment of Point72 to help improve its policies and procedures, strengthen its culture and foster best practices, according to a statement provided by the hedge fund.
“Steve Cohen wants to make sure that his firm is living up to its stated values and fostering a respectful workplace,” it said, adding that employees have been invited to speak to the WilmerHale attorney on a confidential basis, and the lawyer will report back to Cohen with observations and advice. A representative declined to comment beyond the statement.
Former employees have said that as Cohen prepared to take client money, Point72 grew top-heavy with executives, many of them consultants like Haynes. He and the other executives imposed rules on traders that restricted their ability to make money by requiring them to be more hedged or not allowing them enough leeway in the way they managed their portfolios.
Several senior employees left the firm as it prepared to take on outside capital. Since the middle of last year, the departures have included Chris Corrado, chief technology officer; Phil Villhauer, head of global trading; Michael Zea, chief of strategy; Seetharam Gorre, chief information officer; Marc Greenberg, director of research; and portfolio manager Qaisar Hasan.
Ban Lifted
In January, a ban lifted that had prevented Cohen from trading client money. It was applied after his old hedge fund, SAC Capital Advisors, agreed in 2013 to pay a $1.8 billion fine to U.S. authorities. Cohen returned client money as part of that settlement and the firm’s name was changed to Point72.
Since settling the charges, the firm embarked on a company-wide effort to overhaul compliance and recruit young talent. Haynes pioneered a program called Point72 Academy to recruit heavily from universities to rebuild a bench of investment talent. Haynes has said that Point72 adheres at all times to professionalism and the “highest ethical standards.”
Marketers speculated last year that Cohen’s next act as a hedge fund could raise $10 billion for the relaunch. Cohen said in Friday’s memo that the $3 billion brought in exceeded the firm’s expectations, calling it “the most successful external long/short equity fund raise since 2011.”
He also mentioned that the fundraising wasn’t finished, saying that Perry Boyle -- who’d been tapped as investment chief for the new hedge fund -- would continue in an investor relations role “as we complete the raise.” The memo also said that Boyle, who’d previously run equities for Point72, would resume his position overseeing stocks for the firm.
To contact the reporters on this story: Katia Porzecanski in New York at kporzecansk1@bloomberg.net, Katherine Burton in New York at kburton@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Margaret Collins at mcollins45@bloomberg.net, Vincent Bielski, Kenneth Pringle
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