Failed hedge fund executive's employees hit back: "He's put me in a lousy situation"
This time last week, the 30 people assembled by former Point72 president Doug Haynes at his nascent hedge fund, Norias Research Group, seemingly thought they were gainfully employed by a hedge fund due to launch at some point with $1bn in "quantamental investments."
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When Bloomberg reported on Friday that Norias wasn't launching after all and was in fact closing down, employees say it came as something of a surprise. Although Norias hadn't launched as expected in April, the expectation was still that it would do so at some point. "Was there some writing on the wall? Maybe with delays, but other than that, this came out of the blue," says one insider.
Norias' website no longer exists, but the fund didn't respond to an attempt to contact it using the address previously associated with it. Nor did Haynes respond to a request for comment on social media. He is no stranger to controversy, having been named as a defendant in a sexual discrimination lawsuit relating to his time at Point72. However, Haynes firmly denied any wrongdoing at Point72, and that lawsuit was settled in 2020.
Business Insider reported in February that Norias planned to be a portfolio-manager-less hedge fund. Instead, it planned to use 12 West Palm Beach-based analysts to generate ideas and a systematic algorithm to generate its portfolio. Business Insider said Norias also didn't plan to charge pass through fees, but that it would rely upon charging 2 and 20 management fees. It also didn't plan to impose multi-year lock-ups. This may have been part of the problem.
The fund's employees, which include various former Schonfeld people, are now looking for new jobs. "It's all pretty raw right now. He's put me in a lousy situation," said one of Haynes' unwanted recruits
Haynes himself thinks human relationships are important. "I love meeting with people in person, working over meals, and enjoying the personal relationships that form through informal interaction,” he told The Boss Magazine a few years ago. "...We believe that personal relationships and earned trust are the end."
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