The man who may have left hedge fund Millennium at the wrong moment
Kevin Byrne, the 54-year-old Irish COO of hedge fund Balyasny Asset Management (BAM), is not a trader. That's good because it may be that he made a poor trade around 12 months ago.
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In July 2024, Byrne left Millennium Management, where he'd been the chief financial officer since 2014 and a director of the UK subsidiary, to join BAM instead. He spent a year sitting out on a non-compete and finally arrived at BAM this week.
Bryne's exit from Millennium means he will not play a role when the fund sells a 10-15% stake in its management company, valued at an expected $140m-$200m. That money will go entirely to Millennium founder Izzy Englander, Millennium's founder and 100% owner. However, Englander - who is worth an estimated $14bn, does not need additional cash and might have been expected to reward his loyal lieutenant for helping with the endeavour. Instead, Millennium's new CFO - Dan Widawsky, a former Citadel partner who joined when Byrne left in 2024, will receive that honour.
The FT confirmed the coming stake sale this week, just as Byrne arrived at BAM. However, Byrne may not be feeling burned by his ostensible bad timing. He didn't respond to a request to comment for this article, but he arrives at Balynasy as the fund is embarked on a hiring spree that has seen it making multiple major hires on significant packages.
Last August, Balyasny was said to be spending $200m to hire senior portfolio managers like Peter Goodwin from Point72. That money has probably now been spent, but after a decade at Millennium during which its AUM went from $24bn-$60bn, Byrne presumably thought life would be better scaling Balyasny instead.
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