Steven A. Cohen

Steven A. Cohen (born circa 1956), is an American billionaire hedge fund manager and the founder and manager of SAC Capital Partners, a Stamford, Connecticut-based hedge fund that focuses mostly on equity market strategies. Cohen lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, with his wife and children. [ [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/54/biz_06rich400_Steven-A-Cohen_PZMO.html #85 Steven A Cohen - Forbes.com ] ] .

Early life and education

Cohen grew up in Great Neck, New York, and he attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. After Wharton, Cohen got a Wall Street job as a junior trader in the options arbitrage department at Gruntal & Co. in 1978. On his first day on the job, he made an $8,000 profit, and eventually was making around $100,000 a day for the company.Fact|date=August 2008 Cohen was running his own trading group at Gruntal by 1984, and continued running it until he started his own company, SAC. [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_29/b3842001_mz001.htm] Vickers, Marcia, "The Most Powerful Trader on Wall Street You've Never Heard Of" cover story, "Business Week," July 21, 2003, accessed on July 25, 2006] Cohen started SAC with $25 million in 1992; today the firm controls $12 billion in equity [ [http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a0zaP5NqTb5Q&refer=home Bloomberg.com: Worldwide ] ] .

Wall Street fame

In March 2005, the New York Times referred to Cohen as "A New Prince of Wall Street" [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/03/business/03hedge.html?%2338;ei=5088&%2338;en=d20194b6443a720c&ex=1267592400&pagewanted=all&position= The New York Times > Business > A New Prince of Wall Street Buys Up Art ] ] . In 2006 Cohen granted a rare interview to the Wall Street Journal; the article's title referred to him as "the hedge fund king" [ [http://www.moneyweb.co.za/shares/international_news/180724.htm] ] .

Wealth

With a fortune estimated by Forbes at $8 billion, Cohen is the 36th richest American [ [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/54/400list08_Steven-Cohen_PZMO.html] "Forbes" magazine Web site] . His $15 million house is convert|31000|sqft|m2 and sits on 14 acres in Greenwich, Connecticut. [http://online.wsj.com/search/relevance.html#SB114419200061817085] "The Wall Street Journal"] His 2005 compensation was reportedly $1 billion, considerably higher than his 2004 compensation ($450 million) [ [http://www.ryanmoney.com/?cat=4 Ryan Money Blog » Venture Capital ] ] , 2001 compensation ($428 million), and 2003 compensation ($350 million) [ [http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/news/artnetnews2/artnetnews5-19-05.asp] ] . In addition, Cohen owns 7% of search engine Baidu [ [http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?guid=%7BB198479B-2C86-48C9-92EE-437CEE1AACB6%7D&siteid=google Net stocks close lower as Monster sinks on options probe - MarketWatch ] ] .

Politics

Cohen and his wife donated at total of $57,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2007, according to opensecrets.org.

Art collector

Cohen began collecting art in 2000, and over the past several years has become a prominent collector, appearing on "Art News" magazine's "Top 10" list of biggest-spending art collectors around the world each year since 2002, [ [http://artnewsonline.com/issues/article.asp?kjart_id=2086] "Top 10" article, "Art News" magazine, Summer 2006 issue; also see the "Past Issues" section, Summer 2005, Summer 2004, Summer 2003, Summer 2002, accessed July 25, 2006] and "Forbes" magazine's "Top Billionaire Art Collectors" list in 2005. [http://www.forbes.com/collecting/2005/03/09/cx_ahg_0309hot.html] Haden-Guest, Anthony, "Top Billionaire Art Collectors," Web page, Forbes magazine Web site, March 8, 2005, accessed July 25, 2006] To date, Cohen has bought around $700 million worth of artwork [http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=2&subID=1026&p=2] ; in 2003, the New York Times reported that in a 5 year period, Cohen spent 20% of his income at art auctions [http://www.safran-arts.com/42day/art/art4mar/art0303.html] . He is reportedly building a private museum for some of his artwork on his Greenwich property [http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/artnetnews/artnetnews10-26-06.asp] . In the winter of 2005 it became known that in 1999 Cohen had bought Edvard Munch's "Madonna". Reportedly this was for $11.5 million, a record price for any Munch painting to this date.

His tastes in collecting changed "quickly" from Impressionist painters to contemporary art. He also collects 'trophy' art—signature works by famous artists [ [http://www.forbes.com/collecting/2005/03/09/cx_ahg_0309hot.html Top Billionaire Art Collectors - Forbes.com ] ] —including a Pollock "drip" painting from David Geffen for $52 million and Damien Hirst's "The Physical Impossibility Of Death In the Mind Of Someone Living", a piece that the artist had bought back from Charles Saatchi for $8 million. In the last two years, he reportedly paid $25 million each for a Warhol and a Picasso. He is a top patron of the Marianne Boesky art gallery.

In 2006, Cohen remarked that repairing his suspended shark artwork, a cost estimated to be a minimum of $100,000, was an "inconsequential" expense. Since the shark itself is over 10 years old, it has begun to rot and requires replacement. [http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-hirst_1002gl.ART.State.Edition1.3e4aa3b.html] The replacement shark has already been caught [http://www.brown.edu/Students/INDY/cms/content/view/305/35/] ; once the exhibit is fixed, Cohen will have it moved into his SAC office [http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=2&subID=1026&p=2] . Cohen has also placed a head sculpture made of frozen blood entitled "Self" in the SAC lobby [http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=2&subID=1026&p=2] .

In addition, in 2006 Cohen bought a landscape entitled "Police Gazette” by artist Willem de Kooning for $63.5 million from David Geffen [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/12/arts/design/12geff.html?em&ex=1160798400&en=c01ce625884089d1&ei=5087%0A] . Also in 2006, Cohen attempted to make the most expensive art purchase in history when he offered to purchase Picasso's "Le Reve" from casino mogul Steve Wynn for $139 million. Just days before the painting was to be transported to Mr. Cohen, Mr. Wynn, who suffers from poor vision, accidentally thrust his elbow through the painting while showing it to a group of acquaintances inside of his office at Wynn Las Vegas. The purchase was cancelled, and Mr. Wynn still holds the painting. Nora Ephron has written an eyewitness account. [ [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nora-ephron/my-weekend-in-vegas_b_31800.html Nora Ephron: My Weekend in Vegas - Politics on The Huffington Post ] ] In November 2006, Cohen purchased another Willem de Kooning painting, Woman III, from David Geffen for $137.5 million [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/18/arts/design/18pain.html] .

References

* [http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/time100/article/0,28804,1595326_1615737_1615873,00.html The TIME 100]
* [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_29/b3842001_mz001.htm BusinessWeek article]
* [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/24/60minutes/main1438812_page2.shtml CBS news and photo of Steven]
* [http://wallstfolly.typepad.com/wallstfolly/2006/09/sacs_steve_cohe.html#more Article]

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=2&subID=1026 An art shark on the trading floor]
* [http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/bizfinance/biz/features/1842/ New York Metro article on Cohen]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/03/business/03hedge.html?pagewanted=1&%2338;ei=5088&%2338;en=ef5d39cfeb7e135d&ex=1267678800 A New Prince of Wall Street Buys Up Art] New York Times article profiles Steven Cohen's art collection
* [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/10/07billionaires_Steven-Cohen_PZMO.html # 287 ($3.0 billion) - 2007 World's Richest People]