Inside the changes at $37 billion Balyasny's Corbets stock-picking unit

Two well-known investors left Corbets, the stock-picking unit of the $37 billion hedge fund Balyasny Asset Management, earlier this month, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke to Business Insider. Thomas Stephens and Kevin Cottrell are no longer at the firm. Stephens led Corbets, which focuses on fundamental stock-picking strategies, from its launch in 2022 until roughly a year ago, and more recently ran a portfolio focused on financial services companies. He had been at Balyasny since 2018, after managing money for Millennium Management and Citadel. Cottrell, a technology-focused portfolio manager, joined the unit at the end of 2023 after running his own fund, KCL Capital, and previously traded for Point72 Asset Management.

Corbets is now led by Alberto Mann, Mitul Shah, and David Corwin, according to the person. Balyasny declined to comment, and Stephens and Cottrell did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Business Insider noted that the firm does not disclose performance by unit, but that Balyasny has struggled this year, gaining less than 1% through September. The unit, named after a double-black ski run in Wyoming near a Balyasny home, had 15 portfolio management teams and nearly 100 investment professionals as of the start of June, according to its website. The bios of both departing managers have since been removed.

The unit also lost its head of trading, Ali Lombardo, earlier this year. She joined Viking Global in the same role, succeeding Stuart Brown. Her replacement, Ted Drury, a former professional hockey player who previously headed trading at UBS's O'Connor fund, is set to start next week, the person said. The firm has also added portfolio managers this year, including Ricky Mewani from Citadel, Mirza Klis from Marshall Wace, and healthcare-focused Stephen Suarez from Hudson Bay.

Corbets is one of two internal brands at Balyasny that trade stocks solely for the firm; Peter Goodwin's Longaeva Partners began trading roughly a year ago. Multiple brands can serve style or geographic focus, aid retention by letting talent launch entrepreneurial units, and help stock-picking units gain access to executives at public companies through separate sell-side relationships.