Balyasny’s Corbets unit sees investor departures as hedge fund revamps stock-picking team

Balyasny Asset Management's Corbets Capital unit, the fundamental stock-picking arm of the $37 billion hedge fund, is undergoing leadership and staffing changes after two prominent investors departed earlier this month. According to two people familiar with the matter, as first reported by Business Insider, Thomas Stephens and Kevin Cottrell are no longer at the firm. Stephens led Corbets from its 2022 launch until about a year ago and had also run a financial services portfolio until recently. He joined Balyasny in 2018 after roles at Millennium Management and Citadel. Cottrell, a technology-focused portfolio manager, joined Corbets at the end of 2023 after running his own fund, KCL Capital, and previously traded at Point72 Asset Management. The biographies of both have since been removed from the unit's website.

Corbets is now led by portfolio managers Alberto Mann, Mitul Shah, and David Corwin, according to a person close to the manager. The unit's website showed 15 portfolio management teams and nearly 100 investment professionals at the start of June. The unit also lost head of trading Ali Lombardo earlier this year; she has joined Viking Global in the same role. Her replacement, Ted Drury, former head of trading for UBS's O'Connor fund, is set to start next week.

The departures come as Balyasny posts a gain of less than 1% through September, and as the firm continues to reshape its equities business. Balyasny has added portfolio managers this year, including Ricky Mewani from Citadel, former Marshall Wace analyst Mirza Klis, and healthcare-focused Stephen Suarez from Hudson Bay, indicating continued investment in talent despite muted performance. Corbets is one of two internal brands that trade equities solely for the firm; the other, Longaeva Partners, is run by former Point72 investor Peter Goodwin and began trading roughly a year ago. Running multiple internal brands allows a platform to separate investment styles, aid recruitment and retention, and give sell-side firms distinct clients for access to corporate executives.