- A Two Sigma chief investment officer has taken a medical leave, Insider has learned.
- The firm announced the leave of Alex Ginsburg, CIO of equities, to investors and employees in July.
- The fund is also grappling with governance and management issues related to its feuding founders.
A senior Two Sigma investment executive has taken a leave of absence from the firm, Insider has learned.
Alex Ginsburg, a 21-year company veteran and chief investment officer for equities research, has stepped away from his role at the hedge fund to take a medical leave, according to people familiar with the matter.
The company notified investors of the executive’s departure and announced it internally in mid-July, along with other personnel changes including the appointment of Jeff Penney and Timothy Reynolds as interim co-chief operating officers, according to people familiar with the matter.
Two Sigma chief data strategist Ali-Milan Nekmouche, who has been with the company since 2004, has been named as Ginsburg’s replacement. A Two Sigma spokesperson declined to specify who would be taking over Nekmouche’s role.
Ginsburg’s leave is the latest complication for the firm, coming on the heels of public revelations of an acrimonious struggle between Two Sigma founders David Siegel and John Overdeck.
In a March securities filing, Two Sigma alerted investors to the risks posed to the firm by the feuding founders and their inability to agree on critical business matters. Siegel and Overdeck have been locked in a yearslong power struggle over the direction of the $60 billion quant trading firm, including disagreements over corporate governance, succession plans, defining top executives’ roles, and the way teams are organized.
The company has said the infighting threatens to impact recruiting, retention, and employees’ ability to do their jobs.
The Wall Street Journal reported on June 20 that in 2022 a group of executives, including Ginsburg and Geoffrey Duncombe, another chief investment officer, had “threatened to resign if Siegel didn’t step back at the firm,” citing people familiar with the matter. Siegel did not leave the firm and the group ended up staying at Two Sigma, the Journal reported.
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