Bridgewater's Millennial Edge

Karen Karniol-Tambour figured she’d become a professor, like her parents. Instead, at 33, she’s research chief at the world’s biggest hedge fund.

- NathaN Vardi

In August, Karen Karniol-Tambour warned that the U.S. stock market was priced for perfection, making it vulnerable to the sort of sell-off that took place in October. While convinced that in the long term investors need more exposure to Chinese markets, as of late October she wasn’t bullish about China for the short term, either. “It’s a good time to be nervous about financial assets,’’ she says.

Unlike ordinary investors, Karniol-Tambour can do more than wring her hands. As head of investment research at Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, with $160 billion in assets, she directs a 150-person operation that Paul Volcker has described as producing “more relevant statistics and analyses than the Federal Reserve.”

Sitting in her small, spartan office at Bridgewater’s headquarters in Westport, Connecticut, Karniol-Tambour unfolds an 11-by-17 sheet and waves it around. “The only piece of paper I have with me at all times—my current list of projects,” she says. No surprise she won’t share the 25 or so items on the list, but she gives a taste of their scope. One focuses on global impacts on emerging markets; another is creating leading estimates of inflation. While some inquiries will affect the firm’s current investment positions, others are aimed at building its understanding of long-term investment themes.

The projects won’t all get done by year’s end. “Our goal is to hit 70% to 75%, because if you want to hit 100% you probably are not being ambitious enough,” she explains. That comment offers a window into the demanding culture in which Karniol-Tambour has thrived, rising to research chief in 2017 at the age of just 31. That promotion made her one of the higher-profile women (and Millennials) on Wall Street.