Oliver Weisberg, a managing director of Citadel, has quit after nine years. Oliver is currently engaged with a family office for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) and is helping to run it.
Weisberg will leave his job at Citadel at the end of June according to Katie Spring, a Chicago-based spokeswoman for Citadel. There were no responses from Weisberg over the matter.
The new family office that Weisberg will be joining was set up by Joseph Tsai, Alibaba’s Vice Chairman. The family office will also be managing the wealth of other founders of Alibaba. Alibaba has a market cap of over $200 billion.
Tsai has a net worth of $5.4 billion. He plans to create an exclusive investment program that generates long-term steady returns for a few select families. The news was divulged by a spokesman for Tsai, who did not give any further details.
The U.S. IPO of Alibaba in September, last year make billionaires out of Tsai and Jack Ma, the Chairman of Alibaba. Jack Ma with a net worth of $35.4 billion is the richest man in Asia. According to reports, Jack Ma is not a participant in the family office but may participate in future.
Weisberg will be managing the family firm with Alexander West. Alexander has been running the Blue Pool Capital. The news of a family office was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal.
Weisberg joined Citadel in 2006 after ending his tenure at Deutsche Bank AG in Hong Kong. He has also been a part of Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS).
The new family office signals the arrival of wealthy Chinese businessmen on the global investment scene. These are mainly executives who cashed in on the Chinese Internet boom. The new generation of wealthy Chinese are backing friend’s technology ventures and supporting a younger crop of investment managers. The generation of Chinese super rich are different from the previous ones who made their fortune primarily though real estate.
