Ray Dalio is stepping down from managing the world's biggest hedge fund firm amid a company-wide shakeup

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Ray Dalio

YouTube / Rich Talk

Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio.

Ray Dalio, who oversees the world's biggest hedge fund firm, is stepping down from management amid a company-wide shakeup.

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Dalio will stop managing Bridgewater Associates by mid-April, according to a client note Wednesday reviewed by Business Insider. Dalio said in the note that he had "temporarily stepped back into management" ten months ago to help transition Greg Jensen's co-CEO role.

Dalio will remain co-chief investment officer along with Bob Prince and Greg Jensen. Dalio wrote that he "expect[s] to remain a professional investor at Bridgewater until I die or until those running Bridgewater don't want me anymore."

Bridgewater is the world's biggest hedge fund firm, managing about $103 billion in its hedge funds as of mid-year 2016, according to the HFI Billion Dollar Club ranking.

Bridgewater's culture is famously unusual and difficult, and its leadership team has likened it to "an intellectual Navy SEALs." In its world of "radical transparency" and "radical truth," employees rate each other's performance in real-time on proprietary iPad apps, and nearly all meetings are recorded to be available for scrutiny. The company reports that 30% of employees leave the company within their first two years.

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There are also a slew of other changes, announced in the client note:

  • "David McCormick will be stepping up to join Eileen Murray in the co-CEO role."
  • Jon Rubenstein is leaving Bridgewater after ten months (he was previously also co-CEO) because he did not fit into Bridgewater's culture, Dalio wrote. Rubenstein, who previously worked for Apple's Steve Jobs, will continue to advise the firm.
  • "Osman Nalbantoglu (who has been at Bridgewater for nine years) continues to run our portfolio implementation and trading/execution areas, and eight of our key investment research associates will step up into senior researcher roles."
  • "Carsten Stendevad, the former CEO of the large Danish pension fund ATP, is joining Bridgewater as part of our new "Bridgewater Senior Fellowship Program," which will bring highly distinguished individuals into Bridgewater for a year to explore what our culture is like and lend their expertise and insights to our organization."
  • "John Megrue joined me as a co-chairman on January 1st. John has been a leader in the private equity industry for over 30 years and is currently chairman of Apax Partners US"