Jonathan J. Rubinstein will join Bridgewater Associates as co-CEO in May, part of a decadelong management transition.
Mr. Rubinstein will replace Greg Jensen as co-CEO, allowing Mr. Jensen, who also serves as co-chief investment officer, to focus exclusively on investment management, Bridgewater said in a letter to its clients Thursday.
Bridgewater's partnership model pairs a management committee, led by Eileen Murray, the other co-CEO, and Mr. Rubenstein, with a stakeholders committee — “essentially Bridgewater's board of directors” — that Raymond T. Dalio and Craig Mundie oversee as co-executive chairmen, the company's letter stated.
The management committee runs the company, and the stakeholder team has “primary responsibility for assessing the CEOs and management committee.”
Aside from Mr. Jensen's move to concentrate on investment management, Bridgewater's client letter did not outline any other management changes in the top ranks of the firm. Mr. Jensen shares the co-CIO role with Robert Prince and Mr. Dalio.
“For a number of years, we have been transitioning from an entrepreneurial firm run by its founder (Mr. Dalio) to an institution run by many people,” the Bridgewater letter stated, noting that beginning in 2010, management responsibilities and equity ownership have been transferred from Mr. Dalio to “the next generation of Bridgewater leaders.”
Bridgewater's management transition likely will be completed over the next four to five years.
Mr. Rubinstein, an electrical engineer and computer scientist by training, is well-known for technology innovations he helped to launch at NeXT, Apple, Palm and Hewlett-Packard. He currently serves in the board of Amazon.com and Qualcomm.
Mr. Rubinstein's appointment is timely as Bridgewater continues to build out the systemized decision-making process used in investment management activities and migrate that technology to business management of the company.
“Jon's track record of building world-class products will be a tremendous boost to the efforts we already have underway,” Bridgewater's letter said.
Bridgewater manages $154 billion in alternative investment strategies for institutional investors.