Ilana Weinstein Ilana Weinstein
- Ilana Weinstein is the founder of The IDW Group, which focuses on recruiting investment talent for all kinds of investment strategies.
- We asked Weinstein about the biggest trends in the hedge-fund business and how to get a senior-level job today.
- She says there are four key qualities a founder should have in order to hire and retain the best talent on Wall Street.
llana Weinstein, founder of the The IDW Group, is a tour de force within the hedge-fund industry.
She recruits top-level talent for the world's most prestigious investment firms, including hedge fund managers, family offices, and private equity funds.
Weinstein recently sat down with Business Insider's hedge fund reporter, Rachael Levy, for a wide-ranging interview about the industry. She says fund founders need four key characteristics in order to hire - and keep - the top financial talent.
From the interview:
Levy: What is critical for founders to know to hang on to their best people?
Weinstein: Founders need to provide their people with four things.
- Impact: Their people need to feel like they can impact the bottom line. Even if the founder is the ultimate arbiter of how capital is deployed, if he has the right team they should be able to influence these decisions in a material way.
- Transparency: Clarity around how they are measured; what they need to do to progress; why and how capital gets allocated. This is a pay-for-performance culture, and people need to feel connected to the results of the fund as well on their own trajectory.
- Scope: Measured by remit and access to capital. As people progress they want to do more - maybe it's a sector PM who now wants to expand to other sectors. Founders need to find a way to let talented people develop, or they will lose them.
- Compensation: Obviously an important one and you need to know the market and be in line with that but if the above three are in good shape this one usually is too. It's also the easiest one for a founder to fix.
You can read the full interview with Ilana Weinstein here.