Third Point LLC

Dan Loeb

Daniel Loeb is the founder and chief executive of Third Point, a New York-based hedge fund he started in 1995 with $3.3 million raised from family and friends. A Columbia University economics graduate (class of 1983, after a stint at UC Berkeley), Loeb reached investing by an unusual path: a stretch at the private equity firm Warburg Pincus, a corporate-development job at the record label Island Records, and work in distressed debt and risk arbitrage at Jefferies and Citigroup. That mix shaped an event-driven style built on deep fundamental analysis and a willingness to bet on a company's turnaround. Third Point is an activist shop. Loeb builds stakes in underperforming companies and pushes for management changes, operational fixes, and strategic restructuring, pressing his case in sharply worded letters to boards that have become his signature. He concentrates in special situations, distressed debt, and risk arbitrage, holding catalysts-driven positions while he agitates for change. Campaigns over the years have targeted Sony, Sotheby's, and Seven & I Holdings in Japan. The campaign that made his name came in 2012 at Yahoo. After the firm accumulated a large stake and demanded board seats, Loeb exposed that the newly hired chief executive, Scott Thompson, had inflated his résumé with a computer science degree he never earned; Thompson was ousted and Loeb took a board seat. Outside investing, Loeb has been a prominent force in education reform, serving as chairman of Success Academy Charter Schools and supporting philanthropic causes through the Third Point Foundation.