Arthur Jay Samberg (February 6, 1941 – July 14, 2020) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He founded

Pequot Capital Management Pequot Capital Management was a multibillion-dollar hedge fund sponsor that closed in 2010. The firm's investment funds invested in a range of markets through a variety of strategies. The firm invested in public equities as well as private equi ...

and served as the chief executive officer, president and chairman of the company. Samberg's flagship Pequot fund, started in 1986, netted 17.8percent over the life of the fund. After the fund closed, he managed his family office through Hawkes Financial. He was also a significant contributor to several hospitals and universities, including

New York-Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New ...

and his alma maters Columbia Business School and the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

Early life and education

Arthur Jay Samberg was born on February 6, 1941, to Rena Samberg, a clerical assistant, and Philip Samberg, an electrician. He grew up in the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, four blocks from the

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the orig ...

. When he was eight years old, his family, including his younger brother, moved to

Tenafly, New Jersey Tenafly () is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the borough had a population of 15,409, Arthur grew to and loved playing basketball. He tried out for his high school basketball team every year and finally qualified in his senior year. The 1957 launch of Sputnik 1 had made a large impression on him. After graduating high school in 1958, he studied Aeronautics and Astronautics at the

(MIT). He earned his undergraduate degree in 1962 and worked at

Lockheed Missiles and Space Company Lockheed Missiles and Space Company (LMSC) was a unit of the Lockheed Corporation "Missiles, Space, and Electronics Systems Group." LMSC was started by Willis Hawkins who served as its president. After Lockheed merged with Martin-Marietta the ...

for three years as a satellite control systems engineer in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

. While at Lockheed, Samberg worked on the

Polaris missile The UGM-27 Polaris missile was a two-stage solid-fueled nuclear-armed submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM). As the United States Navy's first SLBM, it served from 1961 to 1980. In the mid-1950s the Navy was involved in the Jupiter missi ...

and, at the same time, he earned his M.S. from Stanford University but came to believe he would not make a good engineer. He became interested in the stock market and enrolled in the business school at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

, earning his

M.B.A. A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as account ...

in 1967.

Career

Samberg began his career in the investment industry as an analyst at Kidder, Peabody & Co. in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. In 1970, he was the first professional hire at the start-up investment management company Weiss, Peck & Greer. He later assumed a partner role, and he additionally served on the management committee during his last five years with the firm. During his 15-year tenure, Weiss, Peck & Greer grew to $8billion in assets under management. In 1985, he became a founder and the president of Dawson–Samberg Capital Management, Inc., in

Southport, Connecticut Southport is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Fairfield, Connecticut. It is located along Long Island Sound between Mill River and Sasco Brook, where it borders Westport. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 1,710. Settle ...

, where the following year they established the first Pequot hedge fund. In its first year, the fund lost 20 percent before becoming successful in subsequent years. In 1999, Samberg spun out his funds into the newly formed

, where Daniel C. Benton joined him as co-founder. By 2001, Pequot was the largest hedge fund globally with $15billion in assets under management. That year, he and Benton decided to split their hedge fund, each taking $7.5billion in assets. Samberg's firm kept Pequot as its name while Benton formed Andor Capital Management. Since joining in 2003, Samberg was a life member of the MIT Corporation and a member of its executive committee. He also served as chairman of the MIT Investment Management Company, sat on the board of the MIT Energy Initiative, and was on the dean's advisory council of the MIT School of Science. In 2004, the SEC began an investigation of Pequot's trading in the securities, including trades by funds for which Samberg was the portfolio manager. The SEC also involved the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York. An area of focus of the investigations was Samberg's hiring of David Zilkha, who previously had been employed by

Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washingt ...

, and subsequent trading in Microsoft securities in 2001. In late 2006, the investigation was closed without filing any charges or taking other action, but was reopened in late December 2008. In May 2010, Pequot and Samberg resolved this matter by agreeing to a settlement whereby, without admitting or denying the allegations, Pequot and Samberg consented to be permanently enjoined from violating the

anti-fraud Fraud deterrence has gained public recognition and spotlight since the 2002 inception of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Of the many reforms enacted through Sarbanes-Oxley, one major goal was to regain public confidence in the reliability of financial mark ...

provisions of the federal securities law and to pay disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and civil money penalties. As of 2008, Pequot managed approximately $5billion in assets. In 2009, Samberg decided to shut down Pequot Capital. He continued to manage his family's holdings through Hawkes Financial. His family firm was a lead investor in

TAE Technologies TAE Technologies, formerly Tri Alpha Energy, is an American company based in Foothill Ranch, California developing aneutronic fusion power. The company's design relies on an advanced beam-driven field-reversed configuration (FRC), which combin ...

, a company working towards a new source of clean energy, and Samberg served as chairman of the company.

Philanthropy

Samberg and his wife, Rebecca, co-founded the Samberg Family Foundation to "support various health, education, and Jewish causes in the New York area and nationally". The Sambergs were a founding contributor of

Birthright Israel Taglit-Birthright Israel ( he, תגלית), also known as Birthright Israel or simply Birthright, is a not-for-profit educational organization that sponsors free ten-day heritage trips to Israel, Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights for young adult ...

. Their foundation has also made significant contributions to several organizations including Avodah, College Summit, Harlem Children's Zone, Health Leads, and

Peer Health Exchange Peer Health Exchange is a 501(c)(3) health education organization based in Oakland, California. The organization trains college student volunteers to teach skills-based health education in public high schools in low-income communities that lack c ...

. He was a board member of the Children's Hospital of New York, College Summit, and the

New York Genome Center The New York Genome Center (NYGC) is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit academic research institution in New York, New York. It serves as a multi-institutional collaborative hub focused on the advancement of genomic science and its application t ...

. He also served on the national board of directors of the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship and as senior chair of the Wall Street and Financial Services Division of the

United Jewish Appeal The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) was a Jewish philanthropic umbrella organization that existed from its creation in 1939 until it was folded into the United Jewish Communities, which was formed from the 1999 merger of United Jewish Appeal (UJA), Co ...

. Arthur was a trustee and member of the executive and investment committees of

. He supported the arts as one of the directors of Jazz at Lincoln Center and chairman emeritus of the

Jacob Burns Film Center The Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) is a nonprofit cultural arts center located in Pleasantville, New York. It occupies the old Rome Theater, a Spanish mission-style theater built in 1925. Along with independent and documentary films, the cente ...

. In the early 2000s, he also served on the board of overseers of the

Center for Jewish History The Center for Jewish History is a partnership of five Jewish history, scholarship, and art organizations in New York City: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute New York, Yeshiva University Museu ...

. In 2006, Samberg and fellow alumni Russell L. Carson and Henry R. Kravis together donated a total of $45million to Columbia Business School; out of the total contribution, $25million was solely donated by Samberg. In 2012, Samberg and his wife gave $25million to New York-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital. The donation made possible the Samberg Scholars in Children's Health Program, an initiative to recruit and train as many as 40 top scholars in pediatric medicine. The Sambergs also established a scholarship at MIT and funded a building at MIT, the Samberg Conference Center. In 2016, Samberg donated $50million to Blue Meridian Partners, a collaboration led the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation that plans to invest at least a billion dollars over the following decade towards proven charities to benefit children. The Sambergs are also supporters of the Ossining Children's Center in Ossining, New York. In July 2019, the center broke ground on the Rebecca and Arthur Samberg Building, a facility for the education of children under 12 years old.

Personal life

Samberg continued to play basketball as an adult. He installed a basketball court next to the trading floor at Pequot. As a celebration of his 59th birthday, Samberg climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2000. A few months later, while playing doubles tennis, he collapsed with a pain in his chest. He was diagnosed with a

birth defect A birth defect, also known as a congenital disorder, is an abnormal condition that is present at birth regardless of its cause. Birth defects may result in disabilities that may be physical, intellectual, or developmental. The disabilities ca ...

in his

aorta The aorta ( ) is the main and largest artery in the human body, originating from the left ventricle of the heart and extending down to the abdomen, where it splits into two smaller arteries (the common iliac arteries). The aorta distributes o ...

and underwent emergency surgery. It took him six months to get back to work. Samberg died of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

at his home on July 14, 2020, at the age of 79. He was married to Rebecca Samberg for 56 years until his death. He is also survived by their three children, Jeff, Joe, and Laura, and seven grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samberg, Arthur 1941 births 2020 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople American Jews American aerospace engineers American chief executives of financial services companies American financiers American hedge fund managers Businesspeople from New York City Columbia Business School alumni Engineers from New York City MIT School of Engineering alumni People from the Bronx Place of death missing Stanford University alumni