Early Life and Education
Israel Alexander Englander, known as Izzy, was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1948, to Polish-Jewish immigrants. Raised in a religious household, he attended yeshiva. His father's family perished in the Holocaust. His parents, after being deported to a Soviet labor camp, immigrated to the United States in 1947. Englander's interest in the stock market started early; he began trading stocks while in high school. He graduated with a B.S. in finance from New York University in 1970.
Rise to Success
Englander started his professional career at Kaufmann, Alsberg & Co., where he traded convertible securities and options. In 1977, he established his own brokerage house, I.A. Englander & Co.. In 1985, he co-founded Jamie Securities Co. with John Mulheren Jr.. His significant breakthrough came in 1989 when he founded Millennium Management with Ronald Shear, starting with $35 million. Since its founding, Millennium Management has achieved significant success, delivering an average annual return of approximately 14%.
Key Business Strategies
Millennium Management employs a multi-strategy approach, allocating capital to numerous independent trading teams. This decentralized model allows for diverse investment strategies across various asset classes and geographies. The firm focuses on risk management, imposing strict stop-loss requirements on its managers. Englander’s strategy includes quantitative analysis, fundamental long-short investing, and merger and convertible arbitrage.
Philanthropy
Englander is involved in philanthropy, mainly through the Englander Foundation, which supports Jewish organizations, education, healthcare, and the arts. In 2006, the Englander Foundation donated $20 million to Jewish organizations and schools. Englander serves on the board of Weill Cornell Medical College and the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.
