From Grokipedia
Full articleGabriel Plotkin (born 1978) is an American investor and former hedge fund manager who founded Melvin Capital Management in 2014, a long-short equity hedge fund named after his late grandfather. Plotkin built Melvin into a multi-billion-dollar firm with average annualized returns of approximately 30% from 2014 to 2020, drawing on his prior experience as a portfolio manager at SAC Capital Advisors' Sigma Capital division, where he honed a strategy focused on consumer and retail sector shorts.
The fund's fortunes reversed dramatically in early 2021 amid the GameStop short squeeze, during which Melvin incurred losses exceeding 50% of its assets under management in January alone, necessitating a $2.75 billion bailout from Citadel LLC and Point72 Asset Management. Despite partial recovery efforts, persistent investor redemptions and market volatility prompted Plotkin to liquidate Melvin's portfolio and cease operations in May 2022, returning remaining capital to investors.
Post-Melvin, Plotkin shifted focus to sports ownership and alternative investments, acquiring a minority stake in the NBA's Charlotte Hornets in 2019—which he expanded to become co-chairman and rotating co-governor—and co-founding Tallwoods Capital, a family office-style investment vehicle. Raised in Portland, Maine, and educated with a bachelor's degree in economics from Northwestern University, Plotkin exemplifies the high-stakes volatility inherent in concentrated short-selling strategies within hedge fund management.
In brief
Gabe Plotkin made his name in equity trading and opened Melvin Capital, a fund the 2021 meme-stock episode made briefly famous. He later launched Tallwoods and shifted more of his public identity to basketball.
Owning the Hornets is a second act with a scoreboard. The markets taught him risk; the arena is a different kind of crowd.
Photographs
Hero photograph: Wikimedia Commons
