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Education and Work
Education Info
- Grad School:
- Harvard Business School, 1983
M.B.A.
- Grad School:
- , Harvard Law School, 1983
J.D.
- College:
- Yale College, 1979
A.B, Magna Cum Laude,Economics & Political Science
- School:
- Detroit Country Day School (with Honors), 1975
Work Info
- Employer:
- Triangle Development Company LLC
- Position:
- Manager, Chief Executive Officer
- Time Period:
- June, 2005 - December, 2008
- City / Town:
- Clearwater, FL
- Employer:
- Monitor Asset Management
- Position:
- Chairman, Chief Investment Officer
- Time Period:
- January, 2002 - December, 2004
- City / Town:
- Cambridge, MA and Clearwater, FL
- Employer:
- Bulldog Capital Management
- Position:
- Chairman, Chief Investment Officer
- Time Period:
- June, 1992 - December, 2004
- City / Town:
- Clearwater, FL
- Employer:
- Feshbach Brothers
- Position:
- Research Analyst, Limited Partner
- Time Period:
- July, 1987 - May, 1992
- City / Town:
- Palo Alto, CA and Clearwater, FL
- Employer:
- Drexel Burnham Lambert
- Position:
- Associate, Corporate Finance: Real Estate
- Time Period:
- September, 1986 - June, 1987
- City / Town:
- New York, NY
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Blog
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I met with representatives of am institution that was considering investing in my new hedge fund on a recent visit to New York. Then, I met with an old friend that I'll call "Harry."
Harry has a Sales Trader job, which is a person who handles the order for institutional clients such as hedge funds and mutual funds. He had an absolutely successful career, and used to take care of me, I was one of his clients, in my “Ron Pollack Bulldog Days”. We continued to stay in touch with one another,he retired or took a break from trading around the same time I did in 2004.
Harry had various business adventures after leaving Wall Street as did I, some were unrewarding, others were outright unprofitable. After a while, Harry started to miss the game and asked me if I’d ever go back to trading. Really, I miss it also. In early 2008 I informed him I would return to managing money; he was thrilled and was eager to get back into it also.
I had to suspend the start of my new fund because of the market's gyrations late last year. its surprise for me that a always happy and hard working man,harry ,handle million share orders in volatile stocks looked like a depress person. Firms were closing down everywhere, and he was relying on my account for his own return but that was not there.
Who runs a small brokerage firm that caters to hedge funds,soon after seeing Harry I met “Doug.” I thought of Harry and I right away and combined the two. It worked out since Doug offered Harry a trial run, and of course Harry aced it. During his first couple of phone calls about some old accounts, he found a big order and it increased from then on.
He's only worked there for four months, but Harry is already one of the top producers in Doug's company. So it wasn’t surprising that when we met for dinner Harry was beaming. He is earning money, pretty good money and having a good time. I was really happy. Then Harry announced that dinner would be his treat, in fact he said, “Ron Pollack I am going to treat you every time you come to NYC!I was already happy because we were eating at one of the great steakhouses in the City.
,“Every day we’ve been hearing stories of doom and gloom like the end of Wall Street, the end of hedge funds, the end of the world as we know it,toward the end of the evening, I asked Harry this question. Of course things are a mess but I want your perspective about what is different about your current success.Ron, there are a lot of people hurting right now and I truly feel for them, but I am living proof that if you’re good at what you do, have the willingness to work hard and apply yourself and are realistic in your expectations, you can make it and even flourish in times like these,His answer was refreshing and went something like this, he said. Although I'm not making as much as I used to, I cannot say I have anything to complain about. People of our nature are soldiers, we survive and we have to run a business. For people who can somehow find ways to be productive, buisness will always be open.here’s to you my friend!
Keep showing us how it’s done. Sincerely, Ron Pollack.
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My wife and I traveled to Park City in January for a kid-free vacation at the Sundance Film Festival.
The town would be a “zoo”, and traffic all but impossible to manage,we had been warned about that. Fortunately, due to the failing markets and the new president taking office, this just wasn't the case.
There is a strong correlation between Hollywood personalities normally attending Sundance and Hollywood personalities who got invited or felt compelled to attend our recent history-making Presidential Inauguration,apparently.
It was helpful that this was a "quiet" year at Sundance, as it assisted me in learning the ropes, such as how to navigate through the process of obtaining tickets. I think over the course of two weeks at Sundance, I learned 80% of what I need to know in order to achieve the following goals for our next Sundance Festival.:
1) See the films we want to see, including the ones that have “The Buzz”.
2) A guarantee that you will always get the best seats available.
3) Score extra tickets in a heart beat.
4) Leave time between movies so you have enough time to eat.
5) Use less money and time taking care of these goals than I did this last year.
What you experience at The Sundance, totally depends on what you expected it to be. I do not enjoy waiting in line but sometimes I have to in order to keep my wife happy. My key was to become the member of the "Patron Circle." Although I do like to support the arts; the real reason that we donated to the Sundance Institute was so that we could get into the films without standing in line. For some, being able to get into see the film they want is paramount (no pun intended, well, not really). Standing in line for tickets was an expected part of the experience.
One of the benefits is that we enjoyed several of the movies. Push--a truly wrenching movie about abuse which brought me to tears; Spread--a Hollywood romp with Ashton Kutcher which was my wife's "lowbrow" favorite; Good Hair--a somewhat amusing yet still serious documentary from Chris Rock concerning the quest of African American women for non-curly hairdos; 500 Days of Summer--a romantic film with an acid quality--"Man, she's a Dude!"Because of her lack of feminine romantic tendencies,was the line that summed up Zoey Deschanel’s character, as Summer.
Almost daily trips to the Patron Circle Office, to make last minute changes to our ticket selections.
The Bad: Our passes did not give us the right to just show up for a film without prepaid tickets,unfortunately.
A number of "stinkers" we exited: "Unmade Beds", which seemed to be a story about a teenager who had immoral behavior in the UK, however we were unable to sit through it long enough to understand its message, "The Carter", a look into a man who was truly disqusting who even though he was despicable was able to become successful, the joke was on the public and, shockingly, "Motherhood", a very dull piece that wasted Uma Thurman's awesome talent by putting her into a role that someone would see in a horrible sitcom.
We started our Sundance vacation feeling like total strangers to the scene, even though we own a home in Park City since last spring, but somehow the affair grew familiar and somewhat comfortable after a while.
The Surprising:
Getting used to the traffic patterns, hopping on a cab for a ride through the mysterious back streets and alleys of Park City, falling into a few private parties, through "someone who knew someone" who was actually invited; these things almost made it feel as if we were old hands at the scene by the end of our trip,being in the same “breathing zone” as the directors and actors on the stage during the Q&As after each film, not to mention sitting in the same theaters during screenings, being treated very warmly by the ever-friendly staff of the Patron’s Circle Office.
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The art director is doing such a good job: it's really gone from being amateur to almost pro, last night was the school Christmas play. In addition, I was very pleased with the performance of my children. With Rachel's complete confidence it was easy to see the excitement in her face. (She was so precious in that old Dalmatian costume of Nathan's.). They love to sing, and they also got to show some of their gymnastics skills, Levi and Lila also had fun on stage.
Levis' become tennis crazy. He quit gymnastics and goes to tennis clinic almost every afternoon. This guy is going to be good. He's a great all-around athlete, and has always loved anything with a ball. (A mutual friend in the neighborhood who played collegiate baseball, would always comment on our six-year-olds amazing throwing arm, while they played catch, and when he was just a little older he only ever had an interest in shooting hoops.) In the summer it was golfing. But we've been trying to steer him towards tennis for years. We can all play tennis as a family. (you see, whereas my baseball and basketball days are gone). Not only is Levi now inspired, but Mimi and I are starting to play more again too, becuase our city tennis center got a new pro, Eric, who's really good.
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