The 25 rising stars of Wall Street in 2021

Kori Estrada, 35, Axon Capital

Kori Estrada is one of the few women responsible for investing in a hedge fund and has seen first-hand how much the industry has changed over the past decade.

“I think there has been so much change, at least since I started in this industry, on the diversity side, which is really great to see,” Estrada, co-CIO of ‘Axon Capital at $ 500 million.

“But there hasn’t really been a lot of change in terms of female PMs who actually run hedge funds, which is a little disappointing,” she added, using the acronym for portfolio manager.

As an undergraduate student at Columbia University, Estrada was determined to play lacrosse professionally, but soon after her first practice she realized she had no intention to pursue sport after university. She decided to explore Wall Street instead.

Estrada lacks the competitive aspect of lacrosse which is why she is an investor.

“It’s one of the few jobs you can have where every day, Monday through Friday, you can see on the dashboard how you’re doing,” she said. “And there is something really satisfying about that.”

She joined UBS in 2017 as an investment banking analyst and saw the impact of the financial crisis on a large financial institution. She learned what it means to be risk averse, which informs her about how she invests today. After a stint at Shumway Capital, she joined Axon in 2011.

She was promoted to CIO in early 2019, a title she shares with Axon founder and former Goldman partner Dinakar Singh.

Over the past several months, Estrada and Singh have been more cautious of the markets and predict that economic growth will slow along with the profits of S&P 500 companies. They are excited about the investments of private companies and corporations. specialized acquisition. Axon recently launched its first

SPAC
and plans to deploy two more.

In her spare time, Estrada runs a sustainable toothpaste business called RiseWell, which started in 2019 and is largely self-funded. The company has another investor, Singh.

“He believed in the business early on and he also gave me the opportunity to manage both Axon’s portfolio and work on this idea,” she said.