Israel Englander

Israel Englander
Israel Englander
Born	1948; Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York City, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Hedge fund manager, investor
Years active	1977–present
Known for	Co-founder and CEO of Millennium Management

Israel Alexander Englander (born 1948) is a prominent American billionaire who manages hedge funds. In 1989, he co-established Millennium Management alongside Ronald Shear, initiating the fund with million in capital. By October 2024, Millennium was overseeing assets totaling billion.

As of March 2025, Forbes valued Englander's net worth at approximately US$14.2 billion.

Early life and education

Englander was born in 1948 into a Polish-Jewish family residing in the Crown Heights area of Brooklyn. Raised in a devout household, he attended a yeshiva. His family survived both the Holocaust and Soviet labor camps before relocating to the United States in 1947.

He began engaging in stock trading during his high school years and gained experience through internships at Oppenheimer & Co. and the New York Stock Exchange while attending college. Englander earned a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from New York University in 1970. His initial professional position was with the Wall Street firm Kaufmann, Alsberg & Co.. Although he enrolled in NYU’s MBA evening program afterward, he did not complete the degree.

Early business career

While at Kaufmann Alsberg, Englander focused on trading convertible securities and options. When options became available on the American Stock Exchange, he acquired a seat there. In 1977, he established his own floor brokerage firm named I.A. Englander & Co.

In 1985, together with John Mulheren Jr., Englander launched Jamie Securities Co., backed by $75 million from Canada’s Belzberg family. Mulheren had previously worked with Ivan Boesky, who was later convicted for insider trading and testified against Mulheren. Mulheren himself faced arrest and an initial conviction related to illegal stock transactions tied to Boesky; however, that conviction was eventually overturned. Englander was never implicated in these events, yet due to the adverse publicity, Jamie Securities ceased operations in 1988.

Millennium Management

In 1989, Englander co-founded Millennium Management with Ronald Shear, securing $35 million in initial funding—including $5 million from Englander himself and $2 million from the Belzberg family. After encountering early challenges and Shear’s exit in 1990, Englander grew Millennium into a leading investment firm managing $39.2 billion in assets. The company employs a variety of investment methods such as statistical arbitrage, fundamental long-short strategies, merger arbitrage, and convertible arbitrage. Millennium maintains thousands of positions and carries out over 10 million trades each day. By late 2019, it had expanded to 2,900 employees operating out of more than a dozen offices across the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Personal life

Englander was married to Caryl (née Schechter) Englander until 2023; they have three children together. In 2014, he set a record for a Manhattan co-op by purchasing a duplex on New York City's Park Avenue for $71.3 million. Later, in 2022, he acquired a $20 million apartment near Les Invalides in Paris that was formerly owned by the Bettencourt family, founders of L'Oréal.

Wealth and philanthropy

The Englander Foundation, led by Israel and his wife, contributed $20 million primarily to Jewish schools and organizations in 2006. He holds board memberships at Weill Cornell Medical College and the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. In March 2019, Forbes recognized him as one of the top-earning hedge fund managers and traders worldwide.

External links

Interview with Izzy Englander, part 2 on Opalesque.tv accessed March 23, 2013