Brad Gerstner

Brad Gerstner
Born	Bradley Thomas Gerstner[1] (1971-05-04) May 4, 1971 (age 53) Goshen, Elkhart County, Indiana, U.S.
Alma mater	Wabash College (BA)[1] Indiana University Maurer School of Law (JD) Harvard Business School (MBA)
Occupation(s)	Investor, hedge fund manager
Known for	Founding and leading Altimeter Capital[1]
Spouse	Michelle Boyers ​ (m. 2007)​
Children	2

Bradley Thomas Gerstner (born May 4, 1971) is an American investor and hedge fund manager. He is Founder, chairman and CEO of Altimeter Capital. Gerstner appeared on the 2022 Forbes Midas List after his firm's successful investments in Snowflake and Grab.^[2]

Early life

Gerstner was born on May 4, 1971, in Goshen, a city in Elkhart County, Indiana.^[3][4] His father was Thomas Gerstner and his mother was Martha Burt.^[5]

He attended Wabash College from 1989 to 1993 and graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in Economics and Political Science.^{[3][4][6][7][8]} He also studied abroad at the University of Oxford from 1991 to 1992.^[3][4][6]

From 1993 to 1996, Gerstner attended Indiana University Maurer School of Law and obtained a Juris Doctor degree.^[3][4][7][8] He did day trading to help pay for his law school fees.^[8] After graduation he practiced securities law as a lawyer at Ice Miller LLP and served a term as Deputy Secretary of State of Indiana.^{[3][4][9][10][11]}

In 1999, Gerstner returned to school and attended Harvard Business School where he graduated in 2000 with a Master of Business Administration degree.^{[3][4][7][8][9]} After graduating, Gerstner was a founding principal of General Catalyst, worked at several travel website startups and then worked as a Portfolio Manager for PAR Capital from 2005 to 2008.^[3][4][12]

Altimeter Capital

In 2008, Brad Gerstner founded Altimeter Capital in Boston, Massachusetts.^[8][13] It was launched with less than $3 million from Gerstner's friends and family during the financial crisis of 2008.^[13][14]

In January 2016, Gerstner and the firm fought with United Continental Holdings to change the company's board of directors.^[15] Gerstner put out a statement that stated investors were very disappointed with the poor performance and decision making of the company in recent years.^[15] United Continental Holdings eventually gave in and changed its board of directors.^[16]

In October 2022, Gerstner wrote an open letter to Meta and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.^[17][18] In the letter, Gerstner criticized the company stating it had too many employees and was moving too slowly to retain investor confidence.^[17][18] He recommended reducing the headcount expense by 20% and limiting Metaverse investments to $5 billion per year.^[17][18] A few weeks later, Meta laid off over 11,000 employees.^[19]

In late 2022, Gerstner and the firm acquired Nvidia shares despite market pundits predicting a stock market crash. In early 2023, additional shares were purchased even after the stock price soared after ChatGPT debuted. Gerstner predicted that an “AI supercycle” was on the horizon.^[20]

Personal life

Gerstner married Michelle Boyers on September 30, 2007, at Martha's Vineyard.^[5] The two of them met at Harvard Business School.^[5]

Gerstner is an amateur pilot.^[13]

References

1. "AGCB Company Profile & Executives - Altimeter Growth Corp. 2 Cl A - Wall Street Journal". www.wsj.com.
2. Capital, TrueBridge. "Newcomers To The Midas List 2022: Backing What's Trending At Home And Abroad". Forbes. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
3. "Brad Gerstner's Top 10 Stock Picks". Insider Monkey. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
4. "Altimeter Capital's Brad Gerstner Says Facebook's Management Team is Open, Honest, and Transparent". finance.yahoo.com. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
5. "Michelle Boyers, Bradley Gerstner". The New York Times. September 30, 2007. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
6. College, Wabash. "Wabash Magazine 2020: What Are You Going to Do About This?". Wabash College. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
7. Phocuswright. "Brad Gerstner". www.phocuswrightconference.com. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
8. "Brad Gerstner". Forbes. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
9. "Brad Gerstner". The Sohn Conference Foundation. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
10. MarketScreener. "Bradley Thomas Gerstner - Biography". www.marketscreener.com. Retrieved December 25, 2022.
11. "The State of Secrecy. Clerk training in access laws is". November 26, 2022. Archived from the original on November 26, 2022. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
12. "Brad Gerstner". CNBC. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
13. "Online-Travel King Brad Gerstner Wants Venture Capital Empire". Bloomberg.com. November 7, 2013. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
14. "After Snowflake windfall, Altimeter Capital captures dealmaking spotlight | PitchBook". pitchbook.com. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
15. "Investors push for board shake-up at United Continental Holdings". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
16. Wang, Christine. "United was 'clumsy' at first in scandal, but eventually 'got it right,' investor says". CNBC. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
17. Leswing, Kif. "Meta shareholder writes critical open letter saying company needs to slash headcount and stop spending so much money on 'metaverse'". CNBC. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
18. "Meta Needs to Slash Metaverse Spending to 'Get Mojo Back,' Shareholder Says". Bloomberg.com. October 24, 2022. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
19. Vanian, Jonathan. "Meta laying off more than 11,000 employees: Read Zuckerberg's letter announcing the cuts". CNBC. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
20. Eckert, Adam. "Brad Gerstner Bought Nvidia Stock When 'Everybody Said Sell': Now He's Buying Apple Stock At All-Time Highs - NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)". Benzinga. Retrieved June 15, 2024.