Peter Fitzhugh Brown (born February 2, 1955) is the CEO of the American hedge fund Renaissance Technologies.^[1]

Education and career

After graduating from Harvard University with a B.A. in mathematics, Peter F. Brown joined a team at Exxon Office Systems that was working on computer systems to transcribe spoken language into computer text.^[2] Later he earned a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University.^[1] In 1984 he joined the IBM speech group, working on computer software to transcribe spoken text. The group, led by Frederick Jelinek, included Robert Mercer and several other mathematicians, statisticians, and scientists.^[2][3]

To them, language could be modeled like a game of chance. At any point in a sentence, there exists a certain probability of what might come next, which can be estimated based on past, common usage. ... each step along the way is random, yet dependent on the previous step—a hidden Markov model. A speech-recognition system's job was to take a set of observed sounds, crunch the probabilities, and make the best possible guess about the "hidden" sequences of words that could have generated these sounds. To do that, the IBM researchers employed the Baum-Welch algorithm—codeveloped by Jim Simons's early trading partner Lenny Baum—to zero in on the various language probabilities. Rather than manually programming in static knowledge about how the language worked, they created a program that learned from data.^[4]

Brown (unsuccessfully) urged IBM management to use the speech group's research to develop and sell new products, such as an automated service for evaluation of financial credit.^[5] He successfully convinced Abe Peled, a high-level executive in IBM's Research Division, to hire the Carnegie Mellon research team that was programming a computer to play chess. The team, working for IBM, developed Deep Blue, which defeated Garry Kasparov in a 1997 chess match.^[6]

Jim Simons offered to double Peter Brown's and Robert Mercer's IBM salaries, and they went to work for Renaissance Technologies in 1993.^[7] Brown and Mercer were responsible for hiring David Magerman in 1995.^[8] In 1995 Brown and Mercer implemented a new, improved trading system that incorporated all of the trading signals and portfolio requirements of Renaissance Technologies into a monolithic, new, and improved trading system. Soon afterward, they were promoted to senior managers and partners with percentages of the profits of Renaissance Technologies.^[9] Magerman found and fixed two serious software bugs in Brown and Mercer's trading system.^[10]In 1997 Simons gave a 10% equity stake to Henry Laufer and, later, gave sizable equity stakes to Brown, Mercer, and others. Simons thus reduced his equity stake to very slightly over 50%.^[11] As Jim Simons became more confident, he moved the firm into a new headquarters compound with a gym, lighted tennis courts, a library with a fireplace, and a large auditorium, where biweekly seminars were held.^[12]

Intense and energetic, Brown hustled from meeting to meeting, riding a unicycle through the halls and almost running over colleagues. Brown worked much of the night on a computer near the Murphy bed in his office, grabbing a nap when he tired.^[13]

In 2003 Simons announced that Brown and Mercer would become executive vice-presidents of the entire firm, co-managing with Simons himself.^[14] In 2010 Simons made Brown and Mercer co-CEOS and retired.^[15] In November 2017, Mercer announced that he would resign from Renaissance Technologies.^[16] Since Mercer's resignation, Brown has been the sole CEO.^[1]

Family

Peter F. Brown, a son of [Henry Bedinger Rust Brown (born 1926)], married to [ Dr. Margaret Ann "Peggy" Hamburg (born 1955) , who is the daughter of Dr. David Allen Hamburg (born 1925) ] on May 23, 1992.^[17] They have two children.^[18]

References

1. ^

2. Jump up to:

3. ^{a b c} "Peter Brown". Simons Foundation.

4. ^

5. Jump up to:

6. ^{a b} Zuckerman, Gregory (2019). The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution. Penguin/Portfolio. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-7352-1798-0; hbk, 1st edition

7. ^ "Patents by Inventor Peter Fitzhugh Brown". Justia Patents.

8. ^ The Man Who Solved the Market. pp. 173–174.

9. ^ The Man Who Solved the Marked. p. 177.

10. ^ The Man Who Solved the Market. p. 178.

11. ^ The Man Who Solved the Marker. p. 180.

12. ^ The Man Who Solved the Market. pp. 181–182.

13. ^ The Man Who Solved the Market. pp. 189–190.

14. ^ The Man Who Solved the Market. pp. 193–195.

15. ^ The Man Who Solved the Market. p. 201.

16. ^ The Man Who Solved the Market. p. 205.

17. ^ The Man Who Solved the Market. p. 206.

18. ^ The Man Who Solved the Market. p. 230.

19. ^ The Man Who Solved the Market. p. 265.

20. ^ Goldstein, Matthew; Kelly, Kate; Confessore, Nicholas (2017-11-02). "Robert Mercer, Bannon Patron, Is Leaving Helm of $50 Billion Hedge Fund". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.

21. ^ "Name: Hamburg, Margaret". allgov.com.

22. ^ "Margaret Hamburg's House, Washington, D.C."virtualglobetrotting.com.