Citadel quant MD leaves New York to join hedge fund Balyasny

21 March 2025

2 minute read

Hedge fund Citadel may have made multiple senior engineering hires in 2025, but one of its senior quants who left in 2023 has resurfaced. His destination: Balyasny.

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Johnny Kang, an MD at Citadel and head of research for its convertible arbitrage team, is joining Balyasny's Greenwich, CT office as a portfolio manager. He spent roughly four years at Citadel in New York, and previously spent four years as an MD in the systematic fixed income team at Blackrock in San Francisco. Citadel won't be looking for a replacement for Kang; another member of the team expanded their responsibilities to cover Kang's following his departure.

It's a Greenwich homecoming for Kang, who spent seven and a half years in the city while working as a portfolio manager for quant fund AQR. He left midway through his tenure there to pursue a PhD at Harvard.

Kang isn't the only arrival from Citadel this month. Isai Peimer, a BioTech investor from Citadel Subsidiary Surveyor Capital, joined Balyasny in New York as a portfolio manager in New York. He spent eight years with Citadel, but also left in 2023 and has been on gardening leave for the last 16 months.

Citadel posted returns of over 15% last year, while Balyasny finished the year up 13% and is continuing its performance in 2025. Bloomberg reports that it ended February up 3.5%

Citadel and Balyasny declined to comment.

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