TOPLINE
Former Bridgewater Associates chief executive Eileen Murray, one of the top women in the hedge fund industry, filed a lawsuit to obtain a court order that public disclosures of her gender discrimination dispute with the hedge fund The world’s largest don’t override it right to earn millions of dollars of deferred compensation.
Eileen Murray speaks at the Milken Institute World Conference in April 2019.
KEY FACTS
In her lawsuit, filed Friday in Connecticut federal court, Murray says Bridgewater told her in writing on July 14 that her public disclosures about her dispute with the company will lead to the loss of her deferred compensation, which she says could vary from $ 20 million to $ 100 million.
Murray said he had disclosed the information to Finra, a regulatory agency he now chairs, and called the company’s attempt to withhold payment an “inappropriate gambit to silence his voice” and a “cynical plan to intimidate and silence her.”
Murray has been negotiating his exit package for three months because his offer was less than what the company paid to lower-level male employees, one of his advisers told Bloomberg.
The same adviser said there was a pattern: It was the third time since 2017 that the company offered him compensation that was lower than that of male colleagues at the same level.
Murray worked at Bridgewater for over a decade and became a co-CEO in 2013; In December 2019, she and the company announced that they thought it was a good time to move forward “with the transition of company management on a solid foundation.”
The firm said it was part of “the next phase of its successful 10-year leadership transition,” which began in 2011 when billionaire founder Ray Dalio said it would begin to transfer management responsibilities and capital ownership “to the next. generation of Bridgewater leaders. ” “
key background
Murray’s compensation included phantom capital in Bridgewater, a type of capital that tracks the company’s income and allows employees to receive a cut in earnings after they leave. Current and former employees told the Wall street journal in January Dalio tried to reduce part of that compensation. The company said in a statement that no compensation to which it was entitled was withheld. Although a succession plan has been in the works for more than a decade, Dalio is reportedly still making the decisions.
tangent
On Friday Wall street journal He reported that Bridgewater would cut dozens of jobs. Bridgewater veterans over 15 years old were reportedly among the people with a multi-day notice before being fired by Zoom. Bridgewater has also postponed the start date for most incoming first-year analysts until next year.
Big number
$ 140 billion. Those are the company’s assets under management at the end of June, down from $ 168 billion at the end of last year.
Further reading
Former Bridgewater co-CEO Murray intensifies dispute with company (Bloomberg)
Former Bridgewater Associates CEO Eileen Murray sues the firm (Wall street journal)
Bridgewater Associates fires several dozen employees (Wall street journal)
Ray Dalio continues to operate his $ 160 billion hedge fund machine (Wall street journal)
