Jeff Tannenbaum's Next Act Will Be Green

Jeff Tannenbaum made his fortune through investing; now he’s investing that fortune.

- Brian Eckhouse And Chris Martin

He’s chairman emeritus at New York-based Fir Tree Capital Management LP, the hedge fund he founded in 1994, though he began handing over investment responsibilities in the early 2000s and had ceased day-to-day portfolio management by the middle of the decade. In recent years the firm has struggled with staff departures, soured investments, and a drop in assets of more than half from a peak of $13 billion in 2015.

Now, Tannenbaum, 56, is again managing a portfolio. This time he’s running his own money at a new firm called Titan Grove. After more than a decade of advocating for clean energy to address climate change, he created Titan Grove to fund growing businesses rooted in sustainability.

“I probably couldn’t do this at Fir Tree,” Tannenbaum says. Fir Tree’s clients “sign up for classic value investing. Investments have to be very large. Here I can do startups. I can do smaller investments and investments with longer time horizons.”

Then there’s sustainability. Fir Tree has taken stakes in energy companies such as Ultra Petroleum Corp., a gas driller whose shares plunged more than 90 percent in 2018. “The move into distressed oil and gas investments occurred well after I relinquished portfolio control,” Tannenbaum says. “I remain a large investor in Fir Tree’s funds but am in a share class where I do not participate in any future fossil-fuel-related investments.”