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Ilya Katz

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In the ultra-competitive world of multi-strategy hedge funds, where every portfolio manager seemingly has an Ivy League degree and a sterling résumé, Ilya Katz stands out. One word an Ashler Capital colleague used to describe the under-30 trader: savant. Katz, now a portfolio manager at Citadel's Ashler Capital equities unit at just 29, has spent his short career investing for several billionaires — and earning their trust at an age when most analysts are still trying to get noticed. His journey through Wall Street's most elite firms reads like a curated apprenticeship in healthcare investing. It started at Steve Cohen's Point72 in 2016, where Katz worked as an analyst on a team trading healthcare stocks — including medical device manufacturers — managing a book exceeding $2 billion. He then moved to Cowen as head of healthcare data before rejoining the buy side at Marshall Wace, trading for London billionaires Ian Wace and Paul Marshall under healthcare PM Vijay Shankaran in the firm's Eureka fund. What Katz brings to Citadel is a distinctive blend: quantitative tools and alternative data layered on top of deep fundamental research in therapeutics, biotechnology, and medical technology. His approach to healthcare investing — identifying inflection points in clinical pipelines, regulatory catalysts, and competitive dynamics that pure quant models miss — has made him a prized asset in the talent war that defines modern multi-strategy hedge funds. The move to Citadel, poached from Marshall Wace, signals confidence from Ken Griffin's organization that Katz can generate alpha independently in one of the most complex and information-intensive sectors in equities. Healthcare investing requires not just financial analysis but scientific literacy — understanding Phase III trial data, FDA advisory committee dynamics, and reimbursement landscapes. With only 856 LinkedIn followers, no Twitter presence, no Substack, and no public track record, Katz is among the most genuinely under-the-radar figures on this list. His entire public footprint is a single Business Insider feature. But the firms he's worked for — Point72, Marshall Wace, Citadel — represent the highest tier of discretionary investing talent, and each one chose to bet on him.

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