Entrepreneur of the Year
Given to women who have pursued, and succeeded on, an entrepreneurial path in the financial markets.
Nancy Havens-Hasty, founder, president, and chief investment officer, Havens Partners
Earning the best return for investors is what drives Nancy Havens-Hasty.
Its just that plain and simple.
If I had to say what Im most motivated by, Id say it was earning money for my clients, Havens-Hasty said. And its something I enjoy every single moment of the day.
With more than 30 years in the investment world, Havens-Hasty must love what she does. Shes run money almost her entire career, starting as an investment banker at Bear Stearns back in 1979. She spent the first seven years there in the risk arbitrage department, where she founded and managed the international risk arbitrage effort. It was there she got her first taste of making money for clients, running the firms domestic arbitrage portfolio. She went on to head the bankruptcy department in 1987 and then in 1991 to co-head the high-yield group.
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What resonated with me was making the right investments that made money, she said. It was very fun to figure all the complexities in these circumstances and see which were to going to happen and those that werent.
Working at one of Wall Street highest-powered investment banks, though, proved to be a learning experience for Havens-Hasty. As she rapidly ascended through the ranks and took on more responsibilities, she found herself moving further away from her true love-earning for her clients-as other responsibilities crowded her time. In 1995 she was ready for a change.
As you get higher and higher within an organization, it becomes less and less about investing, she said of her rise within Bear Stearns. I wanted to be at the investing level, not out of the game. I get my kicks primarily out of investing and not so much from being part of a very large organization.
While she described her time at Bear Stearns as terrific, she simply wanted to get back to her roots of investing. Havens-Hasty then began her plan to return to her roots and go to a smaller company that would fulfill that mission. Thus, in the fall of 1995, she began to set up her own hedge fund and firm, Havens Partners.
Havens-Hasty, along with two other people and $35 million, opened the firms doors in 1996. Now, 16 years later, the hedge fund has 10 people and an office in New Yorks hedge fund district in midtown Manhattan. She runs hundreds of millions of dollars in client money and loves her smaller firm and doing what she does best: making money for clients.
Theres an advantage to being smaller, she said, and thats being able to get into and out of positions quickly.
