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| Corporate access has become a selling point for the biggest hedge funds. Getty Images; Tyler Le |
In today’s hedge fund world, information isn’t just power proximity is. And no proximity is more valuable than time with a C-suite executive.
Corporate access, once a shared and relatively egalitarian resource in the hedge fund ecosystem, has become the latest battleground between the industry’s elite multistrategy giants and their smaller competitors. Hedge funds like Ken Griffin’s Citadel, Izzy Englander’s Millennium, Steve Cohen’s Point72, and Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management now deploy entire teams solely focused on securing coveted meetings with top corporate leaders and they’re winning that race by a mile.
According to multiple hedge fund executives, investor relations professionals, and bankers interviewed by Truth Sider, this high-stakes access is no longer merely about information-gathering. It has become a political currency, a recruiting tool, and a growing source of internal and external tension.
30,000 Meetings a Year and Counting
Citadel boasts over 30,000 meetings with executives per year. Millennium’s shift toward externally run pods has only increased its demand for corporate face time, with more teams, more coverage, and more fees flowing to the sell-side to secure top-tier access. Meanwhile, Balyasny has launched IR education initiatives in key global markets like Asia and India to help corporates better understand their investment structure and to strengthen its corporate relationships in the process.
It’s a far cry from a decade ago, when most access flowed through sell-side brokers. While investment banks still play a role, the largest hedge funds now rely heavily on internal corporate access teams, with dedicated staff in North America, Europe, and Asia coordinating and competing for face time with CEOs, CFOs, and senior executives across every sector.
“Keeping everyone happy is a big part of the job,” said one executive at a multistrategy firm managing dozens of investment pods.
From Kids’ Table to Boardroom Turf Wars
Executives at major corporations have grown increasingly selective with their meeting slots. In the late 2010s, frustration built over multistrategy firms flooding conferences with junior analysts — often showing up to Zoom calls in T-shirts, cameras off, multitasking, or firing off hyperspecific earnings-related questions. One investor relations executive described it as “a circus.”
“We were always at the kids’ table,” admitted a multistrategy fund veteran, referring to how their teams were perceived compared to long-only titans like Fidelity or Wellington.
Between 2018 and 2021, some companies began outright denying meetings or sharply limiting access to hedge funds, regardless of how much they were paying brokers. “A CEO can always say, ‘don’t confirm that request,’” said Christopher Melito, a former corporate access leader at Cowen, Citi, and Credit Suisse, now head of investor access at ICR.
That friction ultimately led to a turning point: hedge funds had to professionalize how they approached corporate engagement. Citadel promoted Johnna Shields to manage corporate relations inside its equities unit. Jain Global hired Katie Vogt, formerly of Goldman Sachs and Balyasny, to run corporate access before even launching. Now, these roles are central to hedge fund operations even if they don’t directly manage money.
“They’ve gone from booking agents to strategic matchmakers,” said one industry insider.
Polishing the Presentation
To rebuild trust and credibility, top hedge funds began imposing new internal standards. No more juniors at meetings. No more casual dress codes. At Point72, portfolio managers require jackets at executive meetings. At other firms, new analysts train with small-cap companies before joining large-cap calls. Protocol has replaced informality.
“The big four funds are being far more strategic about their asks,” said Melito. “They’re better partners now.”
But even within these firms, competition for CEO time has sparked internal drama. One hedge fund portfolio manager said the fiercest fights he’s seen were between teams jockeying for the same executive meeting slot with only room for one. Seniority usually determines who gets in, but marquee new hires sometimes skip the line, causing friction among established pods.
In a high-stakes business where one meeting could make or break a trade, the internal politics can get brutal.
“It’s cutthroat,” said one PM. “Your bonus, your seat, your reputation it can all hang on a single call.”
A New Recruiting Tool and a Market Disadvantage
The elite funds’ edge in access has downstream effects on hiring and talent retention. Smaller funds that can’t offer the same volume of meetings are now using that limitation as a recruitment tool.
“We tell candidates, ‘You’re our guy for tech no fighting for attention,’” said one executive at a smaller multistrategy fund. While they can’t match signing bonuses from larger players, they offer perks like guaranteed IPO allocations or fewer internal rivals trading the same names.
“It’s a make-or-break factor,” said one recruiter. “No one wants to be team number 12 chasing Apple unless the money’s just stupid.”
Is It Really Worth It?
These top-tier access strategies are expensive but pass-through fee structures let hedge funds push costs onto their investors. That’s raising questions for limited partners: Is a 30-minute CEO meeting worth the price?
Some managers think not. One European equities PM said corporate execs are now too scripted, adding little new insight beyond what’s already disclosed in earnings calls. Another US-based investor said the meetings are no longer useful as sentiment checks because questions have become too narrow to draw broader conclusions.
In a world increasingly powered by AI and natural language processing, one activist fund founder called corporate access “an expensive tradition.”
“These analysts are reading questions off a sheet, typing answers into their model it’s something AI could do,” they said.
Still, for many veterans, the meetings retain intangible value. Chase Coleman of Tiger Global still attends CEO meetings himself. Some hedge funds have even hired former CIA interrogators to train investors in reading body language and “between-the-lines” messaging.
But with meeting slots finite and demand from mega funds insatiable, access remains a zero-sum game.
“They don’t want to share,” said one sell-side broker. “It’s a finite resource and they know it.”
