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[52], , "Centaurus scoops up National Coal shares", Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, "The Young Billionaire Behind the War on Bad Science", "John Arnold Is Said to Close Hedge Fund and Return Investor Money", "When a billionaire trader loses his edge - The Term Sheet: Fortune's deals blogTerm Sheet", "Houston billionaire trader John Arnold retiring at 38 - Houston Chronicle", "Legendary Energy Trader John Arnold to Retire", "Hedge Fund Billionaire John Arnold's Fund Was Up When He Announced He Was Getting Out", "Ex-Trader at Enron to Retire From Hedge Fund", New York Times: "CORPORATE CONDUCT: THE TRADER; Enron Trader Had a Year To Boast of, Even If" By DAVID BARBOZA, "A speculator who is in for the long haul", "Centaurus's John Arnold: The king of natural gas - Nov. 24, 2009", "Meet the Texas billionaire who backed Philly soda tax and now is funding attack ads in N.J. Senate race", "Smart trades that made this a good year for some", "Centaurus scoops up National Coal shares", "John D. Arnold's CFTC (U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission) speech", "Houston's World Cup bid adds a power player in John Arnold", "A Thirtysomething Billionaire Couple Take on Tough Issues Via Giving", "The City Fund has given out over $100 million to support charter and charter-like schools", How a billionaire couple greased the skids for Nancy Pelosis drug pricing bill, "Why this billion-dollar foundation is becoming a corporation", "Changemakers: The Leaders Reshaping Communities Around the World", "Two Texas Billionaires Think They Can Fix Philanthropy", "A Billionaire Pledges to Fight High Drug Prices, and the Industry Is Rattled", "Obscure Model Puts a Price on Good Healthand Drives Down Drug Costs", "How a Billionaire Couple Greased The Skids For Nancy Pelosi's Drug Pricing Bill", "Laura and John Arnold Foundation to Restructure as LLC", "Why one billionaire is calling out Silicon Valley's favorite philanthropic loophole", "Are Donor Advised Funds Good for Philanthropy? When former Enron trader and Texas billionaire John Arnold donated more than $1 million to a November 2014 initiative to reform the public pension system in . The Arnolds' impact investing includes CivicaRx, which plans to manufacture 14 generic drugs and sell them cheap. John D. Arnold is the founder and the only shareholder of Centaurus Energy Advisors, a hedge fund specializing in trading of energy. Having spent more than a decade picking apart nutrition science, Taubes soon found himself cofounding an organization with a substantial grant from the Arnold Foundation, to rebuild the study of obesity from the ground up. Form [16], During the collapse of Amaranth Advisors, Centaurus is widely credited as being one of the major players on the other side of their position, returning as much as 150% in 2005. I would buy up all the premium hockey cards and send them to Canada or upstate New York. He called the company Blue Chip Cards. Laura Arnold has served on the boards of the Innocence Project[29] and the REFORM alliance. In 2013 they donated $10 million to keep Head Start, the early-childhood education program for low-income kids, running through the federal government shutdown, and many of the issues theyve taken on, from criminal justice reform to making prescription drugs more affordable, are decidedly progressive. That way, it would be harder for them to go back and cherry-pick their sexiest data after the factand easier for other researchers to come in and replicate the experiment later. Unlike Tom Steyer, a billionaire who earned his wealth investing in oil and natural gas and now hypocritically blames those commodities for devastating the planet, John Arnold says little about climate change. View Subscription Options In its first seven years, according to Fortune, the fund never returned less than 50 percent. But now they were widening their scope. Former If we want to attack an issue, we will do whatever it takes. Yet the foundation is also focused on reforming what the Arnolds see as a broken public pension systema project that, in practice, usually means cutting payments to retirees, raising retirement ages, and switching new workers to 401(k)-style plans. Former Enron Corp. energy trader John Arnold is closing down his flagship Centaurus Energy Master Hedge Fund. [15], He then founded Centaurus, a hedge fund, with his previous year's bonus in 2002. But compared with the benefit of near-total anonymity, wealthy elites like the Arnolds are forgoing the tax advantages of a foundation or traditional nonprofit to further withdraw from public scrutiny. In my conversations with Arnold and his grantees, the word incentives seems to come up more than any other. Weve always wanted to change policies. Theyve given millions of dollars to nonprofits that advocate for charter schools, anti-obesity charities, criminal justice groups aiming to reduce recidivism rates, efforts to reform government pension systems, and conservative think tanks including the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Alabama Policy Institute, both of which are members of the center-right State Policy Network. In 2018, he jokingly complained that hes been called the next Koch brother by the far left press and the next George Soros by the far right.. And those are just a few of the people who are calling out iffy science with Arnold funding. To be fair, the Arnolds are far from wild-eyed leftists. For two and a half hours, a roomful of testy representatives asked why certain nutrition studies had been privileged over others. 1. By 2009, Centaurus was managing over $5 billion and had more than 70 employees. . The philanthropy's core mission is to invest in evidence-based solutions that maximize opportunity and minimize injustice. We asked ourselves, What is the point of having two separate entities? These wealthy Houstonians were named to Forbes' list of the - KPRC The Incomparable John Arnold, From the King of Natural Gas to Agent of As far as big dollar donors go, John Arnold and his wife, Laura, are not well known to conservatives. Media reports have declared the field of psychology, if not all of science, to be in a state of crisis. According to Forbes, Arnold has a personal fortune of $3 billion as of March, putting him at No. Houston-based Centaurus has been one of the most successful hedge funds in the industry, delivering a compound annual return of about 130% since it was founded by Arnold in 2002 after the collapse of Enron. We support the principles of individual liberty, a free market economy and limited constitutional government: These are the cornerstones of American society. Now, much of the discussion has shifted . W hen former Enron trader and billionaire hedge-fund manager John Arnold and his wife, Laura, announced plans to donate 5 percent of their net worth to charity every year, they may have. CRC respects confidentiality and will not share your e-mail address. Arnold was raised in Dallas, Texas, and he was the younger of two sons. Meet Laura Arnold, the billionaire philanthropist taking on the parole Billionaire philanthropists John and Laura Arnold committed Monday, April 5, 2021, to donate 5% of their wealth annually as part of an effort to . By law, natural gas pipelines had to make much of their information public, and around the time Centaurus was forming, more of that information began to appear online. [42], Arnolds foundation, Arnold Ventures, created a Public Safety Assessment which gave recently arrested individuals a score to determine their flight risk and potential bail. Arnold, 46, was raised in a middle-class family and worked her way through Harvard, she wrote in a July 2010 letter announcing her decision to sign The Giving Pledge. [3][8] His father was a lawyer and died when Arnold was 18. The guest that day was science journalist Gary Taubes, and he was talking about how the prevailing dietary wisdom of the past 40 yearsthat eating too much fat leads to obesity and heart diseasearose from the flimsiest of scientific evidence. Legendary natural gas trader John Arnold is closing down his flagship Centaurus fund, sources said o n Wednesday, ending an era in which the former Enron wunderkind defined the high-risk, big . And good traders, as Arnold sees it, naturally come to appreciate something that researchers too often miss: Its very easy to be fooled by your own data. Alpha Magazine Ranks Hedge Fund Overlords | Seeking Alpha John Arnold Made a Fortune at Enron. Now He's Declared War on Bad Science But given the long history of deep-pocketed business interests sowing doubt in research, his underlying question was a fair one: Who is John Arnold, and why is he spending so much money to raise questions about science? Bachelor of Arts/Science, Vanderbilt University. In everything they do, they want to be evidence-driven, says Stuart Buck, vice president of research integrity at the Arnold Foundation. [28] From 2010-2013, the Arnolds were heavily involved in the Innocence Project which led to their interest in criminal reform. He . You dont shift a culture overnight, Nosek says. Nosek is also still campaigning to convince researchers to preregister what they plan to analyze and report in a study, so that they cant adjust their experiment on the fly or hide less-than-dazzling resultsa problem that Goldacre is also tackling. While. [25][1] The organization was founded in 2010. Centaurus employees have included several big name energy traders such as ex-Enron executive Greg Whalley, as well as Bill Perkins, Mike Magg and Conrad Goerl, previously of MotherRock. Hayek, Deirdre McCloskey, Elinor Ostrom, Walter Williams, or some of the other economists Ive profiled. Republished More generally, it may not be possible to truly reform a system where the incentives are already so deeply embedded. John E. Murray (1959-2018) wasnt famous like Ludwig von Mises, F.A. Not surprisingly, researchers who dont see a crisis in science have started to fight back. The Arnold Foundation has been the Medici of meta-research, Ioannidis says. Episode #386: John Arnold, Arnold Ventures - Why The Greatest Natural A new edition of the record evokes the feeling of the remarkable 18th-century studio in which it was recorded. They would also have to take on a far more ambitious project: The Arnolds would have to try and fix science itself. [34] Arnold also has been an influential supporter of Democrats efforts to pass a drug-price reform bill. A number of the Arnolds reform efforts have focused on fixing nutrition science. From its ashes, Arnold built his own hedge fund, Centaurus Advisors. (Its also the way politics and charity are meant to be kept separate and distinct, by the way.) | Media reports declared the field of psychology, if not all of science, to be in a state of crisis. For one thing, the problems plaguing scientific research are now increasingly well known. Arnold was described as unapologetic for his success in Enrons final days. Worse yet, whenever evidence came along that contradicted the consensus about the dangers of eating fatoften evidence that was much stronger than the evidence for the dangersit was ignored or not even published. In recent years Arnold has invested in solar farms and deepwater oil developments in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2002, he founded Centaurus Advisors with $8 millionhis last Enron bonus, paid out just days before the company filed for bankruptcyin Houston, Texas, to invest in futures, options, and derivatives for coal, natural gas, and crude oil. Flagship Arnold had always been ready to make huge bets, but it was ultimately his hunger for reliable data that made him a brilliant trader. In 2019, the Arnolds announced they were switching their philanthropy from its current modela private foundation, 501(c)(4) nonprofit, and a donor-advised fundto a single limited liability company (LLC). After making millions for Enron, launching his own hedge fund, and becoming a billionaire, John Arnold retired at 38. Arnold was not criminally charged with any wrongdoing at Enron, but he was named in a bankruptcy lawsuit by other Enron staff. Ask a Question. John Arnold - Centaurus Advisors - Insider Monkey But he also stood out for his skepticism. Put a Stake in "Zombie Charity.". Centaurus Advisors, which posted eye-popping returns and led him to become the youngest billionaire in the US in 2007. People would read into it, and they would say hes just being cagey, DAgostino says. But in July 2012, Nosek received an email from an institution whose name he didnt recognize: the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Now, with multiple grants from the Arnolds, he is leading an effort to build an open, searchable database that will link all publicly available information on every clinical trial in the world. In the 1830s, French writer Alexis de Tocqueville famously compared Americans penchant for civic association with that of France and England: Everywhere that, at the head of a new undertaking, you see the government in France and a great lord in England, count on it that you will perceive an association in the United States.. Stem Cell Junk Yards Reveal a New Clue About Aging. The biggest green hydrogen hub in the US could be | Canary Media Billionaire John Arnold backing energy-focused credit fund - sources Thirty-seven year old John Arnold, one of the world's youngest billionaires, had the worst year of his hedge fund career. The incentives to produce positive results were so great, Nosek and others worried, that some scientists were simply locking their inconvenient data away. The journals Science and Nature have started bringing in statisticians to review their papers. LLCs dont have foundations 5 percent annual spend-out requirements or strict investment rules. Donald Trumps real net worth? A new study shows are the four most dangerous words, Arnold wrote on Twitter. The picture Taubes painted wasnt of a flawed study here or there but of a fundamentally broken scientific culture. Science is built like a building, Arnold says. John Arnold on Oil and Gas Startups - Digital Wildcatters [3][8] At 14, he started his first company selling collectible sports cards called Blue Chip Cards. And though the fund bounced back the next year, tighter regulations on trading and a far less volatile marketthanks to a growing supply of natural gas from shale rockmade it unlikely that Arnold would again see the astonishing returns of only a few years earlier. Quin es John Arnold, el filntropo que regala programas informticos Laura and John Arnold have a net. Allen Gibson Salary Infomation 2022 | ERI Economic Research Institute Enron billionaire frets about public pensions' solvency He questioned everything, Fleisher says. [3] [8] At 14, he started his first company selling collectible sports cards called Blue Chip Cards. Arnold has said that the first phase of his life was 100 percent trying to make money and that its now 100 percent trying to do good. As The Wall Street Journal noted, in US history, there may have never been a self-made individual with so much money who devoted himself to philanthropy at such a young age.. Arnold is still quiet. Comedian John Oliver spent 20 prime-time minutes on HBO last May mocking the reign of terrible science on TV news shows and in public debate. Centaurus, which started in 2002 with just a handful of traders and now has 70 employees, focuses on this virtual kind of trading. [20][21] Arnold announced his retirement from running the hedge fund on May 2, 2012. "[13][14] When Enron collapsed, he was not accused of any wrongdoing. Arnold figures that some of his specific grants might not work out as planned. Consent Featured groups, golf odds, expert picks plus matchups and props with information you can bet on. Ludwig is a native of Orange County, California,. The development of regulation around the philanthropic sector throughout the 20th century may have formed the modern nonprofit organization, but it only codified what had been thriving in America since before the American Revolution. Brian Nosek had pretty much given up on finding a funder. IN THEIR philanthropy, the Arnolds like to say, they follow data where it leads rather than let themselves be guided by ideology. [47], John Arnold and his brother Matthew[48] tore down historical homes in the River Oaks neighborhood of Houston which led to criticism by architectural conservationists. As a pipeline company, Enron had a direct view onto many of the factors that influence gas prices. The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking, new connections, and new industries. He's decided to shut down his firm Centaurus Advisors and return investor money, retiring at the ripe old age of 38, according to The New York Times.Arnold rose to prominence at now disgraced Enron for his natural gas trading prowess. The tech giant is helping researchers and clinicians decipher vast amounts of data generated by people with persistent symptoms. If John Arnold . All Rights Reserved. John Arnold, a former Enron trader and hedge fund honcho known as the "king of natural gas", . Weve always defined success as sustainable change through policy. I think I was just born with a natural gift for seeing numbers in a special way, he says. "Looking back what I was doing was geographic arbitrage.". To promote preregistration, the Center for Open Science offered the first 1,000 scientists who preregister their studies with the organization $1,000 each. John Arnold is Founder and Co-Chair of Arnold Ventures. The foundation aims to foster a culture in which individuals have the best chance to succeed and prosper, while encouraging a sense of responsibility, compassion and reinvestment toward their communities and society as a whole.