Pellegrini Taps Former Merrill Economist
Paolo Pellegrini, the hedge-fund manager who helped Paulson & Co. amass gains before leaving to start his own firm, has hired Merrill Lynch & Co.'s former chief international economist to help identify and wager on global financial trends.</br></br>Alex Patelis, 38 years old, starts this week with Mr. Pellegrini's new hedge-fund firm, called PSQR Management LLC, according to both men.</br></br>Mr. Pellegrini, 52, in December left John Paulson's hedge-fund firm. So far, Mr. Pellegrini has been trading about $100 million of his own money but plans to start raising funds from outside investors this summer.</br></br>Much of Mr. Pellegrini's personal wealth came from Paulson & Co.'s bets that subprime-mortgage defaults would skyrocket. Paulson & Co. made some $15 billion in profit in 2007 and added several billion more last year, after the firm extended the trade to include wagers against a range of financial firms.</br></br>As co-manager of the firm's big credit funds, Mr. Pellegrini helped identify what mortgages to target and how to formulate the trades.