Top hedge-fund recruits are getting hounded with job offers that would pay them like Hollywood stars or pro athletes. So why don’t they also have agents representing them? That’s the idea Ryan Walsh had about a year ago when he launched a talent agency dedicated to stock pickers, bond traders and other investment professionals that he believes is the first of its kind.
“The job he’s doing, my sense is it requires a certain sense of chutzpah and commercial sense,” said Cliff Sosin, who runs the hedge-fund firm CAS Investment Partners and has been friends with Walsh since they went to the same private high school together in New Haven, Conn. “You have to be willing to call these firms and say ‘F you, this guy is worth more.’”
