Gregg S. Hymowitz

Background

Gregg S. Hymowitz was born on November 16, 1965. He is a native of Long Island, the suburban region east of New York City that grew rapidly after the Second World War and became home to many commuting professionals in finance, law, and business.

His family's sponge business failed while he was in high school. That experience came before his higher education, which combined a public university in upstate New York with one of the most prominent law schools in the United States.

Education

Hymowitz studied political science at the State University of New York at Binghamton, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts in 1987. Binghamton is one of the campuses of the State University of New York system, a public university network established in 1948 to bring state-supported higher education to students across New York.

He then attended Harvard Law School, where he graduated cum laude with a Juris Doctor in 1990. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is generally regarded as the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States, and its J.D. program prepared students for careers in legal practice, business, and public life.

Career

After law school Hymowitz worked for about two years in the mergers and acquisitions practice of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Founded in 1948, the New York firm was one of the largest American law firms and advised corporate clients on major transactions. He was admitted to the bar in 1991. Later he said that he found the business side of mergers and acquisitions more interesting than the practice of law, which led him to leave the firm.

In 1992 he joined Goldman Sachs & Co. as a vice president in its private client group, where he helped expand the firm's ultra-high-net-worth wealth management business. Goldman Sachs, founded in 1869, was a major investment bank whose private client operations served wealthy individuals and families alongside its institutional and securities businesses.

In April 1997 he founded EnTrust Capital, which became EnTrust Global, an alternative investment manager that allocates capital to hedge funds and other alternative strategies. Hymowitz served as its managing partner and later as its chairman and chief executive officer. The firm first attracted investors through funds that backed shareholder activists. In late 2013 it raised about $600 million to allocate solely to funds run by activist investors. In 2015 it launched Blue Ocean Funds, a maritime lending division, which financed a substantial number of vessels. The firm rebranded as EnTrust Global in 2019 and in December 2024 agreed to acquire the shipping company Belships for $450 million.

Hymowitz also serves as chairman of the board of Purus Marine, a maritime company launched by the Blue Ocean 4Impact strategy, and as a director of flyExclusive, Inc. He was chief executive officer and a director of EG Acquisition Corp. In addition, he has been a frequent television commentator on financial markets and testified before the United States House of Representatives on conflicts of interest in sell-side analysts' research. He has also been involved in political fundraising and served as co-chair of Richard Gephardt's 2004 presidential campaign.

Achievements

• Founded EnTrust Capital in April 1997, which grew into EnTrust Global, an alternative investment firm that reported roughly $18.7 billion in assets under management in later years. The firm's growth made it one of the notable alternative asset managers that emerged from the hedge fund expansion of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

• Launched Blue Ocean Funds in 2015 as a maritime lending division. Through it the firm financed more than 50 vessels with commitments of about $1 billion, contributing to specialized shipping finance at a time when conventional bank lending to shipping had declined.

• Raised about $600 million in late 2013 for an investment vehicle dedicated solely to funds run by shareholder activists, a strategy that drew growing institutional interest during the 2010s.

• Established and endowed the Jolli Humanitarian Award in 2010, which recognizes individuals for exceptional contributions to humanity.

• Endowed the Hymowitz Family Professorship of the Practice at the Duke Global Health Institute, supporting teaching in global health at Duke University.

Membership

Hymowitz served on the Board of Trustees of Montefiore Medical Center, a large academic medical center in the Bronx affiliated with a medical school, and is a former board member. He also served two terms as a trustee of Riverdale Country Day School, a private independent school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx that educates students from early childhood through high school.

• Trustee on the Board of Trustees; former board member

  Montefiore Medical Center , United States

• Trustee, served two terms

  Riverdale Country Day School , United States

Interests

• Hymowitz is an active philanthropist with interests in education, social issues, and the arts. He established and endowed the Jolli Humanitarian Award, which recognizes individuals for exceptional contributions to humanity, and he funds the Hymowitz Family Professorship of the Practice at the Duke Global Health Institute. He has also appeared as a panelist on several television business programs.

Connections

Hymowitz married Marcella Guarino Hymowitz in 2013. He had previously been married to Debby Hymowitz, and that marriage ended in divorce. Public sources report that he has six children.

Wife:

Marcella Guarino Hymowitz

Married Hymowitz in 2013.

References

• Gregg Hymowitz Encyclopedic biography covering Hymowitz's education, his career at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Goldman Sachs, and his founding and leadership of EnTrust Global.
• This Billionaire Investor Takes Advice From Usher Forbes profile describing Hymowitz's path from law to Goldman Sachs and EnTrust Global, his maritime debt investments, and his partnerships with activist investors.
  2024
• Hymowitz Raises $600 Million to Back Activist Investors Bloomberg article on EnTrust Capital's activist-focused fund-of-funds, describing Hymowitz's earlier work as a merger and acquisition attorney and Goldman Sachs vice president.
  2014
• Gregg S. Hymowitz Biography published by EnTrust Global describing Hymowitz's roles as founder, chairman, and chief executive officer, his education, and his scholarships and philanthropy.