Israel Englander graduated with his undergraduate degree from NYU. He later started in the MBA program there but left early to trade on AMEX. In 1989, he founded Millennium Management. By the middle of 2011, Israel Englander had grown the company to roughly $13 billion in assets under management, and no wonder. Millennium returned 13% in 2010 and was up roughly 6% for 2011, outpacing many of its peers.

In recent years, Israel Englander has been in discussions with a variety of potential buyers to sell a minority stake of his firm, thus broadening the firm's ownership base and opening up the ability for his ownership stake to become monetized. On a grander scope, this is all part of Israel Englander's strategy to convert Millennium from the one-man shop it has been since Israel Englander founded the company, into more of an institutionalized business.

Israel Englander uses a platform model at Millennium. He and his team of top managers allocate cash to teams of investors who then use a variety of different trading strategies. Israel Englander and his team do not usually discuss the themes of those investments, nor do they invest directly themselves. Instead, they focus on picking the right people and on how much to give them - but the price is steep. If a trader loses a certain amount, he is fired - no questions asked.