By Anirban Sen and Prakhar Srivastava
Nov 9 (Reuters) - Karen Karniol-Tambour will leave Bridgewater Associates after two decades to become the inaugural CEO of the Canada Strong Fund, said Nir Bar Dea, chief of the US-based hedge fund manager, in a statement to Reuters on Monday.
The Canada Strong Fund is the country's first national sovereign wealth fund, launched by Prime Minister Mark Carney in April with an initial endowment of C$25 billion to invest in major domestic projects.
Resource-rich countries, particularly those with large oil and gas reserves, often establish state-owned funds to manage excess revenue, investing the money in domestic and international markets and projects.
"As a proud Canadian, this is an opportunity for Karen to serve her country and take on the important work of public service," Bar Dea said. "We are grateful for her many contributions and the meaningful impact she has had on the firm, and we wish her success in this next chapter."
Karniol-Tambour joined Bridgewater in 2006 as the head of investment research. She became co-chief investment officer for sustainability in 2021 and was appointed Bridgewater's co-chief investment officer in 2023.
Bridgewater, which currently manages about $102 billion of assets, has in recent years bet on new strategies, including a fund that uses AI to make investment decisions.
($1 = 1.4101 Canadian dollars)
(Reporting by Prakhar Srivastava in Bengaluru and Anirban Sen in New York; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)