2007 Man of the Year: Peter Thiel

With Wall Street closing the books on a crazy year, it is time for to name our man of the year.

Andew Lahde ran a small fund up that was over 1,000% YTD earlier this year. Will he prove to be a one hit wonder? The folks running Och-Ziff and Fortress Investment Group were able to monetize their stakes to the tune of billions of dollars, but did not post performance numbers in '07 that will get your pulses racing.

And while the quants at Renaissance Technology laugh at bloggers and journalists who speculate on their investment methodology, we are laughing at the returns posted by RIEF this year, which are well below what you would expect from the crew from East Setauket. Hopefully their employees-only Medallion Fund performed better.

J. Kyle Bass and and John Paulson will earn perhaps more than anyone else on the Street this year; their partnerships interests in their alternative asset management shops increase by more than a billion in Paulson's case, and Bass is not far behind.

Meredith Whitney's negative call on the banks, and Citigroup in particular, ruined the fourth quarter for many people, as it was the worst since the year 2000. Whitney's call was the catalyst that turned the knife on Chuck Prince and Citi shareholders. The call raised her profile, and might raise her paycheck too, in the years ahead.

But Peter Thiel had perhaps the best year of anyone in 2007. His Clarium Capital LP, a global macro hedge fund, is closing in on $3 billion in assets at year end and and was up 24% YTD through the end of November, thanks in part to a long position in Crude Oil. His personal investment in LinkedIn is worth considerably more that it was 12 months ago, and his venture capital arm recently raised an additional $220 million, which was a cinch given that his Founders Fund, which provides venture capital and guidance to early stage entrepreneurs, has built a formidable reputation given its previous investment in Facebook.

Thiel’s San Francisco based operation provides him with a unique perspective far from the maddening crowds of New York, and he seems to one step ahead of the consensus in placing macro bets for his hedge fund while at the same time working his magic with the entrepreneurs who are leading the charge in the Valley, and changing the way we live. Peter is an intellectual, seemingly without any need for Wall Street convention or groupthink.

Thiel is far from a one dimensional fund manager with few hobbies outside of work; his interests are wide ranging and include the Methuselah Foundation, the Singularity Institute, and the Pacific Research Institute.

We might not always agree with him but welcome a breath of fresh air to the east coast. The power on Wall Street is shifting away from New York, and Peter Thiel is one reason why.

Unlike many traditional hedge fund managers and VC’s, Thiel gets out and shares his views. He sat down with Bambi Francisco and Charlie Rose earlier this year discussing entrepreneurship and globalization, among other things.

Charlie Rose, 30 minutes into it

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The content contained represent the opinions of 1440 Wall Street. This commentary in no way constitutes a solicitation of business or investment advice. It is intended solely for the entertainment of the reader, and the author.

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