In the past ten years, we have achieved more success than I could have hoped for or imagined. The centers replication efforts, in turn, have inspired economists and even tropical ecologists to plan reproducibility projects of their own. In Charlottes Biggest Labor Protest In Two Decades, 450 American Pilots Decry Slow Pace Of Contract Talks, Yellen Urges Congress To Raise Debt Limit Immediately, Warning U.S. Could Run Out Of Money By June, Singer Kelly Lang Reflects On Music, Battling Cancer & Her Friendship With Olivia Newton-John, E.J. The problem, they claim, isnt that scientists dont want to do the right thing. May 17 (Reuters) - John Arnold, a former Enron trader and hedge fund honcho known as the "king of natural gas", is backing an energy-focused credit fund that will aim to take advantage of. Of course, this new LLC model comes with the cost of losing the Arnold Foundations tax exemption. ), Were not looking to create an organization of safe success, Laura Arnold says. Laura and John established the Laura and John Arnold Foundation in 2010 with a straightforward mission: to improve lives through evidence-based solutions. Arnold Ventures will likely fund the same formula of political and charitable causes that the Arnold Foundation supported. Several other Houston area billionaires made their money during a record year for oil and gas, such as George Bishop, who. We can feed off that. Figuring out exactly which rewards work best and how to simultaneously change the incentives for researchers, institutions, journals, and funders is now a key area of interest for Goodman and Ioannidis. Reflects change since 5 pm ET of prior trading day. But now, with their stepped-up ambitions, the couple entered a new realm. Houston-based Centaurus has been one of the most successful hedge funds in the industry, delivering a compound annual return of about 130% since it was founded by Arnold in 2002 after the collapse of Enron. (Its also the way politics and charity are meant to be kept separate and distinct, by the way.) Arnold entered the investment industry out of college by working for Enron, the infamous natural gas conglomerate that collapsed in 2001 following revelations of its vast accounting fraud. Why he started his own firm energy trading firm, Centaurus Advisors, and why he ultimately hung it up as a trader to focus all of his energy on philanthropy. Arnold funds Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), a nonprofit that created a formula to price drugs. I think I was just born with a natural gift for seeing numbers in a special way, he says. Form 990s and Section 501(c) of the U.S. Tax Code were created in 1954, followed by rules governing private foundations in 1969. John Arnold is Founder and Co-Chair of Arnold Ventures. And its true that, when it comes to political leanings, they are somewhat hard to pin down. After that Arnold started his own hedge fund, Centaurus Energy, where he became, in the words of one hedge fund competitor, "the best trader that ever lived, full stop." . [44][45], Arnold has been accused of pushing for pension reform in response to a lawsuit the California state pension system, CalPERS, filed against Enron. Arnold says that now, unless he trusts a researchers work, he no longer believes the findings of any scientific study until he or someone on the staff carefully vets the paper. Six months later the Arnold Foundation made a $4.7 million seed grant to the Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI), the nonprofit Taubes cofounded to support fundamental research on diet and health. John Arnold, Centaurus Energy - $1.5 billion. Arnold has said that the first phase of his life was 100 percent trying to make money and that its now 100 percent trying to do good.. Hardly anyone in the world of nutrition science seemed willing to question the science behind the low-fat diet, even after Americans grew fat and diabetic in record numbers. What does that say about American philanthropy? Just weeks before the federal guidelines were due for an update, Teicholzs blistering report appeared in the prominent medical journal The BMJ, charging that the governments panel of scientists had failed to consider evidence that would have done away with long-held worries about eating saturated fat. Inside the Secretive Life-Extension Clinic. Legendary natural gas trader John Arnold is closing down his flagship Centaurus fund, sources said o n Wednesday, ending an era in which the former Enron wunderkind defined the high-risk, big . That focus led Rolling Stone to call Arnold a young right-wing kingmaker with clear designs on becoming the next generations Koch brothers. (In 2015, Bloomberg suggested that Arnold may have somehow managed to become less popular as a philanthropist than he was as a billionaire trader. 2023 Cond Nast. Arnold is careful not to lump all researchers together when he talks about the problems in science. It was the largest cash bonus ever distributed by the company. To which the answer is clearly no, but theres a lot of bullshit masquerading as science. (Some of the background footage in the segment came from the Arnold Foundation.). [3] [8] His father was a lawyer and died when Arnold was 18. It Depends On Who You Talk To", "How we Ranked Forbes 400 based on their giving", "Dog The Bounty Hunter Joins Lawsuit Against Chris Christie Over Bail Reform", "June Rodgers v. Christopher Christie, No. info@naturalgasintel.com All rights reserved. Longevity evangelists are injecting people with experimental gene therapies. From Hedge Fund Billionaire to Mega-Donor. All rights reserved. Laura tells me she sees her husbands appetite for riskan appetite she says she sharesas the most obvious link between his approach to trading and philanthropy. An associate professor at the University of Virginia, Nosek had made a name for himself in a hot subfield of social psychology, studying peoples unconscious biases. ioneer Ltd has gained a substantial shareholder in Centaurus Capital L.P, which now holds a 7.84% stake with more than 131.5 million shares.This status was reached after US-based Centaurus . "Looking back what I was doing was geographic arbitrage.". [22], Arnold started donating to the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) in 2004 with a gift of $30,000 which was then based in Houston, and two years later he and his wife pledged $10 million to help KIPP expand to other cities. Were not looking to create an organization of safe success, she says. It completely transformed what we could imagine doing, Nosek says. Arnold's summary of his big-hearted plans reads as could only be written by a trader, particularly points 2 and 3: . Laura and John Arnold have a net. Laura and John Arnold, Houston $285 million. . are the four most dangerous words, Arnold wrote on Twitter. McGoverns quip about Enron, a company that hasnt existed in 15 years, was a bit of a potshot. Bothersome bureaucracy notwithstanding, tax exemption and tax deduction are tangible benefits that acknowledge that compact. Joseph (Rusty) Walter III and Paula Walter . Get access to 100,000+ more news articles & industry data. At its peak Centaurus managed some $6 billion before Arnold closed the fund and retired in 2012 at the age of 38, establishing the Laura and John Arnold Foundation with his wifea former oil executivesoon after. For two years he had sent out grant proposals for his software project. Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert referred to researchers who had tried and failed to replicate the findings of one senior lecturer as shameless little bullies.. Centaurus, which started in 2002 with just a handful of traders and now has 70 employees, focuses on this virtual kind of trading. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights. [25][1] The organization was founded in 2010. In a glass conference room at the Arnold Foundations officeswhich occupy the same space as the old Centaurus trading floor, a 15-minute drive from the glass tower whose entrance was once adorned with Enrons famous EArnold explains that his and Lauras initial plan had been to simply locate the most effective organizations and write them checks. In May 2012, John announced his retirement from Centaurus Energy to concentrate on philanthropic activities. Gregg Fleisher, who taught him calculus in high school, recalls an occasion when Arnold instantly solved a math puzzle that had been known to stump PhDs. And Noseks project was an attempt to head it off at the pass. Will And in 2015 the Arnold Foundation paid journalist Nina Teicholz to investigate the scientific review process that informs the US Dietary Guidelines. John Arnold, then head of the hedge fund Centaurus Advisors, testifies before the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington, August 5, 2009. Redistributed John Arnold President Houston, Texas, United States 12 followers Join to view profile Centaurus Capital Experience President - President Centaurus Capital View John's full profile See who. [8] He is a member of Lambda Chi Alpha. Part New research shows that the cells garbage-clearing function deteriorates with ageand opens the door to reversing the process. Hayden Ludwig is the Director of Policy Research at Restoration of America. The Arnolds have a multiple-decade timeline to work on problems. Yet the most remarkable thing about the Arnold Foundations research integrity projects is that they already appear to be paying off. More generally, it may not be possible to truly reform a system where the incentives are already so deeply embedded. You dont shift a culture overnight, Nosek says. John Arnold has criticized labor unions, college tuition schedules, and the New York Timess increasing contempt for free speech. We support the principles of individual liberty, a free market economy and limited constitutional government: These are the cornerstones of American society. [26] In 2008, the Arnolds were original signatories of the Giving Pledge,[27] a pledge by some high-net-worth individuals to donate the majority of their income to philanthropic causes during their lifetimes. Credit: Arnold Ventures. [39], Arnold Ventures LLC has invited criticism with its involvement in many controversial areas. But he also stood out for his skepticism. A hugely successful energy trader, Arnold once worked. The picture Taubes painted wasnt of a flawed study here or there but of a fundamentally broken scientific culture. The 13 Best Electric Bikes for Every Kind of Ride, The Best Barefoot Shoes for Walking or Running, Palantirs Plan to Decipher the Mysteries of Long Covid. Arnolds work at Enronseeking to capitalize on seasonal price differences in natural gaswasnt all that different from what hed done as a teenager selling sports cards. But compared with the benefit of near-total anonymity, wealthy elites like the Arnolds are forgoing the tax advantages of a foundation or traditional nonprofit to further withdraw from public scrutiny. Fix terrible science. Rank: 590. Not long after the podcast went online, he received a five-line email from Arnold. from Vanderbilt University and lives in Houston, Texas with his wife and three children. It was just a way for us to just all be under one umbrella, and everybody does what he or she needs to do in furtherance of one mission. The Arnolds identify as Democrats and were major financial supporters of President Barack Obama. New clinical trials could more effectively reach solutions. Theyve also lavishly supported the Reproducibility Project, a science reform group formed to combat the rise of politicized, ideologically driven junk science afflicting so much research, particularly in climate science. During the podcast, he mentioned that he was raising money in the hope of funding experiments that might deepen our understanding of the root causes of obesity. Early the next morning, Mr. Arnold offered a bid after making the following observations: "I . Arnold, head of $3 billion Houston-based Centaurus Energy, has generated gains approaching 200% so far this year, according to a person familiar with the former Enron trader and his fund. In the sciences, one is mostly incentivized to publish journal articles, and especially to publish the sorts of attention-grabbing and controversial articles that get widely cited and picked up by the popular media. We are able to use resources in another structure. [1], A 1995 graduate of Vanderbilt University, he completed a degree in mathematics and economics in three years. Laura and John Arnold didnt start the movement to reform science, but they have done more than anyone else to amplify its capabilitiestypically by approaching researchers out of the blue and asking whether they might be able to do more with more money. George Soros, Soros Fund Management - $1.1 billion. He was widely quoted for his viewpoints on the industry by a government commission. Like a number of up-and-coming researchers in his generation, Nosek was troubled by mounting evidence that science itselfthrough its systems of publication, funding, and advancementhad become biased toward generating a certain kind of finding: novel, attention grabbing, but ultimately unreliable. John Arnold. InfluenceWatch Podcast #267: Weingarten Will Not Be Apologizing. . In 2010 the Arnolds had signed the Giving Pledge, promising to give away at least half their wealthand he wanted to be as strategic about that goal as he had once been about trading. Ultimately his army of volunteers could verify the findings of only about 40 percent of the studies. Amaranth, which was gambling with money from large pension funds, suffered a $6 billion loss and collapsed. But Shankman recognized that he and Arnold were different in one key respect: Arnold had a greater appetite for risk, a quality that seemed at odds with his quiet demeanor. [10] Using their new Internet-based trading network, EnronOnline,[citation needed] [11] he is credited with making three quarters of a billion dollars for Enron in 2001 and was rewarded with the largest bonus in Enron history, some $8 million. World No. Philanthropist John Arnold is pictured in this photo provided by the Laura and John Arnold Foundation on July 10, 2018. . Centaurus Capital LP has committed around $500 million in equity for EOC Partners, according to the . But as a practical matter, we grew to be so large in terms of our appetite for change in our policy areas that it just became cumbersome to have a C3 group on one side and a C4 group on the other side and having them not really be able to talk to each other. Those were the early days of the internet, and he managed to gain access to an online bulletin board intended only for card dealers. Of 1,576 researchers who responded to a recent online survey from Nature, more than half agreed there is a significant crisis of reproducibility. Were looking to create an organization of thoughtful failure and fantastic success., Arnold is, in at least one respect, trying to make science a little more like finance. But in July 2012, Nosek received an email from an institution whose name he didnt recognize: the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. [23] Arnold has also given to The City Fund, an organization focused on growing the number of charter schools in the USA, and its political arm, Public School Allies. John E. Murray (1959-2018) wasnt famous like Ludwig von Mises, F.A. The IRS strictly regulates foundations and nonprofits engaged in political work, such as lobbying and voter registration. On the top of that list was the energy trading legend that is John Arnold. In 2012, the Arnolds joined the Giving Pledge, an oath made by billionaires such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to donate at least half of their wealth. He's decided to shut down his firm Centaurus Advisors and return investor money, retiring at the ripe old age of 38, according to The New York Times.Arnold rose to prominence at now disgraced Enron for his natural gas trading prowess. Media reports declared the field of psychology, if not all of science, to be in a state of crisis. And for two years they had been rejected again and againwhich was, by 2011, discouraging but not all that surprising to the 38-year-old scientist. In 2012, after growing his firm, Centaurus Advisors, from an initial $8 million to $5 billion in less than a decade, he announced that he was walking away to pursue other interests. Researchers say viruses can kill antibiotic-resistant microbes and help treat infections. Far from arbitrary, this body of regulationwhich Schambra is certainly right to call annoyingcodifies a common understanding between Americans and their government: Philanthropy is crucial for a healthy civil society. In 2007, Arnold became the youngest billionaire in the U.S. His firm, Centaurus Advisors, LLC, was a Houston-based hedge fund specializing in trading energy products that closed in 2012. 1 manager, John Arnold, offers a tricky model to follow because he trades only energy futures, and my guess is he's a very short-term trader. Founded in 1992, Centaurus was formed with a singular focus - to provide unparalleled service, support, technology, and education to independent financial advisers in the securities industry. I would buy up all the premium hockey cards and send them to Canada or upstate New York. He called the company Blue Chip Cards. According to Forbes, Arnold has a personal fortune of $3 billion as of March, putting him at No. [30][31], In 2013, the Arnolds donated $10 million as a private donation to the National Head Start Association after the United States federal government shutdown of 2013 had closed the pre-K Head Start programs. While this private company, Arnold Ventures, is structurally indistinguishable from any other for-profit corporation, its purpose is strictly philanthropicbut it comes with key advantages. Bruce Kovner, Caxton Associates . Centaurus will be returning capital to investors, according to a Reuters report. The legal reporting required for these categories, as annoying as it is, is how our democracy ensures that giving and political activity remain visible and accountable to the public. In finance, meanwhile, at least when one is trading with ones own money, there are strong incentives to work to that stronger standard. But given the long history of deep-pocketed business interests sowing doubt in research, his underlying question was a fair one: Who is John Arnold, and why is he spending so much money to raise questions about science? Nosek says that the cash offers were Arnolds idea. NGI All News Access. Arnold is 5'10", trim, and blandly handsome, his unusually youthful appearance now somewhat concealed by a salt-and-pepper beard. It became extraordinarily frustrating.. They are on record as agreeing with some of the critiques and focus on partnering with organizations to maximize their impact without undue influence. John Arnold, filntropo multimillonario, dirige una empresa que ofrece gratis programas informticos para la reforma de las fianzas. This article appears in the February issue. Arnold grew up in Dallas. John Arnold kim c hng t USD trn sn giao dch nng lng trong nm 2008 nh vic lun tun th quy tc chi ca ring mnh. John Arnold shocked the hedge fund world in 2012 when, at just 38 years old, he announced he would no longer manage other people's money. John D. Arnold is an American philanthropist and businessman. A new study shows . For the rest of us, we can only hope that he continues to inspire us with his unique blend of starry-eyed optimism and rocket expertise. Together with Taubes work, Arnold was also reading Ioannidis and Goldacres equally devastating analyses. No. The Biggest Microbiome Study Sheds Light on Shared Health Risks, The Little Bang Helping Physicists Study the Infant Universe. Brian Nosek had pretty much given up on finding a funder. Former Now He's Declared War on Bad Science. Or is Wall Street just an easy target while cancer researchers and universities are not?, So its no surprise that, in practice, the Arnolds approach to giving has a lot in common with John Arnolds approach to investing. When Mr. Arnold, 31, created Centaurus in 2002 with $8 million of his own money, the energy trading industry was on its knees, incapacitated by the fraud and irrational exuberance at Enron.. Centaurus Advisors. Yellen warned inaction could have wide-ranging financial repercussions, including on taxpayers and the federal governments credit rating. From its ashes, Arnold built his own hedge fund, Centaurus Advisors. As a kid, Arnold's earliest trades included buying hockey cards in Texas and selling them in Canada. [46] Through his foundation, Arnold has aggressively promoted pension reform in the state of California based on a study his foundation conducted with Pew that failed to mention that Enron or the overall financial crisis contributed to the shortfall. As Enron neared bankruptcy, executives scrambled to hold its operation together, offering bonuses to keep traders on board. As far as big dollar donors go, John Arnold and his wife, Laura, are not well known to conservatives. Date Recorded: 1/12/2022 | Run-Time: 1:12:33 Much of the Arnolds philanthropy has funded causes favored by the Left, such as ranked-choice voting, litigation against supposed Republican gerrymandering in congressional maps, and the eco-Right, groups infiltrating the conservative movement with a left-wing global-warming agenda. By law, natural gas pipelines had to make much of their information public, and around the time Centaurus was forming, more of that information began to appear online. In 2015, after a cancer researcher was found to have falsified research data and defrauded the government out of millions of dollars, Arnold complained on Twitter that the penalty, a five-year funding restriction, was too light. What's Fishbowl. 2020)", "A divided federal appeals court rules Baltimore's surveillance plane is constitutional, cites city's struggles", "Billionaire-Funded Criminal Justice Reform Actually Expands Carceral System", "Officials Got a Windfall Before Enron's Collapse", "How a billionaire couple greased the skids for Nancy Pelosi's drug pricing bill", "Storied Texas Mansion Completely Demolished: The Bulldozer Brings Down Houston's Greatest Architect", "Big and Modern on Lazy Lane: John Arnold Tries House Trading | Swamplot", Baylor College of Medicine: "Laura Arnold named to BCM Board of Trustees" by Lori Williams, "Meet Laura Arnold, the billionaire philanthropist taking on the parole system with Jay-Z and Meek Mill", "Our Team | Laura and John Arnold Foundation", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_D._Arnold&oldid=1150152010, This page was last edited on 16 April 2023, at 16:09. Famous in England as a sharp-witted scourge of bad science, Goldacre spent years building up a case that pharmaceutical companies, by refusing to reveal all their data, have essentially deceived the public into paying for worthless therapies. Former Enron Corp. energy trader John Arnold is closing down his flagship Centaurus Energy Master Hedge Fund. Copyright2023Capital Research Center. [3][8] At 14, he started his first company selling collectible sports cards called Blue Chip Cards. Far from simple charity, thats a recipe for plutocracy. The Arnolds are candid about this, telling the Chronicle of Philanthropy in a January 2020 interview that the goal is to change policies: We have never viewed our work and our philanthropy in terms of C3 versus C4. Still, Arnold, an intense worker with a wide network of. | Those who support ICERs formula believe it could lower prices while critics argue that the formula is discriminator toward the elderly and those with disabilities or rare diseases. That's what the Arnold Foundation did last week, when it announced that it would be combining its philanthropy and political giving under Arnold Ventures. Private, non-publicly traded companies are not obligated to do any of those things. [47], John Arnold and his brother Matthew[48] tore down historical homes in the River Oaks neighborhood of Houston which led to criticism by architectural conservationists. But about an hour in, Massachusetts representative Jim McGovern leaned into his microphone. On the contrary, Arnold says he believes that most researchers go into their work with the best of intentions, only to be led astray by a system that rewards the wrong behaviors. In the War on Bacteria, Its Time to Call in the Phages. Theyve given millions of dollars to nonprofits that advocate for charter schools, anti-obesity charities, criminal justice groups aiming to reduce recidivism rates, efforts to reform government pension systems, and conservative think tanks including the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Alabama Policy Institute, both of which are members of the center-right State Policy Network. Gerrymandering endangers democracy. John Arnold, one of the most profitable traders in the hedge fund industry, has decided to shut down his Centaurus Advisors and return money to investors, according to people familiar with. 6. But powerful special interests are trying to question science., If John Arnold decided he wanted to beat hunger, I wouldnt want to bet on hunger.. His ~$3 billion fund, Centaurus, was down 4% in 2010 YTD, according. In 2006, Centaurus reportedly generated a 317 percent return overall, after taking the opposite side of a risky bet that another hedge fund, Amaranth, had made on fluctuations in natural gas prices. Arnold was given $8 million, the biggest payout of all, just days before Enron filed for bankruptcy. Hes nowhere near as rich as he boasts, nor as poor as his critics claim. Centaurus entered the public eye in 2006 when Arnold bet against the enormous hedge fund Amaranth Advisors, which predicted that natural gas prices would rise and lost $5 billion when the market proved otherwise. [52], , "Centaurus scoops up National Coal shares", Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, "The Young Billionaire Behind the War on Bad Science", "John Arnold Is Said to Close Hedge Fund and Return Investor Money", "When a billionaire trader loses his edge - The Term Sheet: Fortune's deals blogTerm Sheet", "Houston billionaire trader John Arnold retiring at 38 - Houston Chronicle", "Legendary Energy Trader John Arnold to Retire", "Hedge Fund Billionaire John Arnold's Fund Was Up When He Announced He Was Getting Out", "Ex-Trader at Enron to Retire From Hedge Fund", New York Times: "CORPORATE CONDUCT: THE TRADER; Enron Trader Had a Year To Boast of, Even If" By DAVID BARBOZA, "A speculator who is in for the long haul", "Centaurus's John Arnold: The king of natural gas - Nov. 24, 2009", "Meet the Texas billionaire who backed Philly soda tax and now is funding attack ads in N.J. Senate race", "Smart trades that made this a good year for some", "Centaurus scoops up National Coal shares", "John D. Arnold's CFTC (U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission) speech", "Houston's World Cup bid adds a power player in John Arnold", "A Thirtysomething Billionaire Couple Take on Tough Issues Via Giving", "The City Fund has given out over $100 million to support charter and charter-like schools", How a billionaire couple greased the skids for Nancy Pelosis drug pricing bill, "Why this billion-dollar foundation is becoming a corporation", "Changemakers: The Leaders Reshaping Communities Around the World", "Two Texas Billionaires Think They Can Fix Philanthropy", "A Billionaire Pledges to Fight High Drug Prices, and the Industry Is Rattled", "Obscure Model Puts a Price on Good Healthand Drives Down Drug Costs", "How a Billionaire Couple Greased The Skids For Nancy Pelosi's Drug Pricing Bill", "Laura and John Arnold Foundation to Restructure as LLC", "Why one billionaire is calling out Silicon Valley's favorite philanthropic loophole", "Are Donor Advised Funds Good for Philanthropy?
