Month: November 2025

• Laura Sterner resigned as Citadel’s head of BD for Global Equities after two months on the job.
• Her exit follows recent departures and ongoing turnover in Citadel’s BD team.
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Another senior business development exec is out at hedge fund giant Citadel.

Laura Sterner resigned last week as head of BD in Citadel’s Global Equities unit after only two months on the job, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss private information.

The departure, the latest churn in Citadel’s BD ranks, comes just a few weeks after Citadel’s top quant recruiter, Ansh Kalra, left for rival multistrategy hedge fund Balyasny Asset Management.

The reason for Sterner’s quick departure wasn’t immediately clear. She previously spent a decade at Steve Cohen’s Point72, where she worked as the fund’s chief fundraiser before leaving earlier this year, Business Insider previously reported.

After a short-lived stint at a healthcare investment firm starting in May, Citadel brought Sterner on in September to replace Alex Topkins. Topkins left in April as head of BD in the Global Equities division, which is run by former Point72 portfolio manager Justin Lubell.

A Citadel spokesperson declined to comment. Sterner did not respond to requests for comment.

The talent war among hedge funds in recent years has shifted the power balance toward employees, as top investment firms scramble to hire the best money managers.

One knock-on effect has been increased competition for BD executives capable of identifying and hiring elite portfolio managers and researchers. As a result, top recruiters can now fetch multimillion-dollar compensation packages at the multistrategy hedge funds at the center of the talent war.

This has fueled turnover in the BD ranks across the multimanager hedge fund world. But industry titan Citadel — Ken Griffin’s $69 billion powerhouse — has seen notable reshuffling within its BD team over the past year, as Business Insider previously reported.