Zoe Cruz was once consider the "Most Powerful Woman on Wall Street," a mythic title that is a curse as much as anything.
Look at the many others who have held the title, the likes of Sally Krawcheck, Erin Callan, Barbara Desoer, and others. They have not fared well. But there is always life after the title has been ceded.
In the case of the one-time Cruz missile, after she was summarily fired as co-president at Morgan Stanley by her mentor John Mack–who told her bluntly, "I have lost confidence in you"–she decided to start a hedge fund. Many assumed it would be a success for someone who was anointed as a future CEO of Morgan Stanley, but now the media is reporting that she will shutter her fund, Voras Capital Management, and return money to limited partners.
Reuters notes that the fund had struggled to raise money since it was opened in 2010. It never got much beyond 0 million in assets under management. Given her personal brand, expectations were high. Fund performance was likely an issue. It lost about 8 percent last year vs. an average loss of about 5 percent for the rest of the hedge fund industry. She is not the only big-name refugee from a top bank to fail as a hedge fund entrepreneur. Many former prop traders are struggling as hedge fund managers in a tough market.
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