Point72 has replaced the head of its quantitative investing unit, tapping a former WorldQuant executive to lead Cubist Systematic Strategies.
Denis Dancanet is leaving Cubist, which he joined in 2020, to pursue other opportunities, according to an internal memo from founder Steve Cohen. Geoffrey Lauprete, who worked at WorldQuant for 17 years until 2024, will take over starting next month, according to the memo, which was seen by Business Insider.
“Denis expanded Cubist’s global footprint, grew our pod model, and built our central team from the ground up. His leadership and expertise have made a lasting impact on the firm, and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors,” Cohen wrote in the memo.
Bloomberg first reported the leadership change.
A Point72 spokesperson declined to comment on the changes.
The hiring of Lauprete shocked some industry insiders as he had been actively fundraising to launch his own trading firm, Libero Capital. A deal with Paloma Partners fell through months back, but according to people familiar with the matter, Lauprete was still in active discussions with other partners for funding. His conversations with Cubist started out as discussions over investing in Libero as an external manager, according to people familiar with the matter.
Most of the Libero investment team is expected to join Cubist, potentially as a separate pod, the people said.
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Lauprete was chief investment officer and vice chairman of WorldQuant, the systematic investing giant spawned from Izzy Englander’s Millennium Management, and before that was a portfolio manager at Millennium.
“Geoffrey brings a proven track record of scaling businesses, attracting and developing quant talent globally, and providing PMs and researchers with world-class tools and infrastructure,” Cohen wrote in the memo. “I’m confident that he will continue to drive the success of our systematic business and make Cubist the most attractive home for the best quant talent—across both our pod model and central team.”
Cubist, which manages about 17% of Point72’s $40 billion in assets under management, sustained significant losses during the quant hedge fund route this summer, but the unit’s year-to-date performance has remained positive all year, according to a person familiar with the matter. Point72 recorded gains in July and August and is up 9.1% this year.
One of Dancanet’s chief initiatives since joining has been building out an internal, centralized team to trade across a variety of strategies — essentially a traditional collaborative quant fund operating alongside the unit’s roughly 50 independent pods. He spent tens of millions hiring from top-tier firms, including Citadel, Jump Trading, Squarepoint, and Tower Research, for the central team, which now has about 100 employees.
