Michael Platt

Michael Platt co-founded BlueCrest Capital Management in 2000 with William Reeves after working at JPMorgan Chase as a derivatives trader. BlueCrest grew to become one of Europe's largest hedge funds, managing over $37 billion at peak. The firm ran multiple strategies including BlueTrend (a systematic trend-following CTA), BlueMatrix, and a discretionary macro book. BlueCrest was known for its risk management culture — traders who underperformed were quickly cut, and risk limits were tightly enforced. In 2015, Platt made the controversial decision to return all external investor capital, stating he wanted to manage only internal capital. BlueCrest subsequently converted to a family office. The subsequent years reportedly generated extraordinary returns managing Platt's personal wealth, estimated at over $7 billion.