As the head of the largest woman-run hedge fund in the United States, it's easy to understand why Anne Dias Griffin has made this list for a third consecutive year.
After surviving a tumultuous 2008, which by an outside estimate saw Aragon Global Management's portfolio decline by 16 percent, Griffin has helped guide the fund back. According to Mutual Fund Facts About Individual Stocks (MFFAIS) the Chicago-based portfolio has increased 2.5 percent to a current hypothetical value of $68 million, which is based on the SEC 13F-HR as of Aug. 14, over the previous 100 days.
At 39 years old, the multi-lingual Griffin has turned heads with how quickly she became a player in the hedge fund world. She has an MBA from Harvard and after graduating went to Goldman Sachs as a financial analyst in the Investment Banking department, before becoming an analyst and portfolio manager at Soros Fund Management.
In 2001 she started Aragon Global, which focuses on industrials, telecommunications, media and the Internet, consumer goods, and financials.
Griffin makes up half of a Chicago financial power couple - her husband is Kenneth Griffin, who heads Citadel Investment Group. Both are active in community giving, including a $19 million donation to the Art Institute of Chicago.
