Balyasny Puts AI Chief in Trading Role, Hires Two Specialists

Balyasny Asset Management appointed applied artificial intelligence research chief Peter Anderson to lead autonomous strategies within its fundamental equities division. The hedge fund also hired Gearoid Murphy to replace Anderson as head of applied AI research and recruited Itamar Kestenbaum as a senior AI engineer.

Anderson joined Balyasny from Google. He previously worked in equity research at Credit Suisse and holds a PhD in machine learning.

His new role is separate from Balyasny’s systematic trading division, which is led by Francine Fang. Anderson will oversee autonomous strategies for the firm’s fundamental equities business.

Murphy joined Balyasny from Google’s innovation lab X. Based in San Francisco, he previously served as chief technology officer of an artificial intelligence project focused on improving global supply-chain efficiency. He holds a PhD in evolutionary algorithms.

Kestenbaum joined Balyasny as a senior AI engineer in New York. He previously worked at Meta as a senior infrastructure engineer and held technology roles in Israel.