AEGiS-WSJ: Market Is Down; Is Giving, Too? Charity Gala Organizers Have Lower Expectations For This Year's Big Event

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2008. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

Market Is Down; Is Giving, Too? Charity Gala Organizers Have Lower Expectations For This Year's Big Event

Wall Street Journal - May 13, 2008
Cassell Bryan-Low

London's hedge-fund elite are awaiting one of the biggest social events of the year: the ARK charity dinner.

Given the difficult start to the year for the markets, organizers aren't expecting to match the (pounds)26.6 million ($51.9 million) they raised in 2007.

Arpad Busson, founder of both children's charity ARK, which stands for Absolute Return for Kids, and Swiss hedge-fund group EIM, says demand has been as strong as last year. The tables -- which go for as much as (pounds)100,000 each -- sold out several weeks in advance. Still, Mr. Busson says, they might not be able to raise as much this year; the charity is targeting (pounds)15 million at the gala event next month.

These are different times," says Mr. Busson, one of the hedge-fund industry's best-known figures and current boyfriend of actress Uma Thurman. But, adds Mr. Busson, "people who have been privileged over the years, regardless of their situation today, should be obliged to give. It is our moral responsibility."

At last year's auction event at a mansion on London's Pall Mall, about 1,200 fund managers, bankers and other attendees snapped up lots such as dinner with former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev and a week at a Kenyan ranch that went for just shy of $1 million. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton gave a speech, the musician Prince performed and singer Madonna helped solicit pledges from the audience.

ARK was founded in 2002 and focuses on education and HIV and AIDS. The charity's board reads like a who's who of the hedge-fund world, including Stanley Fink, deputy chairman of Man Group, and Paul Marshall, co-founder of Marshall Wace Asset Management.

The hedge-fund glitterati will gather this year at the Royal Naval College, a Baroque group of buildings set in landscaped gardens on the banks of the River Thames and built on the site of the birthplace of Elizabeth I.

Those in the U.S. with a couple hundred thousand dollars to spare but unable to make it to London shouldn't fret: Mr. Busson plans to throw a similar bash in the U.S. in the near future.

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