Next profile: Seth Charnow
Charles Ardai, Managing Director
D. E. Shaw Technology Development
What is your role in the D. E. Shaw group?
I'm a managing director of D. E. Shaw Technology Development, LLC, principally responsible for overseeing the entrepreneurial projects within that entity. Each of our technology development ventures is at a different stage of development and has different needs, in areas ranging from basic scientific research and technology development to sales and marketing, recruiting, capital formation, and establishing strategic alliances. Either directly or indirectly I have the opportunity to work in all of these areas, helping each group realize its potential both as a business and as a contributor in its particular field.
How long have you worked at the firm and how has your role changed over that time?
I've been here since 1992. When I started, I was pretty much fresh out of school with a Bachelor's Degree in English. Though I had some entrepreneurial experience, I had no formal business training, few technical skills, and only the most limited knowledge of finance. That meant I couldn't be put to work as a trader or a programmer or an accountant, so a set of senior managers, including David, took a look at what the firm needed, and asked me to build the firm's Strategic Growth department, which would be responsible for identifying and recruiting the most talented individuals in the world to perform each of the roles in the company. It was a terrific way into the firm, since it exposed me to every other part of the company.
Over time, I had the opportunity to take on responsibilities outside of recruiting. In 1994, just before the beginning of the Internet boom, I began working closely with David on the development of a number of Internet-related business ideas for the firm. In 1995, I came up with the idea for what would ultimately become Juno, the first commercial venture to offer Internet access to the general public for free. Although I was quite young and inexperienced at the time, David gave me the opportunity to organize, build, and run Juno. A few years later, we spun Juno off from the D. E. Shaw group as an independent, publicly traded company, and it became one of the relatively small number of Internet-related companies of substantial size to actually achieve profitability. I continued to serve as Juno's CEO until 2001, when we successfully merged it with one of its chief competitors, at which point I returned to the D. E. Shaw group and stepped into my current role.
What kept you at the firm for so long?
The opportunity to work in an environment filled exclusively with exceptionally intelligent, creative, articulate, and passionate people. I've found a higher concentration of truly extraordinary individuals here than anywhere else I've ever worked, studied, or visited, including at top universities and other world-class organizations. The D. E. Shaw group's rigorous hiring process and exacting hiring standards have produced a team whose gifts and accomplishments are remarkable, and the chance to work with so many outstanding people is irresistible.
And in addition to your work here, you also edit a line of pulp mystery novels?
Yes; that's my secret other life. Before joining the D. E. Shaw group, I worked as a writer for various magazines and as an editor of books for a number of publishers. Writing and editing continue to be passions of mine, and in 2001 I was talking with a co-worker at the D. E. Shaw group, Max Phillips, about how much we both love old-fashioned paperback crime novels. We decided it would be fun to create our own new paperback publishing company in the style of the great old imprints of the past. After working on it in our spare time for a couple of years, we succeeded in getting the project off the ground—and it's been a bigger hit than we ever anticipated. It's a reflection of just how flexible and open- minded the firm is that we've been able to pull this off at the same time that we continue to play our respective roles in the firm. Juggling it all can sometimes be exhausting, but it's also enormously rewarding.
