Founder

The firm was founded in 1988 by David E. Shaw, who continues to serve as chairman and chief executive officer of D. E. Shaw & Co., Inc.  Dr. Shaw remains involved in major strategic decisions affecting the D. E. Shaw group, including the initiation of new research programs and investment activities. He now devotes only a small fraction of his time, however, to the day-to-day operations of the firm's various asset management units. The majority of Dr. Shaw's time is devoted to his role as chief scientist of D. E. Shaw Research, LLC, in which capacity he leads an interdisciplinary research group in the field of computational biochemistry and personally engages in hands-on research in that field. He also holds appointments as a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at Columbia University and as an Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Columbia's medical school.

Dr. Shaw received his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1980 and served on the faculty of the Computer Science Department at Columbia University until 1986, when he left to head the Automated Analytical Trading Technology group at Morgan Stanley. In 1994, President Clinton appointed Dr. Shaw to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, in which capacity he served as chairman of the Panel on Educational Technology. He was elected to the board of directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1998, and now serves as its treasurer. Dr. Shaw is also a member of the executive committee of the Council on Competitiveness, and has testified before several Congressional committees and the National Science Board on various topics related to education, science and technology policy, national economic competitiveness, and other public policy issues.