Before starting LibreMax Capital with partner Fred Brettschneider in 2010, Greg Lippman worked in leadership positions at several other financial institutions including Deutsche Bank, where he was the Global Head of Asset-Backed Securities Trading. When he joined the corporation, it was experiencing a crisis, but he helped sort out its losses and was responsible for coming up with the idea and the mechanism for betting against subprime mortgage debt, which brought in over $1 billion in assets. This investment strategy proved to be lucrative for the hedge fund manager. Because of his success with finding debts to invest in and profit greatly from, Greg Lippman became the inspiration for the Michael Lewis book called The Big Short, and the movie of the same name, which starred actor Ryan Gosling.
His support for debt forgiveness for Americans who were severely behind on their mortgages gained him a great deal of positive support from investors. At LibreMax Capital, Greg Lippman is the Chief Investment Officer and the Portfolio Manager, overseeing approximately $3 billion in financial investments. The business specializes in structured products that include commercial mortgage securities, collateral loan obligations, or CLOs, and student loan investment. When asked what he feels will cause the next financial crisis, he said he thinks it will be corporate debt, although he doesn’t think it will as bad as the previous crises. He believes that consumer debt would be a safer thing to invest in as opposed to corporate debt, due to the fact that companies have taken too many loans because of their lower interest rates.
The seasoned executive comes from a family of entrepreneurs, his father being the retired owner of DBL Operating Corporation, a New York based real estate investment and management business, and his mother having been a Business Manager at Purchase College. In 1991, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude, and minored in English. He also attended Edgemont High School. Among his many other business ventures, he worked at Promise Financial, an operation that involved wedding loans.
Although Greg Lippman is most likely best known for finding Big Shorts when it comes to the kinds of debt investments that will yield the best results, he says that he is not consumed with searching for the next one. He continues to use his innovative and strategic method of investing in CLOs at LibreMax Capital, where he helps manage nearly $1 billion in investments. He is married to Kimberly Duckworth, who has also had a long career in the financial industry.
