Founder, Chief Executive and Senior Investment Officer of CQS
Michael Hintze is the founder, Chief Executive and Senior Investment Officer of CQS, a global multi-strategy asset management firm. Michael is the Chief Investment Officer of the CQS Convertible & Quantitative Strategies Fund and Portfolio Manager of the CQS Directional Opportunities Fund. He is also Chairman of the CQS Executive Committee. Bloomberg recently ranked Hintze's CQS Directional Opportunities Fund #3 on its list of the 100 top-performing large hedge funds.
Prior to establishing CQS, Michael held senior roles at a number of leading global financial institutions including Managing Director and European Head of Convertible Bonds at CSFB and Head of UK Trading at Goldman Sachs, where he established and built up Goldman’s Euro Convertible and European Warrants business in London. He started his career in finance at Salomon Brothers.
View Michael Hintze's Linkedin profile to learn more about his professional background.
Background and Education
Michael was raised in Sydney, Australia and is a fluent Russian speaker. He holds a BSc in Physics and Pure Mathematics and a BEng in Electrical Engineering both from the University of Sydney. He also holds an MSc in Acoustics from the University of New South Wales, an MBA from Harvard Business School and received a Doctor of Business and an Honoris Causa from the University of New South Wales.
Prior to beginning his career in finance, Michael served for three years in the Australian Regular Army as a Captain in the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.
Michael moved to London in the 1980s and was honoured as "Australian of the Year" in the UK in 2008. He has maintained strong personal and business ties to Australia and was made a Member of the Order of Australia in January 2013 in recognition of his “significant service to the community through philanthropic contributions to organizations supporting the arts, health and education.”
Hintze Family Charitable Foundation
Michael has significant and wide-ranging philanthropic interests and to consolidate these, the Hintze Family Charitable Foundation was established. Since inception in 2005, over 150 charities have received funding from the Foundation.
Major donations have, amongst others, provided funding to Trinity Hospice in south London, The Oxford Foundation for Theoretical Neuroscience and Artificial Intelligence, established the chair of International Security at the University of Sydney, enabled the restoration of Michelangelo’s frescoes in the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican, sponsored two major galleries at the Victoria & Albert Museum and provided vital funding to the Old Vic Theatre in London
Michael was appointed to the National Gallery’s Board of Trustees by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and was later reappointed by Prime Minister David Cameron. Michael is the Chairman of The Prince’s Foundation for Building Community and a Trustee of the Institute of Economic Affairs, the University of Sydney and the Wandsworth Museum. He also serves on the International Council of the V&A and is a Patron of the Arts of the Vatican Museums.
He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory in 2005, and subsequently Knight Grand Cross, in January 2008. In November 2009, Michael Hintze and his wife Dorothy received the Prince of Wales Award for Arts Philanthropy.
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