Julian Hart Robinson, Jr. was born in Salisbury, North Carolina in 1932. He graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1955 with a degree in business administration. Robertson served as an officer in the Navy and went on to become a stockbroker at Kidder Peabody. He later became the head of the firms asset management division, Webster Management Corporation.
Julian Robertson founded the Tiger Management Group (TMG) in 1980. He grew the firm from a single fund starting with $8 million in assets in 1980 to a collection of funds managing over $21 billion in assets under management in 2000.
Through the 1980’s and into the 1990’s Robertson was seen as a leader in the world of hedge funds. From 1998 to 2000 the TMG funds suffered from a downturn and in 2000 all TMG funds were closed.
Like Paul Tudor Jones, Robertson is said to have employed global macro trading strategies. At the TMG funds, Robertson would review data from his research analysts and make all investment decisions himself.
Julian Robertson is seen as a founding father and pioneer of the modern hedge fund industry, along with George Soros and Michael Steinhardt.
Many leading hedge fund managers got their start at Tiger Management. These outstanding money managers, sometimes referred to as Tiger Cubs, include John Griffin of Blue Ridge Capital, Steven Mandel of Lone Pine Capital, Chris Shumway of Shumway Capital Partners and Lee Ainslie of Maverick Capital Management.
Robertson is an active philanthropist, benefiting educational and environmental causes.