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- Ray Dalio says he's not plotting a comeback to Bridgewater, the fund he founded in 1975.
- Speaking at a Greenwich conference Tuesday, Dalio denied a New York Times report saying he might return.
- He said he will focus on running his family office and mentoring Bridgewater's leadership team.
Ray Dalio says he's focusing on running his own billions since leaving Bridgewater Associates last October.
His plan after handing the reins to the current management team is to mentor them while running his family office, which recently hired Mark Baumgartner, chief investment officer of non-profit Carnegie.
Speaking at the Greenwich Economic Forum Tuesday, Dalio spent half an hour speaking about his forecasts for the US's relationship with China, the Middle East, and a possible debt crisis.
He turned to his own future after he was asked about a report in the New York Times that he was considering a return to the Westport, Connecticut-based hedge fund he founded and ran for decades.
When asked if he was coming back, the 74-year-old exclaimed, "that was such a wrong" before catching himself — and leaving the audience with a different piece of advice: "Don't trust the media."
The author of the piece in the Times, former Wall Street Journal reporter Rob Copeland, plans to release a book on Dalio and his hedge fund soon, despite the objections of one of Greenwich's most famous residents. The New York Post reported last month on the team of high-priced lawyers Dalio has hired to push back on the book. The New York Times declined to comment.
Dalio, who has a net worth of $16.5 billion according to Bloomberg's billionaire index, also plans to write another book, plus spend time with his family while "savoring life and the things I like to do." Dalio is building out his family office with a new office in Abu Dhabi and hiring in its other hubs in the US and Singapore, according to Bloomberg.
Dalio launched Bridgewater in a two-bedroom apartment in 1975 and finally stepped down last October after years of grappling to find a new leadership team. The world's largest hedge fund is now being run by Nir Bar Dea, who has already shaken up the firm with a restructure and layoffs.