Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - December 2007/January 2008 - (Page 19)

The Good Guys Inner-City MVP Longtime All Stars Project supporter Richard Sokolow helps students realize their dreams. By Danielle Beurteaux s a high school social studies teacher working in some of New York’s poorest neighborhoods in the 1980s, Richard Sokolow was frustrated. The public school system was mired in bureaucracy and plagued by overcrowding, collapsing infrastructure and underfunding. “A thousand kids would begin as freshmen, and only 250 would graduate,” recalls Sokolow, 52, now director of research at Elliott Management Corp., a $9 billion New York–based hedge fund ﬁrm founded in 1977 that focuses on distressed investing and on special situations. and sound and, of course, performing. Everyone who auditions is admitted into the program. “There’s something special about performance,” says Sokolow, who was a business research consultant for 13 years before joining Elliott in 2000. “Young people really grab on to it, and the things they learn while putting on these shows are actually very valuable in other contexts in life.” Sokolow joined the board of the All Stars Project in 2000 and is currently co-chair of its fundraising committee with Edward Malmstrom, a managing director in the public ﬁnance group at Merrill Lynch & Co. Their most recent challenge was to raise $5 million for renovations to the the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system, as well as to the facade and lobby of the organization’s West 42nd Street headquarters. The repairs are scheduled to be completed this spring. The All Stars Project has three additional youth programs: the Joseph A. Forgione Development School for Youth; Youth Onstage; and Production of Youth by Youth. It has also opened centers in Atlanta; Boston; Chicago; Los Angeles; Newark, New Jersey; the San Francisco Bay area and Amsterdam and plans to open one soon in London. Sokolow is especially excited about the work of the Development School for Youth, a three-month leadership training program for students between the ages of 16 and 21. The students attend a series of workshops hosted by executives at their places of business, as well as learn job-search skills, résumé writing and interview techniques. At the end of the program, each student is hired for a paid summer internship at companies like Ernst & Young and SourceMedia. Last October, Elliott Management hosted 30 Development School students, who learned about hedge funds. “They had lots of questions,” says Sokolow. “For many of these kids, it was the ﬁrst time they’d ever heard of a hedge fund.” Every year 200 inner-city students from more than 40 New York and Newark high schools are accepted into the Development School program. Sokolow sees building relationships — both through the Development School and the broader Talent Show Network — as essential for the progress of inner-city youth. “Richard has made this a priority,” says All Stars Project president and CEO Gabrielle Kurlander. “He’s grown as a businessman and brought All Stars with him.” For more information visit www.allstars.org. Richard Sokolow (seated), with high school students Christina Topia, Roderick Thompson and Stanley Lew Sokolow left behind teaching but not working with kids. Since 1986 he has been involved with the All Stars Project, a performance-centered outreach program for inner-city youth. Every year, thousands of children and young adults, ages 5 through 25, participate in the group’s All Stars Talent Show Network, which puts on weekend performances at schools throughout New York’s five boroughs. They are responsible for everything — marketing, ticket sales, managing the lights Photo by Chad Batka for Alpha DECEMBER 2007/JANUARY 2008 • INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR’S ALPHA • 19 http://www.allstars.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - December 2007/January 2008

Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - December 2007/January 2008 Contents Letter from the Editor Longs & Shorts Pension Corner: Liberal Returns The Good Guy: Inner-city MVP Cover Story: Marathon Men Interview: Rizk Management Profile: Living on Hostile Ground Profile: Buy and Hold In Theory: The Fallacy of Portable Alpha Strategies: Changing Course Alpha Bytes: Behind the Scenes Unhedged: Commentary: An Activist Alternative

Institutional Investor's Alpha Magazine - December 2007/January 2008

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