Barry Rosenstein
Barry S. Rosenstein is an American hedge fund manager and billionaire. He is the founder and managing partner of JANA Partners LLC, an activist hedge fund firm. He made $300 million over the merger of Whole Foods with Amazon in April–July 2017.
Early life and education
Barry Rosenstein was born in 1960. He is the son of Herbert Rosenstein of West Orange, New Jersey, a senior partner in the tax accounting firm of Rosenstein, Schantz & Jacobson, and his wife, Harriet Wolf.Rosenstein graduated from Lehigh University in 1981 where he studied accounting. He earned a master in business administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1984.
Investing career
Rosenstein first worked in the investment banking and merger departments of Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc.Before launching JANA Rosenstein worked with Asher Edelman, a well-known corporate raider, for 3.5 years in the 1980s.
In the early 1990s Rosenstein went to San Francisco, having early success funding Copart, Inc., the world's largest car salvage company. He then led a private equity firm, Sagaponack Partners.
Rosenstein founded hedge fund firm JANA Partners, in 2001, with about $35 million. Rosenstein is ranked with activist investors including Carl Icahn, Daniel Loeb and Bill Ackman.
In April 2017, he made public that he and several investors owned 8.8% of Whole Foods, making them the second largest shareholders of the company after The Vanguard Group. He added that they aimed to shake up its board of directors and improve its use of technology. After Whole Foods merged with Amazon, Rosenstein sold his investment for $300 million in July 2017.