Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, announced Monday that Mark Bertolini, former chief executive officer of Aetna before it was purchased in 2018 by CVS Health Corp., will be co-CEO.
The Westport, Connecticut-based hedge fund, with assets under management of about $150 billion, said Bertolini, who is co-chair of Bridgewater’s Operating Board of Directors, and Deputy CEO Nir Bar Dea, take the co-CEO jobs effective immediately.
They succeed David H. McCormick, an under secretary of the Treasury in the administration of President George W. Bush. He is considering a run for the U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania being vacated by Republican Pat Toomey, who is retiring.
“Through this Co-CEO model, we are getting a powerful combination of Nir, a well-respected internal leader who has worked closely with Dave, management, and the (chief information officers) for six years, and Mark, who has enormous experience and is a globally respected and proven CEO,” founder Ray Dalio and other executives said in a statement posted on its website.
Bridgewater said Bertolini led Aetna’s transition from a “traditional health insurance company to a consumer-oriented health care company focused on delivering holistic, integrated care in local communities.”
Bertolini successfully negotiated the $69 billion acquisition of Aetna, a presence in Hartford, Connecticut since 1853. He was stymied a few years earlier when his bid to buy Humana Inc. for $37 billion was blocked by a federal judge.
Bridgewater and then-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy of Connecticut faced criticism in 2016 when the hedge fund received $22 million in forgivable loans and grants to create 750 jobs and keep the 1,402 positions it then had. The money was to be used to renovate and expand the firm’s Westport headquarters and operations elsewhere in the state.
