Dan Zwirn Reacting to Market

Dan Zwirn is looking into the shadow banking sector according to a report in the the HF Review.

The new business would be based on the notion that private groups need to take the place of banks in lending to middle-market companies. Illiquid strategies such as corporate lending and real estate are being considered. Zwirn, the former head of D.B. Zwirn & Co., believes the best opportunities could be those between hedge funds and private equity.

Dan Zwirn Holds Chat with M&T Club

Dan Zwirn conducted his undergraduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania in the Moore School of Electrical Engineering as well as The Wharton School.


Combining Penn Engineering and The Wharton School is the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology (M&T). Students in M&T can obtain degrees from both schools concurrently. Dan Zwirn received a B.S. in Economics and a B.A.S. in Computer Science from the schools in 1993. On October 16, Zwirn visited campus and conducted a coffee chat with students and staff of the M&T Club.

Dan Zwirn discussed his life after Penn, which included his previous stint as Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of D.B. Zwirn & Co. where he generated nearly $3 billion in gross profits. Zwirn is now the Managing Member of Zwirn Family Interests, LLC and Arena Investors, LLC.

The M&T Club has the following mission:

•  To serve as a representative forum for M&Ts
•  To foster and develop a sense of community among M&Ts
•  To facilitate ties between current and alumnus M&Ts
•  To create, promote and increase academic and professional opportunities for M&Ts
•  To enhance relationships between M&Ts and the wider Penn community

With the clever tag line "It feels like two degrees in here...," the M&T Club organizes events and creates relationships within the M&T community. M&T alumni have  started companies such as Stubhub, Traffic.com and Register.com. With over 1800 alumni, there is a great deal of interaction between students and alumni which the M&T Club seeks to capitalize on.

NEW Supported by Dan Zwirn

Nontraditional Employment for Women (NEW) is an organization that prepares, trains and places women in careers in the skilled construction industry. This includes utility and maintenance trades. The goal of the organization is to help women achieve economic independence.

Dan Zwirn and Monica Keany have made NEW one of the organizations that they have supported over the past couple of years. This is not the only women’s organization they have supported as Dan Zwirn is a contributor and member of the Board of Trustees for Barnard College, a women’s College providing a liberal arts education in New York City.

Dan Zwirn supports NEW.

NEW develops women for careers within skilled and unionized jobs that are manual labor. Serving low-income women in New York City, it aims to provide these women with the skills to begin a career.  NEW works with labor unions, contractors and government to place women in 10% of all new apprenticeship spots. Since 2005, over 600 women from the NEW program have found work in positions as carpenters, plumbers, electricians and many others. On top of that, 255 more women have found careers in energy transportation and facilities management industries. 

NEW’s website notes that in 1978, under 2% of all construction workers were women. By 2005, that number had risen to 3% and will continue to climb as NEW increases the influence on both women and the workforce in the New York City area.