- Rapid departures of senior business-development and quant-recruiting execs signal worrying churn at Citadel despite its market dominance.
- Laura Sterner’s abrupt two-month exit highlights fierce talent poaching and potential retention issues among top hedge fund recruiters.
- Meme-stock scrutiny and retail outrage amplify narratives linking exits to broader reputational and regulatory pressure on Citadel.
In the cutthroat world of hedge funds, where billions ride on split-second decisions and talent is everything, Ken Griffin’s Citadel just can’t seem to keep its top recruiters on board.
Laura Sterner, who joined the $69 billion powerhouse only in September as head of business development for the Global Equities unit, resigned last week—barely two months into the gig.
People familiar with the matter spilled the details to Business Insider, speaking anonymously because, well, this is private personnel stuff.
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Sterner’s abrupt departure marks the latest in a string of shakes-ups in Citadel’s business development ranks, raising eyebrows about what’s really going on inside one of Wall Street’s most dominant players.
Who Is Laura Sterner, and Why Does This Matter?
Sterner isn’t some rookie—she spent a full decade at Steve Cohen’s Point72, rising to chief fundraiser and helping steer massive capital inflows.
She left Point72 earlier this year, dipped into a short stint at a healthcare investment firm in May, and then Citadel swooped in to poach her as a replacement for Alex Topkins, who bolted back in April.
Her role? Scouting and locking in elite portfolio managers and researchers for Citadel’s Global Equities team, led by former Point72 PM Justin Lubell.
In this talent war among multistrategy hedge funds, these BD execs are gold—they command multimillion-dollar packages because landing the right money-makers can make or break billions in returns.
The reason for her quick exit? Nobody’s saying officially. A Citadel spokesperson declined to comment, and Sterner didn’t respond to requests either. But this isn’t isolated—it’s part of a bigger churn.
The Exodus Keeps Rolling
Just weeks before Sterner’s resignation, Citadel’s top quant recruiter, Ansh Kalra, jumped ship to rival Balyasny Asset Management. Kalra had been poached by Citadel himself back in 2020 from third-party firms.
Go back further, and the pattern gets clearer: Notable reshuffling in BD over the past year, with execs like Topkins out in April and others in equities and fixed income following suit.
Even high-profile PMs have walked. Industry insiders point to the post-pandemic talent frenzy—funds are desperate for star traders, driving up pay and making poaching easier.
Citadel, for all its clout as Griffin’s flagship (and separate from his market-making arm, Citadel Securities), has felt the heat.
Griffin himself acknowledged at a conference last month that losing talent is inevitable when you’re at the top: “Good firms drop acorns that grow into small trees.”
But multiple departures in such a short window? That’s got people talking.
Is it burnout from Citadel’s infamous grind? Better offers elsewhere? Or cracks in the armor as competition heats up from firms like Millennium, Balyasny, and even Walleye?
The Bigger Picture: Citadel Under Fire from Retail Investors
This executive merry-go-round isn’t happening in a vacuum. Citadel—both the hedge fund and its Securities sibling—remains a lightning rod for U.S. retail investors, especially the die-hard crowds in GameStop ($GME) and AMC Entertainment ($AMC).
Four years after the 2021 meme stock frenzy, the scrutiny hasn’t let up.
Retail traders, often calling themselves “apes,” still blame Citadel Securities for everything from payment-for-order-flow practices to roles in halting trading during the squeeze.
Hashtags like #CitadelScandal and #ApesNotLeaving pop up regularly, with fresh outrage over lawsuits accusing market makers of conspiring to tank meme stocks.
Fast-forward to 2025, and it’s not fading. On X (formerly Twitter), posts tie Citadel’s departures directly to meme stock pressure: One user speculated execs are bailing before accountability hits, listing Sterner alongside Kalra and others.
Another highlighted Griffin’s past blame-shifting, replaying clips of him pointing fingers at retail for Melvin Capital’s collapse.
Recent chatter explodes around naked shorting claims, swap unwinds, and theories that Citadel’s holding massive short positions in $GME and $AMC—over $64 billion in short sales reported earlier this year.
Apes point to threshold list warnings, dark pool warnings from Citadel itself to the SEC, and even subpoenas in bankruptcy cases demanding short data.
As one post put it: “Citadel has received their 25th warning letter after they have destroyed XRT again to extract the last juice of $GME fake shares.”
Others celebrate perceived weakness: Loans taken, credit downgrades, parts of the business sold off—retail claims victory, saying “we did that.”
Even in November 2025, threads link Sterner’s exit to broader chaos: “Another Citadel Executive Is Out… Her exit follows recent departures and ongoing turnover.”
Users quip about reaching out to leavers for dirt on naked shorts.
What Happens Next?
Citadel’s still a behemoth—Griffin’s empire raked in massive profits in recent quarters, even if 2025 has had rough patches for some strategies.
But in an industry where people are the product, this turnover could signal trouble retaining the edge.
For retail investors fighting for transparency and accountability since 2021, every exit fuels the narrative: Is the house of cards wobbling?
Or just normal churn in a hyper-competitive game? One thing’s clear—this story’s far from over. As meme stock warriors say: Tick tock.
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