Bridgewater’s tech chief is leaving the hedge fund giant for Microsoft to focus on the ‘relentless tide of cyber threats’

• Bridgewater president and CTO, Igor Tsyganskiy, has left the hedge fund.
• He is joining Microsoft as the firm’s chief strategy officer of security.
• He told Insider he’s making the move to help combat cybersecurity on a broader scale.

Bridgewater’s top technology executive has left the company.

Insider has learned that Igor Tsyganskiy, the world’s largest hedge fund’s chief technology officer and president, is leaving after seven years.

Tsyganskiy was in charge of the technology that runs the $150 billion hedge fund, from the cloud to investment research and trading systems. He also served on the operational and executive committees.

Tsyganskiy is leaving for Microsoft to focus on cybersecurity, which he calls “one of the most important things in computer science and for the world right now,” according to Insider.

“If you look at the sophistication of cyber-attacks and the types of cyber-attacks that were happening a decade ago, they’re very different than they are today,” Tsyganskiy said, adding that attacks on critical infrastructure in the United States, such as power grids and oil pipelines, have increased dramatically.

Tsyganskiy told Insider that he will join Microsoft as chief strategy officer of security in September and will relocate from Connecticut to the Bay Area in order to combat the threat on a larger scale. His last day at Bridgewater was Aug. 1, and he detailed his role in the “nonstop marathon” that transformed the Westport, Connecticut-based firm in a LinkedIn post.

Tsyganskiy has overhauled nearly every system at Bridgewater since joining in 2016, including the firm’s trading and back-office systems. He was instrumental in Bridgewater’s cloud migration and scaling of the firm’s investment-research platform.

“Because of the work that I was doing at Bridgewater, I was essentially in the middle of dealing with strengthening the cybersecurity both for Bridgewater and for the industry as a whole,” Tsyganskiy told Insider, referring to his work on client-facing systems that touched some of the country’s largest financial firms.

Tsyganskiy also praised Greg Jensen, Bridgewater’s co-chief investment officer, as an exceptional partner in the firm’s AI efforts.

Tsyganskiy previously ran database.com, a division of Salesforce.com, and was a cofounder of Tealeaf Technologies, which was acquired by IBM.

According to a person familiar with the matter, two Bridgewater executives, Oliver Radwan and Kevin Brennan, who is also the director of investment systems, were promoted to co-heads of technology to succeed Tsyganskiy in March 2023.

The transition occurs as Bridgewater enters a new era. Ray Dalio, the fund’s founder and former CEO, stepped down in October, and his successor Nir Bar Dea laid out his plans to boost profitability, cut costs, and restructure parts of the firm in March.

Creating a blueprint for Microsoft’s $20 billion security division

Tsyganskiy is no stranger to Microsoft; Bridgewater used Microsoft cybersecurity tools such as Hunting Experts, a service that proactively seeks out security threats on clients’ behalf.

Tsyganskiy stated that he would be joining Charlie Bell, who has been in charge of Microsoft’s $20 billion security business since 2021 after leaving Amazon Web Services, which he cofounded. According to Bell, AI will give Microsoft the advantage it needs to “finally turn the tables on the attackers.”

The rise of artificial intelligence, while promising and potentially revolutionary in the way we work, also introduces an unprecedented step change in the “relentless tide of cyber threats,” according to Tsyganskiy’s LinkedIn post, adding that “even the best security technologies from three years ago risk becoming obsolete swiftly.”

He stated that his mandate will be to define Microsoft’s global security strategy, ultimately influencing the tools and services developed by the tech giant, spanning the private and public sectors, as well as individuals, small and medium businesses, large corporations, and global infrastructure.

“Basically, end-to-end strategy on how Microsoft approaches the cybersecurity sector is my job,” Tsyganskiy explained to Insider.