NY Hedge Fund Partner Opens Art Gallery in London

Kashya Hildebrand worked on Wall Street for nearly twenty years before finding her passion for art on European streets. The Pakistan native started her artistic venture in Geneva, and recently relocated her gallery to London from Zurich.

Until 2000, Hildebrand was a partner at the New York hedge fund Moore Capital Management LLC. This past year, her husband, Philipp Hildebrand, whom she met at work, quit his job as President of Swiss National Bank after political pressure regarding his wife’s dollar purchases before the SNB imposed a currency cap. Three months after Hildebrand left, an SNB audit cleared him of any mistakes, but he has since moved onto BlackRock Inc. (BLK) in London, where he is vice chairman and the family now resides.

“For me it’s a dream,” said Hildebrand, whose gallery highlights artists from Iran, Syria and other Middle Eastern areas. “I am excited about it. A lot of people from the Middle East are choosing to have second homes in London as safe havens, and so you have the affluence, the dynamism, the multiculturalism and ethnic diversity.”

Hildebrand will open her brand new gallery in London’s “young, emerging, contemporary” Fitzrovia neighborhood tomorrow, June 26, and will feature Reza Derakshani’s work.