BOSTON (Reuters) - Investment firm Citadel LLC said on Tuesday that its chief legal officer, Adam Cooper, plans to retire in 2017 and that Shawn Fagan has been promoted to general counsel for its hedge fund business.
Cooper, 54, worked at Citadel for 18 years and plans to spend more time on philanthropic pursuits and with his family after he leaves the firm at the end of February 2017, Zia Ahmed, a spokesman for the firm said.
Citadel, which invests $26 billion, split Cooper's job in two. It promoted Fagan, who had been senior deputy general counsel, to his new position effective immediately. It is planning to hire a general counsel for Citadel Securities in early 2017, Ahmed said.
Fagan joined Citadel in 2005 after working for a law firm and serving as a clerk to Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Cooper has been working closely with Citadel's founder, Ken Griffin, for nearly two decades. He was with the firm when it suffered a roughly 50 percent loss in its main fund during the financial crisis and as it rebounded, and most recently expanded its equities business aggressively.
Ben Bernanke, the former Federal Reserve chair who has been working with Citadel as an adviser, said "Citadel's success is rooted in its ability to attract some of the strongest minds in the industry and its commitment to doing business the right way. Adam reflects both of these Citadel traits."