Any fans of the 2015 film ,The Big Short will know the character of Jared Vennet. But, is he based on a real person? Who is it? And what is he up to now?
The Big Short, directed by Adam McKay, has a star-studded line-up including Christian Bale, Steve Carrell, ,Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt. It is based on the non-fiction book written in 2010 by Michael Lewis, which describes the real estate market of the 2000s, in particular the financial crisis of 2007-2008.
The film was released by Paramout Pictures in December 2015 to critical success, grossing $133 million and winning the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screeplay.
The character of Jared Vennett is a trader at Deutsche Bank who makes money selling credit default swaps and was played by Ryan Gosling.
Jared Vennett is based on a real person, Greg Lippmann. At the time of the start of the financial crisis, Lippmann was global head of asset-backed securities (ABS) and collateralized debt obligation (CDO) trading at Deutsch Bank. Bloomberg reported that he made $1.5. billion offsetting losses on mortgage investments with bets against subprime debts.
What is Greg Lippmann’s background?
Lippmann grew up in New York city before attending the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied economics and english.
He joined Credit Suisse in 1991, where he became a director and head of ABS and CDO trading, before moving to Deutsche Bank. There he worked as a trader of non-investment grade ABS (asset-based) and RMBS (residential mortgage-backed) securities. In 2003, he became global head of ABS and CDO trading.
What has Greg Lippmann done since the events in The Big Short?
Lippmann left Deutsch Bank in April 2010, joining ,Fred Brettschneider to start a hedge fund. Brettschneider was formerly Deutsche Bank's head of global markets, and together they founded ,,LibreMax Partners, which started managing $900 million and now manages $8.6 billion (at time of writing in 2022). Greg Lippmann's role is portfolio manager and chief investment officer.
He serves on the board of the South Fork Natural History Museum and is on the advisory council of the American Museum of Natural History.
How did Greg Lippmann feel about being played by Ryan Gosling in The Big Short?
It turns out he was pretty happy about it. As he explains:
"There's a lot less appealing people to play you in a movie than Ryan Gosling. If one of the sexiest men alive plays you in a movie, it's hard to complain about that."
Have you seen The Big Short? What did you think?
