There is a new big man at hedge fund Citadel in London. The Financial Times reported last week that Drew Gillanders, the lightly-stubbled head of international equities, is leaving aged 54. Gillanders has been removed from Citadel’s website; 40-year-old Nabeel Bhanji has replaced him.
We reported upon Bhanji’s arrival from Elliott Management in November 2024. Bhanji was a star at Elliott and we suggested that Citadel might have paid him £5m+. That now seems a significant understatement.
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Bhanji isn’t replacing Gillanders directly. Citadel hired Bhanji to lead a business called ‘Strategic Equity Investments, ‘ which allows Citadel portfolio managers to take large positions and to hold them for a long time. Members of the SEI team are also encouraged to have a dialogue with the management and boards of portfolio companies, said the FT.
Gillanders, meanwhile, was running Citadel’s long-short International Equities business in Europe and Asia. He had been doing so since June 2023 and previously worked for Point72, where he was a fan of Steve Cohen.
Gillanders exit from Citadel was precipitated by the combining of Citadel’s SEI business, run by Bhanjii and Citadel’s International Equities business run by Gillanders. Bhanji now overseas a business covering it all: long-short, risk arb, and SEI.
If you want an equities job at Citadel in London or Asia, Bhanji is therefore the man to know. He began his career at Goldman Sachs, where he briefly worked in M&A before the financial crisis, before escaping to private equity and then to Elliott.
Gillanders also began his career in M&A, but at Morgan Stanley, where he spent nearly nine years and worked under Paul Taubman. Speaking to students two years ago, Gillanders said he spent a lot of time interviewing for Citadel and looked for people who reacted well in both a draw-up and a draw-down.
Gillanders also said that Citadel lets its portfolio managers take a longer term view than other funds. Speaking on one of Citadel’s own videos he said the firm has a “social contract” with the people it hires and that it invests in them. Now he will take that investment elsewhere.
Bhanjii, meanwhile, may want to hire his own people. In December 2024, the FT said Citadel also hired Pawel Serej from Elliott to work in London; the FCA Register shows him arriving in September 2025. Sergey Pichugov also joined Citadel from Elliott’s macro team in January.
The Citadel Equities Fund was up over 23% through to Aug 31st. Citadel declined to comment.
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