If one individual can serve as the embodiment of the hedge fund industry – its entrepreneurial spirit, its youthful energy after decades of growth and its pursuit of the next great manager – it is Arpad “Arki” Busson.

Mr Busson, a 43-year-old Frenchman who founded and chairs the EIM Group, has made calls that are legendary in the hedge fund world. Those bets have not been in stocks or currencies, but rather in people – shrewd early investments in upstart managers who would become hedge fund titans.