New York City
UDaniel Zwirns
Chief Executive Officer, Chief Investment Officer
Dan Zwirn co-founded Arena Investors in 2015. With a mandate unconstrained by industry, product or geography, Arena manages approximately $4.4 billion of assets under management and programmatic capital as of June 1, 20251 with a team of more than 180 employees in offices globally. The firm is a subsidiary of Arena Investors Group Holdings (“AIGH”). AIGH, along with its affiliate, Ceres Life Insurance, make up the Westaim Corporation (TSXV: WED), an integrated asset management and life insurance and annuity provider with available equity capital that will support up to $6 billion of additional assets. In its alternatives business, Arena provides creative solutions for those seeking capital across all corporate, real estate, and structured finance investment areas, at all levels of the capital structure, and in all developed markets, alongside operational capabilities to manage and improve the businesses and assets in which it invests.
Prior to Arena, between 2009 and 2015, Dan founded and/or led several specialty finance enterprises including Applied Data Finance (a consumer finance company), North Mill Capital (an asset-based lender), North Mill Equipment (an equipment lessor), and Lantern Endowment Partners (an investment fund). In 2001, while a managing director and founder of the Special Opportunities Group at Highbridge Capital Management, Dan, along with Highbridge, co-founded D.B. Zwirn & Co., a global special situations firm. Dan served as managing partner of D.B. Zwirn & Co., which grew into a $6 billion enterprise. He had previously founded the Special Opportunities Group of MSD Capital, the private investment firm of Michael Dell.
Dan is a senior trustee of the Brookings Institution, a member of the Executive Board of the University of Pennsylvania Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology, and a member of the Board of Overseers for the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice. He previously served on the Leadership Council of the Robin Hood Foundation, the Board of Trustees of Barnard College of Columbia University, and the Board of Trustees of the New York Public Theater.
Dan holds a BS in economics from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business, a bachelor of applied science (BAS) in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania Moore School of Electrical Engineering, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
1 Assets under management include committed capital, programmatic capital, co-investments, and capital committed but not yet deployed. Programmatic capital includes callable capital to discretionary and non-discretionary separately managed accounts and commingled vehicles.
