Freestone Grove Energy Head Departs as Hedge Fund Disbands Sector Team

Michael Pope, the sector head for natural resources at Freestone Grove, helped launch the hedge fund in early 2024. About two and a half years later, he's walking out the door. His exit means the firm will no longer have a standalone energy investing team.

The move comes despite the fund's solid 2025 return of 8.5%. But after losing money in the first quarter of 2026, when it fell about 3% through March, Freestone Grove is shifting focus toward other sectors.

Why Pope Left and What It Means

A person close to the firm said Freestone Grove did not see the same money-making opportunity in energy and natural resources companies as it did in other sectors. Pope's analysts will work for other teams at the firm, the person said.

Even as the firm restructures, it has remained open to new capital from select investors. Assets have grown from $3.5 billion at launch to $6.5 billion.

Freestone Grove declined to comment and Pope did not respond to requests for comment, according to Business Insider, which first reported the departure. Pope's profile has been removed from the firm's website.

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New Hires and Promotions Fill the Gaps

Freestone Grove isn't standing still. Co-founder, chief executive and chief investment officer Todd Barker is building up other areas. Micah Nance, a former Citadel partner, is set to join later this year as head of its technology, media, and telecoms sector. Tsz Hin Kwok, a former lawyer who has spent the past seven years as an analyst at Citadel, will become the firm's first event-driven portfolio manager when he joins later this year - that means he will invest based on corporate events like mergers or spin-offs.

Jared Franken, who previously served as a managing director at Interval Partners, joined earlier this year as a portfolio manager focused on industrials. Inside the firm, Freestone Grove promoted Daniel Goldberg to cover consumer stocks and Charlie Witmer to cover healthcare stocks. These moves show the firm is betting on growth outside of energy.

The fund started with $3.5 billion at launch in early 2024, raised by Barker and co-founder Daniel Morillo, both Citadel veterans. That launch was somewhat overshadowed by Jain Global's $5.3 billion debut the same year. Jain, a multi-strategy firm rather than a direct rival, has since decided to return the assets in its multi-strategy fund and run that strategy exclusively for Millennium Management. It will continue to manage $750 million on behalf of outside investors in its Strategic Transactions Fund, which focuses on bank capital-relief trades, according to a person familiar with the matter. Freestone Grove, meanwhile, has steadily grown its asset base and its investment headcount to 105 people over the past two years, part of a total staff that has expanded to more than 180 from about 90 at launch.

Context Behind the Strategic Shift

Pope's departure marks a pivot for Freestone Grove, which launched with energy and natural resources as one of six sectors it planned to trade. The fund returned 11% in its first year and 8.5% in 2025 before losing money in the first quarter of 2026. It is now doubling down on other sectors, including technology and industrials.

Worth Noting

Pope previously ran his own hedge fund, Wellfield Capital Management, before closing it to join Freestone Grove. He also worked at Citadel alongside Barker, the same firm Nance and Kwok came from.

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Editor's note (updated August 28, 2026): This article has been corrected and updated following a review of the original reporting. The changes:

• An earlier version said Micah Nance and Tsz Hin Kwok were Pope's "replacements." They are not. Nance is joining as head of technology, media and telecoms and Kwok as an event-driven portfolio manager. Freestone Grove is dissolving the energy team rather than backfilling Pope's seat.
• An earlier version said Jain Global "later returned some external capital" and described it as a competing hedge fund. Jain Global is a multi-strategy firm, not a direct rival of the equity-focused Freestone Grove. It has decided to return the assets in its multi-strategy fund in order to run that strategy exclusively for Millennium Management, and will continue to manage $750 million for outside investors in its Strategic Transactions Fund, which focuses on bank capital-relief trades.
• An earlier version described Todd Barker as Freestone Grove's founder. He co-founded the firm with Daniel Morillo, and serves as chief executive and chief investment officer.
• An earlier version stated that Freestone Grove "currently has 105 investment staff, down from its energy team but still a sizable group." The 105 figure refers to investment headcount, which has grown rather than fallen; the firm's total staff has expanded to more than 180 from about 90 at launch.
• An earlier version said the firm had already hired Micah Nance and Tsz Hin Kwok. Both are due to join later this year. Jared Franken joined earlier this year.
• An earlier version placed a direct quotation around a paraphrase attributed to a person with knowledge of the matter, including a specific list of sectors that does not appear in the underlying reporting. That passage is now paraphrased.
• An earlier version said the firm "had positioned energy as a core growth engine at its inception." Energy and natural resources was one of six sectors Freestone Grove launched with. An unsourced claim about hedge funds broadly reassessing commodity bets has been removed, and the "Context Behind the Strategic Shift" section has been trimmed to what the underlying reporting supports.
• The account of why the energy team is being dissolved is attributed to a person close to the firm, who said Freestone Grove did not see the same money-making opportunity in energy and natural resources as it did in other sectors. An earlier version attributed this to "people familiar with the matter" and separately stated, without sourcing, that the firm "no longer believes energy and natural resources offer enough profit potential." That unsourced sentence has been removed.
• An earlier version said the industrials portfolio "is now overseen by" Jared Franken. He joined as an industrials-focused portfolio manager.
• Pope's title has been clarified as sector head for natural resources, his tenure as roughly two and a half years since the fund's launch, and his former firm as Wellfield Capital Management. Attribution to Business Insider, which first reported the departure, and the parties' no-comment responses have been added, along with the fund's 11% return in 2024, its roughly 3% first-quarter 2026 decline, and the growth in assets from $3.5 billion at launch to $6.5 billion.