Pete Muller (businessman and singer-songwriter)

Muller was raised in Wayne, New Jersey with his sister. His parents were both immigrants to the United States; his Austrian-born father was an engineer and his mother, a native of Brazil, was a practicing psychiatrist.

Muller graduated in mathematics with honors from Princeton University, where he also played Ultimate Frisbee and was a member of the Colonial Club.[5]

Muller began working at Barra Inc., a quantitative firm in Berkeley, California. After doing contract work as a Barra representative for Renaissance Technologies, he was offered a job at Renaissance, but turned it down because his belief in the efficient market hypothesis made him skeptical of Renaissance's claimed high rate of return. In 1992, he proposed using Barra's quantitative techniques to forecast returns rather than just model risk, so that Barra could manage money itself. His proposal was rejected, and he joined Morgan Stanley in 1992.[5][6]

Muller founded PDT (Process Driven Trading) Partners inside Morgan Stanley in 1993 and serves as Founder and CEO. PDT has offices in New York City and London and has returned 20% on average annually through 2010.[7][8]

A singer-songwriter and pianist, Muller tours regularly and has made appearances at music events such as Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, the Jazz Open in Stuttgart, Germany, and the Telluride Jazz Festival.[9] In the early stages of his music career, Muller played the electronic keyboard in New York City Subway.[8][5]

In 2019, Muller released his fourth studio album, Dissolve, produced by renowned Rob Mathes. It was featured in American Songwriter and People magazine.[10] "San Diego (When You Coming Home)," from that album, reached No. 27 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart. His latest single, "God and Democracy,” was a Top 30 hit on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Chart in the Summer of 2020.[4]

Muller's main philanthropic interests are music, math, and the environment. He is founding board member of Math for America[11] and a Berklee College of Music Trustee.[12] In September 2017, with the support of the New York City Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment and the Economic Development Corporation, Muller with Berklee acquired Avatar Studios, also known as The Power Station,[13] which gained renown as one of the finest acoustic environments for recording in the world.[14]

Muller is married to his wife Jillian and together they have two children.[15] He writes crossword puzzles for the New York Times periodically[8] and has a monthly feature in The Washington Post .[16] In 1998, Muller made the final table of the $3,000 Limit Hold 'em event at the World Series of Poker and came in 4th at the World Poker Challenge.[17] He also practices vinyasa yoga, snowboards, and surfs.