HENRY IS THIRTEEN years old and weighs 189 kilograms. His job could best be described as ‘ambassador’ – a charismatic diplomat for the plight of his species. One of a bumper crop of Amur (Siberian) cubs born at the Bronx Zoo in 2010, he will almost certainly die there after a long and reasonably content life of horse-meat shish kebabs and carefully designed ‘tiger enrichment’. His namesake: Henry Williamson, Wizard of Wall Street, founder of Tiger Holdings, and long-time trustee of the non-profit responsible for managing the zoo.

Henry Williamson launched Tiger Holdings in 1980 with US$8 million dollars. At its peak, his fund was the largest in the market, worth over US$20 billion. But Henry’s legacy rests largely on the enduring market power of what became known as the ‘Tiger Cubs’, a well-networked clique of financiers he mentored and funded unto their own fortunes as the natural heirs to his ambition. When Henry died, big-cat non-profits eulogised him in feline terms: ‘The rarest of breeds…a unique combination of refined elegance, trenchant intellectual power, and boyish charm, [he] strode across his various ecosystems much like the charismatic megafauna after which he named his iconic firm.’