Dan Chung Rebuilt Alger Management After Losing 35 Staff on 9/11
Fred Alger Management's CEO survived the 9/11 attack by chance and led the firm's recovery after 35 colleagues perished.
Dan Chung, CEO and chief investment officer of Fred Alger Management, survived the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks by chance — and was then handed the monumental task of rebuilding a firm that lost 35 members of its staff in the tragedy, one of the heaviest tolls suffered by any single financial firm that day.
The scale of the loss was staggering. Alger, which operated from the World Trade Center, was gutted in a matter of hours. Chung's survival placed him at the center of a reconstruction effort that was as much about human grief as it was about institutional continuity — requiring him to restore both a workforce and investor confidence simultaneously.
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Decades later, Chung remains at the helm of the growth-oriented investment firm, and by his own account he is still identifying market winners with the same forward-looking discipline that has defined Alger's investment philosophy across multiple economic cycles. His longevity at the top of the firm stands as a testament to the resilience he was forced to develop in the wake of unimaginable loss.
The story of Alger's comeback carries broader lessons for financial institutions about leadership under crisis conditions. Chung's trajectory — from accidental survivor to long-tenured CIO — reflects how the trauma of 9/11 reshaped not just individuals but entire organizations operating at the epicenter of the attacks.
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