(Bloomberg) -- Vlad Portnoy, a portfolio manager at Point72 Asset Management, died Saturday morning of a sudden heart attack. He was 50, according to his wife, Irina Sheynfeld. 

Portnoy had led a team of quants at a Jefferies Financial Group Inc. hedge fund before joining billionaire Steve Cohen’s firm, where he worked for Cubist Systematic Strategies, the quantitative investing business.

Portnoy was born in Ukraine, according to Sheynfeld, where the two went to the same Odesa high school. His interests were so broad that it was difficult for her to put into one paragraph: He loved Sviatoslav Richter’s recording of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, ballet, art, theoretical physics, opera, and the family’s miniature labradoodle, Luke Skywalker. 

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Sheynfeld said, “he found his calling.” He worked in his free time to raise money and organize help for people caught in its violence. The two organized a benefit this April to help Ukrainian women and children: Their Odesa Peace Fund said it would provide meals, clothes and medicine to senior citizens, disabled people, and orphans “where they’re most needed, in Odesa and beyond.” 

“Vlad was a valued member of our team and he will be missed,” Tiffany Galvin-Cohen, a Point72 spokeswoman, said in an email. “Our deepest sympathies go out to the Portnoy family.”

His funeral service was Monday in New York. He is survived by his wife and three sons.

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