In the wake of senior-level departures at Soros Fund Management and the recent decision by hedge-fund investor George Soros to scale back his investing empire, the senior Soros unveiled details of his new, conservative investment style. The changes, some of which were expected, feature the emergence of his son Robert, who will take a leading role in running his father's still-sizable firm.

Robert Soros, 36 years old, who previously helped manage private-equity and real-estate investments for the firm, will be "acting as a coordinator" in the transition, according to Soros, and will "be aware of all the pieces of where the money is being managed."

Asked what his title will be at the firm following the transition, Robert Soros said, "I have no title," but his 69-year-old father quickly interjected: "He's the power behind the throne."

Still, the elder Soros, who about a decade ago turned over the role of actively managing money to key aides, indicated that his son will have to prove himself before he takes the reins of the firm. "This is not a dynastic succession," his father said in an interview.

Soros officials say Robert Soros's expanded role signals that he may at some point run his father's firm. But despite his pedigree, Robert's new prominence caught some Soros officials by surprise.

Executives who have worked with him say Robert Soros is unassuming and hasn't openly expressed a desire to become a hedge-fund heavyweight like his father. While his father often courted the press, Robert Soros has struggled to keep a low profile; indeed, at a meeting with media Thursday in London, he avoided cameras. He is more likely to spend evenings with his family than put in late-night research sessions, said one Soros executive.

The eldest of five children and the only one to join the family business, Robert Soros graduated New York University in 1986 with a degree in English Literature. After working at several other investment firms and banks, he joined his father's firm in 1994 and has been helping to run its $3.5 billion in private-equity and real-estate investments. Among his coups: his group's investment in Internet start-up WebTV before it was bought by Microsoft Corp. While the senior Soros has become involved in the firm in recent months, serving as the architect of the new strategy, he will remove himself from the day-to-day business of his funds once the transition is completed.

"The less I have to do the better," he says. "I am working furiously because I am furious that I have to work."

Soros said he will work on his charitable foundations and write a book. Although he says he is in good health, Soros is leery of getting back into the stock-picking game. "I want to set up something that will outlast me," he added.

The changes at the Soros funds, anticipated since the April departure of Soros's top money manager, Stanley Druckenmiller, amount to an end of an era. Soros is shifting the $11 billion in assets that remain in Soros hedge funds to more conservative investments employing less leverage, or borrowed money. (Hedge funds are lightly regulated investment vehicles catering to the wealthy, which amass great sums of money and add leverage to make enormous, risky investments.)

The goal: to achieve more dependable returns after several years of volatility and recent heavy losses. With his bearish outlook for world stocks, and reluctance to suffer further losses, Soros decided to make a change.

"In my old age, I have become more conservative," he said. "Using less leverage is what I want, it's less risk ... I'm looking for 15% returns, not 30% returns."

On July 1, Soros will merge his flagship Quantum Fund with Quantum Emerging Growth Fund into a new, $6.5 billion fund, Quantum Endowment Fund. This will be a more conservative fund run by several managers, some inside the firm and some outside, including star Soros stock pickers Scott Bessent and Buzz Berlock, who are leaving to start their hedge funds. Soros's own money will represent 60% of the fund, with the rest coming from outside investors.

The remaining $4.5 billion of Soros funds will invest in more conservative real-estate and private-equity investments. The Soros funds are currently bidding for a position to manage some high-profile government real-estate assets in the United Kingdom.

While investors have pulled out about $3 billion from the Soros funds since Druckenmiller announced his departure, the $11 billion left under management still ranks Soros's firm as among the biggest in the hedge-fund world.

The moves are a huge shift for Soros, whose aggressive bets once roiled financial markets, and whose billion-dollar profits wowed rival hedge-fund managers. The Quantum Fund scored annual returns of 31% throughout its 32-year history, but the bigger it got the more difficult it became, Soros said. A bet on technology stocks left the fund down 22% in late April, when Druckenmiller quit.

"It became very difficult for us to move in the market," Soros said. "The perception is that I can move markets to my benefit, but the truth is, it is to my detriment."

-- The Wall Street Journal