Randall Duncan "Randy" Smith (born 1942) is an American hedge fund manager, and the founder and chief of investments of Alden Global Capital.

[2] Smith was a partner at Bear Stearns from 1975 to 1996, where he founded the convertible arbitrage department and later focused on investing in distressed assets.

[3][4] He started his first investment firm at home while still working for Bear Stearns, with $20,000 he and his wife[clarification needed] won in the late 1960s on Dream House, a television game show.

[9][10][11] Alden has a reputation for sharply cutting costs by reducing the number of journalists working on its newspapers.

[15] Writing in The Atlantic, McKay Coppins has criticized Smith and Alden co-founder Heath Freeman, saying "no one has been more mercenary or less interested in pretending to care about their publications’ long-term health.