Jim Chanos, the founder and managing partner of Kynikos Associates, is likely the most successful pure equities short seller in global markets. Kynikos’ flagship Ursus short bias fund has grown steadily for over two decades and now manages over an estimated $4 billion. The recent bear market has helped the fund earn strong returns, furthering a reputation that was very publically enhanced by Chanos’ successful shorting of Enron earlier in the decade.

Yet Chanos is much more than a shrewd short-seller and a brilliant securities analyst. In recent years, he has built an impressive public profile speaking out on regulation, corporate malfeasance and accounting standards to governments, trade bodies and regulators. These interventions have benefitted the broader hedge fund industry and for that Chanos deserves the respect and gratitude of managers around the world.

For some years, Kynikos has also operated a UK and European research arm in London called Axia Advisors. It provides the New York-based portfolio management and trading operation with the research capacity Kynikos needed to create as its investment focus grew to be global in scope.

Bill McIntosh, editor of The Hedge Fund Journal, recently spoke at length with Chanos about the ongoing deliberations among financial authorities to regulate short selling. The conversation also extended to the importance of reforming accounting standards and of getting hedge fund managers to actively lobby politicians at a time when far reaching changes are being considered in how financial markets are regulated.

The interview discusses the current market climate, regulation and the failure of banks in depth.

Jim Chanos was in the news earlier this year when emails surfaced which suggested the possibility of his fund acting on negative analyst research on Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. before the research was published.