‘Wall Street Maneet’ Ahuja, 27-Year-Old Squawk Box Producer, Has Ways of Making Them Talk

There’s a book party at Tao next week, but its guest list looks more like a Davos reunion. Among the yeses: ex-Chairman of the Fed Alan Greenspan, Nobelist Joseph Stiglitz, Pershing Square boss Bill Ackman, and Financial Times editor Gillian Tett.

Assuming they show, that’s not a bad draw for a first-time author. Then again, The Alpha Masters, by 27-year-old Squawk Box producer Maneet Ahuja, isn’t just any book. Like the party, the book is an impressive feat of investor-wrangling, a collection of insider accounts from low-profile, high-powered hedge fund managers like John Paulson, Marc Lasry and David Tepper. It’s out on May 21 from Wiley.

During a midday break in a windowless office at Squawk Box network CNBC headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, NJ on Friday, The Observer asked Ms. Ahuja if her elusive subjects would be celebrating their portrayal in Alpha Masters. “I haven’t checked the R.S.V.P. list, um, in the last hour,” she said. “I was advised not to harass for updates.”

Harassment—or tenacity, some might say—is Ms. Ahuja’s calling card. The Alpha Masters, and a related rash of exclusive CNBC gets, including blue chip investors like Ray Dalio and Eddie Lampert, earned Ms. Ahuja a reputation as one of the best-connected young producers in television. Forbes’s “30 Under 30” and Elle’s “Genius” lists have identified her as a kind of Hedge Fund Manager Whisperer.

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Related book: The Alpha Masters: Unlocking the Genius of the World's Top Hedge Funds