The head of Bain Capital’s equity hedge fund group, Ted Pappendick, is retiring after more than 20 years with the firm.

Pappendick, 47, will be replaced by Joshua Ross, a former portfolio manager at another large Boston hedge fund, Adage Capital Management, according to a person briefed on the hire. Ross also previously worked for Och-Ziff Capital Management Group in New York.

The change at the top of the $4 billion hedge fund group, formerly known as Brookside Capital, comes four months after Boston-based Bain rebranded the operation as Bain Capital Public Equity. The group uses a long-short strategy, both buying stocks and betting some will fall.

Also in April, Bain Capital named two longtime executives co-managing partners of the private equity and investment firm, John Connaughton and Jonathan Lavine. They also renamed their debt investment arm Bain Capital Credit.

Many hedge funds are finding it increasingly difficult to beat the market and keep clients who are paying high fees.

A separate hedge fund inside Bain, called Absolute Return Capital, shut down last fall, after a period of losses. That fund had about $2 billion in assets.

Bloomberg News first reported Pappendick’s departure.

Beth Healy can be reached at beth.healy@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @HealyBeth.