Nearly two years after she became one of the highest-profile early casualties of the credit crisis, Zoe Cruz is working on plans to launch a hedge fund firm, according to people familiar with the situation.

The 54-year-old former Morgan Stanley co-president has begun recruiting employees to join a firm she plans to call Voras Capital Management, these people said. Voras is the Greek word for "north" and the name of a mountainous area near the small town in Greece where she was born.