BNY Asset Management Chief Jumps to Fidelity

Fidelity Investments announced the establishment of separate Asset Management and Distribution organizations, promoting Abigail Johnson to head all distribution channels and hiring BNY Mellon Asset Management President and CEO Ronald P. O’Hanley to lead Asset Management and Corporate Services. Both will report directly to Edward C. Johnson III, Fidelity chairman and chief executive officer. All of the current leaders of the organizations who will report to O’Hanley and Abigail Johnson will remain in their roles, according to an announcement.

“This new structure will position Fidelity strategically for the future by bringing all of the firm’s distribution resources together to focus on providing outstanding products and services to Fidelity’s clients and customers,” said Edward Johnson in announcing the move. “At the same time, Ron O’Hanley will bring valuable asset management and executive experience to our investing and corporate functions as well as a strong leadership track record. We are looking forward to having him join our firm.”

Interim Steps

BNY Mellon said that Jonathan Little and Mitchell Harris will co-head the company’s asset management business on an interim basis following the departure of O’Hanley, president and chief executive officer of BNY Mellon Asset Management.

Little is vice chairman of BNY Mellon Asset Management and represents Asset Management on BNY Mellon’s Executive Committee, while Harris is chairman of the Fixed Income, Cash and Currency Group of BNY Mellon Asset Management. Both will also continue in their current roles as they assume their interim responsibilities, reporting to BNY Mellon Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert P. Kelly, according to the announcement.

The company said it will conduct a “comprehensive search” for a permanent head of the asset management business, “considering internal and external candidates.”

O’Hanley’s New Role  

Fidelity said O’Hanley will join the company as president of Asset Management and Corporate Services in mid-summer. In that role he will oversee all of Fidelity’s Asset Management organizations, including Fidelity Management & Research Company (FMRCo), Pyramis Global Advisors, and Fidelity’s Asset Allocation Division, comprising Strategic Advisers, Inc., and Global Asset Allocation, as well as all corporate functions.

He also will oversee Financial Services Finance, Legal, Human Resources, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Operations, and Administration.

Prior to the merger of The Bank of New York and Mellon Financial Corporation in July of 2007, O’Hanley was vice chairman of Mellon Financial Corporation and president and CEO of Mellon Asset Management. He joined Mellon in February 1997 from McKinsey & Company Inc.

Johnson’s New Role

In her new role, Abigail Johnson, who has led Fidelity Personal and Workplace Investing and its predecessor organization for the past five years, will oversee all of Fidelity’s customer and client-focused businesses, including Fidelity Institutional, Personal Investing, Workplace Investing, and Fidelity Investments Institutional Services as part of a new unit: Fidelity Personal, Workplace and Institutional Services. Johnson assumes those new responsibilities as president of the unit immediately.

In addition to her current role overseeing Personal and Workplace Investing, Johnson is a vice chairman and director of FMR LLC, the holding company for the businesses of Fidelity Investments; a member of the Fidelity Executive Committee; and chairman of the Fixed-Income/Asset Allocation Board of Trustees.

In her new role, she will oversee all of the firm’s distribution channels, adding Fidelity Institutional (which serves banks, broker/dealers, insurers, registered investment advisers, and other financial professionals) and Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company (FIIS), which provides investment management services through investment professionals at financial institutions nationwide to her responsibilities.