Mercer Makes Domestic Equities, Fixed Income Appointments

In its announcement, Mercer said the two key appointments to its U.S. operations were made “in order to support significant growth.” According to Rich Nuzum, President and Global Head of Mercer investment management: “During 2008 we added more than 45 new institutional defined benefit clients with initial funding exceeding $3.8 billion as well as a significant number of defined contribution and retail clients.”

Weiss will be responsible for Mercer’s Large Cap Value and Growth, Core Passive, and SMID Cap Growth and Value strategies. He will also be responsible for domestic equity manager research and analysis as well as recommending manager and strategy allocation changes within domestic equity strategies, the announcement said.

Prior to joining Mercer, Weiss was an institutional portfolio manager at a hedge fund boutique, 2100 Capital, where he supported a range of products, from fund of hedge funds to multi-strategy hedge funds and individual strategy hedge funds, and also served as a member of the investment team. Previously, he was a managing director of Putnam Investment’s Core Growth equity team.

Berglund’s primary focus will include constructing and monitoring asset allocation for fixed income offerings, evaluating sub-advisers, and working with institutional investors to create customized solutions within a liability driven investment (LDI) framework. Prior to joining Mercer, Berglund was with Putnam Investments, most recently as a senior vice president, and portfolio manager in the Core Fixed Income team responsible for customized fixed income strategies for Insurance clients. Previously, he served as a senior product manager for Putnam Fixed Income.

Both Weiss and Berglund will be based in Boston.