Retirement Industry People Moves

Art by Subin Yang

Portfolio Evaluations Adds Senior Fiduciary Consultant to the Team

Portfolio Evaluations Inc. (PEI), an institutional investment and retirement plan consulting firm, has announced the addition of senior fiduciary consultant Caroline Macomber to the team. Macomber brings more than 17 years of experience in the retirement plans industry, working with 401(k), 403(b), 457, profit-sharing, combo and cash balance plans.

Macomber joins PEI after spending 11 years working as a member of the field sales and service team for Nationwide’s corporate sector retirement plans division. Most recently, she served as a senior relationship manager, consulting with the largest plans in the New England territory. She acted as a liaison to plan sponsors, third-party administrators (TPAs) and financial advisers, creating and implementing strategic road maps for their plans while encouraging operational efficiencies and enhancements. Macomber also spent time there as a field service representative, where she focused on participant education, enrollment and retirement readiness outcomes. 

Prior to Nationwide, Macomber spent time at both Commonwealth Financial and Northwestern Mutual. She graduated from the honors program at Saint Michael’s College and holds the accredited investment fiduciary (AIF) designation from The Center for Fiduciary Studies and the chartered retirement plans specialist (CRPS) designation from The College for Financial Planning. 

Alan Biller and Associates Makes Key Promotions

Alan Biller and Associates, an investment consulting firm, has promoted Jennifer Newell to the role of chief executive officer, effective January 1. Newell succeeds founder Alan Biller, who retains the role of chairman and remains active in the firm’s operations and client service initiatives.

A shareholder of the firm, Newell joined Alan Biller and Associates in 2009 and has served as president since 2018. She will continue her current client-facing responsibilities while steering all aspects of the firm’s activities, including investment strategy, client service and operations.

Prior to joining the firm, Newell was a managing director and senior portfolio manager at Wells Capital Management. Previously, she was president and portfolio manager of Newell Associates, where she managed more than $2 billion for pension, endowment and foundation clients and co-managed the Vanguard Equity Income Fund. She has also held marketing positions at Putnam Investments and Massachusetts Financial Services.

Newell earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Wheaton College, attended the London School of Economics, and holds a master’s of business administration degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Voya Investment Management to Acquire Tygh Capital Management

Voya Investment Management (Voya IM), the asset management business of Voya Financial Inc., has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the investment advisory business and certain other assets of small-cap growth specialist Tygh Capital Management (TCM). The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.

“We continue to invest across our investment platforms to bring best-in-class solutions to our clients. Small-cap growth is an important focus and an area where active managers like Voya can generate meaningful alpha for investors,” says Christine Hurtsellers, chief executive officer, Voya IM. “The accomplished team at TCM is a great addition to our active equity platform and aligns well with our key tenets of collaboration, client-centricity and a focus on generating compelling risk-adjusted results.”

Founded in 2004 in Portland, Oregon, TCM specializes in small-cap and small/mid-cap growth investing for both institutional and retail investors. The team currently manages the TCM Small Cap Growth Fund (TCM Fund) with $520 million in assets, as of Oct. 31.

Following the closing of the transaction, all current TCM employees will join Voya IM, including Richard Johnson, CEO and chief investment officer (CIO); Jeff Curtis, president and chief financial officer (CFO); and the portfolio management team of Michael Coyne, Scott Haugan and Mitchell Brivic. The TCM investment team will remain in Portland and become part of Voya’s equities investment platform, with Johnson and Curtis reporting jointly to Vincent Costa and Michael Pytosh, co-chief investment officers of equities at Voya IM.

The TCM Fund filed a supplement to its prospectus disclosing that the board of the TCM Fund has approved Voya Investment Management Co. LLC as the interim adviser to the fund effective simultaneously with the closing of the transaction, pursuant to an interim investment advisory agreement to enable the existing TCM investment team to continue managing the fund. The supplement also described the board’s approval of a proposed reorganization of the TCM Fund, subject to shareholder approval, into Voya Small Cap Growth, a new mutual fund. Anticipated completion of this change is expected in the second quarter of 2022.