Retirement Industry People Moves

Kristi Mitchem has been appointed president, chief executive officer, and head of Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM), a division of Wells Fargo’s Wealth and Investment Management Group (WIM).

Effective June 1, Mitchem will lead a business with more than $480 billion in assets under management in institutional separate accounts, mutual funds and stable value portfolios.

Mitchem most recently served as executive vice president at State Street Global Advisors (SSGA), the investment management arm of State Street Corp. She replaces Mike Niedermeyer, who served as head of WFAM from 1994 until his retirement in March after 28 years with Wells Fargo. Based in San Francisco, Mitchem will report to David Carroll, senior executive vice president and head of WIM.

“With an impressive mix of industry experience, a deep knowledge of the needs of institutional and intermediary investor clients, and proven success in inspiring large high-performing teams, Kristi is the ideal candidate to lead WFAM through its next phase of strategic expansion and growth,” says Carroll.

Since 2012, Mitchem led the Americas Institutional Client Group at SSGA, focusing the organization on delivering innovative investment solutions to institutional investor clients in the United States, Latin America and Canada. Previously, she had served as the leader of the defined contribution businesses at both SSGA and Blackrock and of the institutionally focused U.S. Transition Services group at Barclay’s Global Investors.

Mitchem earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Davidson College, where she graduated summa cum laude and was awarded First Honors. She received her Master of Business Administration from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she was an Arjay Miller Scholar. Mitchem is also a Fulbright Scholar.

Russell Investments has combined its institutional and intermediary defined contribution (DC) teams under the oversight of Josh Cohen and J.T. Young, managing directors, defined contribution.

Cohen and Young will jointly lead the growing defined contribution team to capture the growth opportunities across all DC market segments. Partnering on the day-to-day management of the DC business, they will work with plan sponsors, consultants, advisers, recordkeepers and key partners to bring institutional-quality DC solutions to U.S. retirement plans, including multi-manager funds solutions, custom target-date funds and Russell Adaptive Retirement Accounts (ARA). 

“Russell Investments is committed to the DC business, and our creation of a high-powered DC team along with the addition of more dedicated senior-level expertise is a clear demonstration of that fact,” says Greg Gilbert, CEO, Americas Institutional.

Young joins the DC team with nearly 20 years of industry experience and was previously responsible for the mid-market OCIO team as well as marketing and product development in Russell Investments' U.S. institutional business. He has also held leadership roles in Russell Investments’ U.S. adviser-sold business as well as the firm’s EMEA business. He will now be focused exclusively on the development and growth of the DC business across all channels, in partnership with widely recognized DC industry expert Cohen.

Another senior-level addition to the newly combined team is Nathan Dudley, director, defined contribution and a 23-year industry veteran, who most recently led institutional product development in the U.S. Dudley has extensive investment and implementation expertise and will have primary responsibility for managing and implementing Russell Investments’ ARA platform.

Kevin Knowles has been promoted to associate director, defined contribution, and in his new role will assume expanded responsibilities for the methodology, positioning and distribution of DC products, including ARA. Knowles will work closely with Dudley to continue the seamless rollout of the ARA platform to new clients.

Andrew Scherer, director, defined contribution, and his team will continue to focus on managing relationships with DC recordkeeping platforms and working with sales and service teams responsible for delivering institutional-quality DC solutions to retirement plan intermediaries and strategic distribution partners.

NEXT: Manning & Napier CEO Retires

Manning & Napier’s board of directors accepted the resignation of Patrick Cunningham, chief executive officer and director.

Cunningham is retiring due to personal reasons unassociated with his role at Manning & Napier. His retirement date is effective Monday, April 18, 2016, though he will be staying on in an advisory capacity for three months.

William Manning, the company's co-founder, chairman of the board and chief architect of the firm's investment processes, will assume the title of CEO of Manning & Napier. A newly named Operating Committee consisting of Manning & Napier's current senior managers will report to Manning and hold responsibility for the functions of the office of the CEO. This committee will include James Mikolaichik (CFO), Jeffrey Coons (president), Richard Yates (chief legal officer), Charles Stamey (executive vice president and managing director of sales) and Ebrahim Busheri (director of Investments).

Speaking on behalf of the board of directors, Manning commented, "Patrick has been a valued and trusted leader during his tenure with Manning & Napier, setting client service standards and leading by example early on as a top-performing sales and service representative, and later as CEO in helping to take Manning & Napier public. For nearly 24 years he has been an embodiment of our culture. The board of directors is grateful for his years of dedicated service and friendship. Patrick will be missed, but we wish him well in retirement."

NEXT: Consulting Actuary Rejoins Hooker & Holcombe

Hooker & Holcombe, a provider of employer-based actuarial, investment advisory and retirement plan consulting, welcomed Steve Lemanski back to the firm as a consulting actuary within its actuarial services unit.

He will be responsible for a wide range of projects including consulting on qualified and nonqualified defined benefit and post-retirement welfare plans, performing pension valuations, benefit calculations, cost estimates and reporting for the government accounting standards board (GASB) and financial accounting standards board (FASB), as well as working with plan studies and design.

Lemanski has 27 years of experience providing actuarial consulting services to diverse clients including municipalities, multi-employer pension funds and Fortune 500 companies. His expertise is in valuations of defined benefit and other post-retirement benefit plans, plan design, benefit certifications, experience studies, general administration of qualified plans and consulting on a number of compliance-related issues. He also has consulting experience with union negotiation issues.

Before rejoining Hooker & Holcombe, Lemanski was with Milliman, serving most recently as principal and consulting actuary, where he was the lead actuary for a number of municipalities throughout Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

Lemanski graduated summa cum laude from Drew University with a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics and economics. He is an Enrolled Actuary and holds a number of professional designations including Fellow of the Society of Actuaries (FSA), Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries (FCA) and Member of the American Academy of Actuaries (MAAA). Lemanski is a board member for the Connecticut Public Pension Forum and is chairperson of the EA-1 Actuarial Examination Committee.

NEXT: TIAA Global Asset Management Names Chief Marketing Officer

TIAA Global Asset Management announced that Martha (Marty) Willis is joining its senior leadership team as chief marketing officer. 

Following last month’s TIAA Global Asset Management rebranding announcement, Willis’ appointment reflects the firm’s commitment to developing and executing a global marketing strategy as well as to supporting the organization’s ongoing expansion efforts. Willis will report to Rob Leary, TIAA Global Asset Management’s CEO.

Willis, with more than 30 years of financial services industry experience, has successfully implemented sophisticated global marketing strategies for a number of top-tier asset management firms where she has led brand strategy, digital and marketing communications, thought leadership and communications. She comes to TIAA Global Asset Management from OppenheimerFunds, where she served as the chief marketing officer and helped to rebrand the firm to support its global asset management strategy.

Prior to OppenheimerFunds, Willis spent 25 years at Fidelity Investments, where she led multiple marketing teams for both the retail and institutional business units. Well-regarded in the industry, Willis has been recognized as Fund Marketer of the Year, for Advertising Campaign of the Year, and has been named by Money Management Executive as one of the Top 15 Women in Asset Management for 2015.

“Marty has a passion and proven track record for transforming broad-based marketing programs, growing business, and leading high-performance teams to unprecedented success,” says Leary. “Her influential leadership presence and industry confidence will be instrumental to reinforcing our commitment for growing the business across geographies in order to better serve our clients’ needs and goals.”

The new hire builds upon the firm’s efforts to expand its asset management profile globally while also supporting TIAA’s core retirement and individual businesses and its more than 4 million customers. TIAA Global Asset Management has investments in more than 40 countries and collectively manages $861 billion in assets for millions of investors through a multi-boutique structure that offers clients access to specialist investment expertise across the asset class spectrum.

NEXT: Aberdeen Appoints Head of Distribution

Aberdeen Asset Management PLC appointed Campbell Fleming as global head of distribution.

Campbell will be responsible for Aberdeen’s global distribution platform encompassing 450 people across business development, product specialists, marketing and client service. He will also work closely with the senior management of all of Aberdeen’s investment capabilities.

Campbell is currently chief executive – EMEA of Columbia Threadneedle as well as global chief operating officer. He joined Threadneedle from JP Morgan in 2009 as head of distribution. He has in-depth knowledge of markets in Asia, Europe and the Americas and has an enviable track record of successfully managing distribution teams across a range of client channels, Aberdeen says. Last October, Campbell was named CEO of the Year at the Financial News Asset Management Awards.

Campbell succeeds John Brett, who stepped down from the role late last year. He will report to Martin Gilbert, chief executive, and will join Aberdeen’s Group Management Board.

Gilbert comments, “We are delighted to attract someone of Campbell’s caliber—this reflects the appeal of our global platform and our full-service capability across asset classes and strategies. After an in-depth worldwide search process, Campbell was identified as the outstanding candidate given his expertise and experience across client channels globally, including North America, which is a key focus for us.”