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.

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