Gross Exits PIMCO for Janus

Gross will join Janus on September 29 and, effective October 6, he will manage a recently-launched Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund and related strategies. A new office is being established in Newport Beach, California, at which Gross will be based.

Janus said Gross will be responsible for building-out the firm’s efforts in global macro fixed income strategies and will join Myron Scholes, Ph.D., and other members of the Janus team focused on global asset allocation.

However, the company noted his “concentration on such strategies will be separate and complementary to Janus’ existing and highly successful credit-based fixed income platform, built under the leadership of Janus’ Fixed Income Chief Investment Officer, Gibson Smith.”

“I look forward to returning my full focus to the fixed income markets and investing, giving up many of the complexities that go with managing a large, complicated organization,” said Gross. “I chose Janus as my next home because of my long standing relationship with and respect for CEO Dick Weil and my desire to get back to spending the bulk of my day managing client assets. I look forward to a mutually supportive partnership with Fixed Income CIO Gibson Smith and his team; they have delivered excellent results across their strategies, which deserve more attention.”

“Bill Gross has an exemplary track record with decades of success and he will offer an exceptional approach to navigating today’s increasingly risky markets with a focus on macro, unconstrained strategies. His involvement provides Janus a unique opportunity to offer strategies and products that are highly complementary to those already managed by our credit-based fixed income team,” said Richard M. Weil, Chief Executive Officer of Janus Capital Group, in a statement announcing the hire.

Deputy Takes CIO Helm at PIMCO

Daniel Ivascyn will replace Gross as group chief investment officer at PIMCO. He has been deputy chief investment officer since January, when the firm created a structure of six deputy CIOs after former co-CEO Mohamed El-Erian left. (See “PIMCOAppoints Leadership Team.”)

Ivascyn, a managing director in the Newport Beach, California, office, is a lead portfolio manager for the firm’s credit hedge fund and mortgage opportunistic strategies. He is a member of PIMCO’s executive committee and a member of the Investment Committee. Morningstar named him Fixed-Income Fund Manager of the Year (U.S.) for 2013. Before coming to PIMCO in 1998, he worked at Bear Stearns in the asset-backed securities group, as well as T. Rowe Price and Fidelity Investments.

Ivascyn has 23 years of investment experience and holds a master’s of business administration degree in analytic finance from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Occidental College.

The five other CIOs are Andrew Balls, Mark Kiesel, Virginie Maisonneuve, Scott Mather and Mihir Worah.