Northern Trust Names New CIO

January 27, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Northern Trust announced today that Robert P. Browne has joined as Northern Trust's Chief Investment Officer.

Browne, 43, joins Northern Trust from ING Investment Management in Atlanta, Georgia, which he joined in 2004 and most recently served as Chief Investment Officer for Fixed Income and Proprietary Investments. Browne fills a vacancy in the CIO position created by the retirement from Northern Trust of Orie Dudley, who had led the investment team for more than eight years (see Northern Trust Global Names Dudley CIO ).

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According to the announcement, Browne has held senior investment management positions in Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. With Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, his work included serving as Managing Director and Co-head of North American fixed income teams. Earlier in his career, Browne held senior fixed income portfolio manager positions at JP Morgan in Japan and the U.K.

Browne is based in Chicago and reports directly to Stephen N. Potter, president of Northern Trust Global Investments.

“Bob Browne is a seasoned professional with the depth and range of experience to effectively lead our investment team at a critical time – a time of turmoil in the global financial markets, but also of great opportunity for a stable, reliable and innovative financial institution such as Northern Trust,” Potter said. “With his background in global investment management, Bob combines a relentless focus on performance with excellence in risk management that will serve our institutional and personal investors well.”

“During Orie’s tenure as CIO, we have seen an unprecedented growth in assets under management, dynamic changes to our investment business model, expansion in our global product mix and significant improvement in our investment processes and performance,” Potter said. “Orie’s contributions to these developments have been invaluable and we are grateful for his leadership.”

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