Executive Moves

Putnam Replaces Managers On Three Funds With Veterans Brookby, Gao

Putnam President and CEO Robert L. Reynolds has replaced the managers of three funds to further bolster investment performance.

Effective immediately, Robert Brookby, currently the manager of the Putnam Growth Opportunities Fund, is taking on the added responsibility of the Putnam New Opportunities and the Putnam Vista funds. In addition, Pam Gao has been appointed manager of the Putnam Small Cap Growth Fund.

Brookby has been with Putnam for the past three years, and has more than a decade of experience. He was previously with American Century. Gao has been with Putnam since 2000 as a portfolio manager in the small-cap equity group. She has more than 11 years of experience in the investment industry.

"While we are pleased with the direction of our investment division and the overall results produced for investors in the last year, we are continuously looking at how to optimize our talent and resources to deliver upon the trust placed in Putnam by clients and investors," Reynolds said.

Institutional Investor last month named Putnam "Mutual Fund Manager of the Year." In February, Putnam was ranked No. 1 in Lipper/Barron's Best Mutual Fund Families.

Brookby and Gao replace Gerald Moore, who ran New Opportunities; Ray Hadded, who ran Vista; and Anthony Sutton, who was managed of Small Cap Growth. The three are no longer with Putnam.

Russell Selects O'Keeffe as Director of ETF Licensing

Russell Investments has hired Ken O'Keeffe as regional director, exchange-traded funds, to serve as an additional dedicated resource to support the firm's growing index-licensing business for ETFs funds. He comes to the firm from MSCI Barra, where he most recently served as global head of client service and also as chief administrative officer.

In addition, Jamie Forbes has been promoted to serve as regional director for ETFs for the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, based in London.

"Russell's index business is committed to innovation in the investable product space," said Rolf Agather, head of index research and innovation. "The licensing of Russell Indexes for a wide range of passive ETF products is a rapidly growing part of our business, and we're very pleased to have more talent pushing a stream of new products through the pipeline in conjunction with existing and new partners.

"That pipeline includes single-factor and global index products as well as alternative or non-market capitalization weighted index products," Agather said.

Elwood Joins Cipperman

Bob Elwood, a 20-year veteran of counseling financial institutions, has joined Cipperman & Co. as an attorney. During his career, Elwood has advised registered and unregistered funds, private equity and venture funds, as well as mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities pools, particularly on tax issues.

He most recently ran a private family office after spending 17 years at Dechert, where he was elected partner in 1997.

Nine BNY Offices to Close

As customers continue to move online, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. is closing nine wealth management branches that have been hit by a lack of foot traffic. The nine offices in Pittsburgh and the suburbs of New York and Philadelphia employ approximately 30 people.

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