Columbia Management has added two key staff members to the defined contribution investment only (DCIO) business and consultant relations.
Toby Cromwell has been promoted to lead the institutional DCIO efforts. A 24-year veteran of the investment management industry, Cromwell has spent the past three years of his career leading consultant relations at Columbia Management. For 13 years, he was at Invesco Institutional as a partner and vice president on its defined contribution team, among other roles.
Columbia has hired Kathleen Kennedy, also a longtime industry veteran, to head consultant relations. She spent 12 years at Robeco Investment Management, with 11 of those years leading the consultant relations effort. Additionally, she was a vice president of institutional sales for AUM and spent eight years at MFS Investment Management, working in asset management and equity research.
"Columbia Management continues to see multiple investment opportunities in the marketplace," said Jeff Peters, head of global institutional. "These additions to our DCIO business and consultant relations will help us further leverage our strong investment capabilities for DC clients of all sizes, including the mid-, large- and mega-size plan sponsors."
Fidelity Clearing Canada Names COO, CCO, CFO
Fidelity Clearing Canada has named a new chief operating officer, chief financial officer and chief compliance officer.
Thomas A. White is now COO, Ronald White CFO and Bryan Moffitt CCO. All three report to William J. Henderson, CEO of Fidelity Clearing Canada.
"With combined average experience of more than 20 years, Tom, Ron and Bryan are very well-known and respected leaders within their disciplines, each possessing a deep knowledge and understanding of the Canadian clearing market and broker-dealer industry," Henderson said. "Each will play a key role in helping our clients create greater operational and growth efficiencies."
COO White comes to the firm from Merrill Lynch Canada, where he spent 27 years, most recently as director and vice president of global markets and investment banking.
CFO White joins Fidelity from Bank of Nova Scotia in Toronto, where he served as CFO of Scotia iTrade, formerly E*Trade Canada.
Moffitt comes to Fidelity from RBC Direct Investing, where he was COO and the primary contact for interaction with all of Canada's regulatory bodies.
In conjunction with these hirings, Fidelity Clearing Canada also announced that Investment Technology Group's ITG Canada division has selected it to provide securities clearing, bringing Fidelity Clearing Canada's broker-dealer customer base to seven within its first year of operation. For this customer base, Fidelity clears 260,000 trades a month.
McCombe Co-President of Richard Bernstein
Richard Bernstein Advisors has hired John McCombe as co-president and director of sales and marketing.
Richard Bernstein Advisors founder and Chief Executive Officer Richard Bernstein said: "John's well-established track record in creating and distributing products through financial professionals speaks for itself. John has been very successful helping smaller asset managers get shelf space in the very crowded mutual fund arena, and he has strong relationships with key distribution partners. He will work with David Bloom, co-president and chief operating officer, and me to set strategic direction for the firm and to grow assets under management."
McCombe was previously director of sales and marketing at Cohen & Steers. He was also instrumental in helping Tortoise Capital Advisors raise more than $1 billion in a closed-end fund offering in July.
Over his 13 years at Cohen & Steers, McCombe was the chief architect of their retail fund and distribution business through the major wirehouses and fund supermarkets and was responsible for their marketing, communications and website. He helped grow Cohen & Steers' assets from approximately $2 billion when he joined to $35 billion at their peak across open-end funds, closed-end funds and separately managed accounts. He was also instrumental in helping Cohen & Steers go public in 2004.
Previously, McCombe spent 14 years at Merrill Lynch in a variety of sales and marketing roles, including, most notably, seven years in retail syndicate, where he focused on closed-end fund IPOs and raised more than $70 billion for various asset managers.
John holds a BS in finance from Fordham University, where he has also taught, and an MBA in accounting from Pace University, and he sits on several not-for-profit boards.
Dreman Value Announces CIO Succession Plan
David Dreman, a pioneer in contrarian investment and chairman and chief investment officer of Dreman Value Management, has announced that industry veteran E. Clifton Hoover will succeed him as chief investment officer.
Hoover joined Dreman in 2006 as co-CIO, co-director of research, portfolio manager and managing director. He will accept his new role on Oct. 31.
Dreman will continue as chairman, a member of the investment committee and manager of the Dreman High Opportunity Fund and the Dreman Market Overreaction Fund.
"Cliff has already made an important mark on Dreman Value Management, and I have every reason to believe he'll continue to build on the sound investment principles we've applied at this company for more than three decades," Dreman said.
