Putnam said that Michael Mufson, who helped manage the OTC & Emerging Growth fund, and Dana Clark, who helped manage the Vista fund will both be leaving early this month. Clark had been with Putnam for 16 years, while Mufson started in 1993.
The firm has been plagued by poor performance in its more aggressive stock funds and has seen investors withdraw their money. In an attempt to reverse this trend, Putnam has announced a number of other changes in an attempt to find the right mix on its management teams.
Recently, the Boston-based firm hired Walton Pearson and David Santos to join its Voyager fund, which currently holds around $17.6 billion in assets. The pair will attempt to breathe new life into the fund, which is currently managed by Brian OToole, Eric Wetlaufer and Tony Elavia. Voyager has lost an average of 20% annually over the last three years, which is fairly comparable to the losses incurred by growth funds.
Putnam also announced that Kevin Divney, Paul Marrkand and Justin Scott have been added to the Putnam Vista fund. They will assist lead manager Eric Watlaufer and Kenneth Doerr in running the $3.7 billion fund.
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The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.
