Fidelity Investments’s institutional money management arm, Pyramis Global Advisors, has tapped Mike Jones to serve as its new president and chief executive officer.
This new hire will give his predecessor Kevin Uebelein the freedom to launch a Fidelity business that will develop investment products to help institutional clients better manage risk in their benefit plans.
Before coming to Pyramis, Jones was president of the $326 billion U.S. asset management division of Columbia Management, a subsidiary of Ameriprise Financial.
Ameriprise had bought Columbia Management from Bank of America Corp. for $1 billion in April 2010.
Before the Ameriprise purchase, Jones had been in charge of all of Columbia. Earlier, he was Columbia’s head of distribution, handling the firm’s overall relationship management and distribution strategy, including the institutional and intermediary teams.
Jones will join Pyramis in mid-March and will report to Ronald P. O’Hanley, president of Fidelity Asset Management. He will also serve as Chairman of Pyramis.
“Mike brings tremendous institutional asset management experience in both investment and non-investment activities, and will ensure that Pyramis clients are receiving the full breadth of our world-class capabilities, while ensuring that we are delivering the highest levels of service and thought leadership,” said O’Hanley. “He is a proven executive leader with an exceptional track record in understanding the needs of institutional investors and aligning a business to successfully meet those needs.”
Meanwhile, Uebelein, Jones’ predecessor, will be given the title of global head of solutions delivery.
He will be in charge of launching a new business creating complex, multi-strategy products for institutional investors.
Leveraging experience and contacts he gained from leading Pyramis for four years and helping it grow globally, he will work closely with plan sponsors and consultants in removing risks of not meeting commitments of defined benefit retirement plans. This is a rapidly growing custom sector of the institutional marketplace.
Fidelity president O’Hanley says that this new business will help plan sponsors manage the “extraordinary challenges” related to volatile markets, changing demographics, mediocre equity returns, and persistently low interest rates.
“Kevin will lead Pyramis and the broader Fidelity organization in the development of solutions for our clients in this critical area,” says O’Hanley. “Through this focused effort, we intend to help plan sponsors manage both their current plan issues and, as importantly, implement successor plans that will help ensure a secure retirement for their participants.”
