Russell Investmentshas promoted Len Brennan to president and chief executive officer, succeeding Andrew Doman, who is now chairman of the board.
Ed Zore, who had been chairman since 2008, will remain on the board as a director.
Brennan recently rejoined Russell as chief executive officer of the Europe, Middle East and Africa business. He will continue in that position, in addition to his new titles. He also will serve as a director on the board.
Dating back to 1985, Brenan has spent most of his career at Russell. This includes as managing director of individual investor services, overseeing Russell's third-party funds distribution business and individual investor services in the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, South Africa, Canada and Australia.
Before that, Brennan managed the firm's Toronto and London offices. From 2005 to 2011, Brennan was president and CEO of Rainier Investment Management.
"Russell has held an important place in my life for more than 25 years, so I am deeply honored to accept the position of president and CEO, and I am fortunate to have such a strong global leadership team to work side-by-side with me," Brennan said. "I want to thank Andrew Doman for his many contributions to the company. Russell is clearly a stronger and better-positioned firm than it was when Andrew joined us."
Brennan added, "Looking forward, my priorities for Russell are to constantly evolve our business in order to meet the changing needs of our clients globally, while preserving the DNA that has made this company exceptional for 75 years. I am committed to ensuring that our core values and purpose as an organization remain unchanging guideposts for everything that we do."
Doman commented: "I believe we have found in Len the right successor to take Russell to the next stage of the firm's growth. Len is one of the architects of what Russell is today. The rest of the board and I are confident that he possesses the right mix of visionary leadership and ties to Russell's rich legacy to effectively lead the organization forward."
Russell Indexes Names
Unger Plan Sales Director
Russell Investments has appointed Shelton "Shellie" Unger as director of plan sponsor sales for Russell Indexes. A 30-year veteran of financial services, Unger will work with the sponsor community, as well as foundations, endowments and consultants, and reports to Kevin Lohman, managing director of sales for Russell Indexes.
"With the significant challenges plan sponsors face today, such as increasing market volatility, decreasing funding ratios and the uncertain market and investment climate, retirement plan sponsors need access to high-quality benchmarking tools to make well-informed asset allocation decisions," Lohman said. "Shellie brings incredible insight into the needs of the plan sponsor community with a proven track record of building and motivating world-class service teams to address these needs."
Unger comes to Russell from Vanguard, where she spent 25 years of her career, helping to build a variety of successful business teams serving different aspects of the institutional retirement market.
State Street to Cut 850
Technology Employees
State Street Corporation plans to reduce its technology staff by 850 employees, as part of a multi-year transformation of how it manages its information systems.
The provider of financial services to institutional investors said it will transfer employment of 320 State Street technology employees who do not deal with customers to two providers of computer and consulting services: IBM, based in the United States, and Wipro Technologies, based in India.
Another 530 people will be let go over the next 18 to 20 months. They will receive severance and outplacement services.
This is in keeping with State Street's intention, stated Nov. 30, to cut 5% of its workforce, as it accelerates its investment in new technologies such as "private processing clouds" and "lean methodologies" of operating.
Roughly 1,400 jobs will be trimmed through the end of this year as part of a four-year program to enhance customer service, increase efficiency and support growth.
At the time, State Street said it expected to recognize restructuring costs of approximately $400 million to $450 million over four years, beginning in the fourth quarter of 2010. It expects "slight pre-tax cost savings" in 2011. By 2014, the annual savings should be roughly $600 million.
Nearly all of the employees affected by the announcement are located in North America. State Street employs approximately 4,000 IT employees worldwide.
State Street said it would expand relationships with IBM and Wipro to support its technology infrastructure, application maintenance and support systems
State Street's own people will be more focused on research and development, it said.
"Our business operations and IT transformation program reflects our commitment to maintaining an advantage that supports our continued growth in an increasingly competitive global environment," said James S. Phalen, EVP and head of global operations, technology and product development. "While making changes that impact a number of our employees is never easy, we believe that this move is a necessary step that will allow us to better deploy our resources in line with our core competencies."
