The Board of Directors of Putnam Investments announced that Robert "Bob" Reynolds has been named president and CEO of Putnam Investments. Charles "Ed" Haldeman, current Putnam Investments' president and CEO, has been named chairman of Putnam Investment Management, LLC. Both appointments are effective July 1, 2008. Reynolds was vice chairman and COO of Fidelity Investments from 2000 to April 2007 when he abruptly retired at age 55. Reynolds was for some time considered the heir apparent to Fidelity Chairman Ned Johnson.
The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors announced at its annual meeting in May that its board had elected Diahann Lassus of Lassus Wherley in New Providence, New Jersey, as its next chair, succeeding Tom Orecchio. Lassus had headed NAPFA's Industry Issues committee.
George Curtis and Scott Friestad have been appointed as the new deputy directors of the SEC's Enforcement Division. Curtis and Friestad will be filling positions vacated by Peter Bresnan, who left the agency for private practice in January, and Walter Ricciardi, who recently announced his intention to leave the staff. Currently, Curtis is the regional director of the SEC's Denver Regional Office, and Friestad is an associate director in the Division of Enforcement in Washington, D.C.
Ken Ziesenheim joined The Crossley Shear Group, an independent firm of Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. Ziesenheim, who has contributed regularly to Investment Advisor, recently retired after serving as president of Thornburg Securities Corporation and managing director of Thornburg Investment Management for 13 years.
Fidelity Investments named Ronald Fiske as executive VP of product development and management for its Institutional Wealth Services business. Fiske will run Fidelity's new HybridOne program, which combines many of the services and products for Fidelity's RIA and broker/dealer clearing businesses on one platform. Fiske, who will report to Jack Callahan, president of Fidelity Institutional Wealth Services, most recently spent more than eight years at Pershing, including the last four as managing director of the company's product management and development group.