Putnam Investments has announced that Charles E. "Ed" Haldeman Jr., has stepped down from his position as president of the Putnam Funds. Robert L. Reynolds, president and CEO of Putnam Investments and a trustee of the Putnam Funds, has replaced Haldeman as president of the Putnam Funds.
Since joining Putnam on July 1, 2008, Reynolds has taken a number of steps to improve performance and strengthen Putnam's investment unit, the company says, including: the restructuring of Putnam's equity investment division to boost individual fund manager accountability and responsibility and realign manager and analyst incentives to reward those who deliver top-quartile results for clients, and the introduction of products such as the industry's first suite of target absolute-return mutual funds.
Putnam says that its absolute-return funds, launched on January 13 of this year, had nearly $150 million in assets as of March 31. During their first 10 weeks, more than 180 broker-dealer and investment advisory firms began offering the suite on their platforms and nearly 1,300 financial advisors sold the funds.
Reynolds also recently proposed a retirement-reform agenda based on strengthening 401(k)s to reliably deliver lifelong income to workers.
