Putnam Investments announced Monday that it has created a new leadership structure in its fixed income investment operations.
William Kohli, Michael Salm and Paul Scanlon—who have a combined 40 years of experience at Putnam—will co-head the firm's fixed income team of over 60 investment professionals who manage nearly $60 billion.
Kohli, Salm and Scanlon, who will report directly to Walter Donovan, chief investment officer, previously served as team leaders for Portfolio Construction and Global Strategies, Liquid Markets, and U.S. High Yield, respectively. Rob Bloemker, who has led the firm's fixed income team since late 2007, has decided to leave Putnam Investments. Bloemker, who moved to the West Coast two years ago with his family, has been operating as leader of the fixed income team on a bicoastal basis. He will remain at Putnam through a transition period.
"Over the years, Putnam has built a comprehensive fixed income capability driven by an extraordinarily deep and talented team who have worked together, in many cases, for well over ten years and have produced consistently solid results for institutions, advisors and shareholders," said Robert Reynolds (left), president and chief executive officer of Putnam Investments, in a statement. He noted the "unusual breadth of expertise" in areas such as investment-grade and high-yield credit, liquid markets, structured credit, emerging-market debt, money markets, portfolio construction and tax-exempt securities.
"We expect our fixed income sector specialists, under the leadership of Bill, Michael and Paul—and ultimately, CIO Walter Donovan—to continue their superb, differentiating work, and even further elevate Putnam's presence in the marketplace," he added.
In discussing the new team structure, Donovan said, "We believe that expanding the top leadership ranks of our fixed income platform will allow each of its sector specialist teams to have even greater focus, direction and strategic coordination, resulting in even stronger offerings to clients as we move forward. I look forward to working more closely with Bill, Michael and Paul, three proven investment leaders, to take this critical part of our business to the next level."
Donovan explained that the Putnam fixed income investment group has used a team-managed approach with regard to its array of products, given the interdisciplinary expertise needed on many of the more sophisticated solutions. Following the transition period, portfolio management responsibilities previously undertaken by Bloemker will be assumed by other members of the respective product teams, including Kohli, Salm and Scanlon.
