News

Emerging Managers Unsure On Ennis Knupp Sale To Hewitt

The announced acquisition of Ennis Knupp + Associates by Hewitt Associates created a $3 trillion investment consulting behemoth that the firms say will be able to attract large plan sponsors.
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Callan Connects Off To Strong Start, Firm Says

Twenty-five manager introductions into Callan Associates’ emerging manager initiative, Lauren Etcheverry, leader of the program, has come away impressed.
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Fixed-Income Rises To Top In Q2 Report

Fixed-income returned to the top of quarterly rankings as the equity markets took a hit last quarter, according to EMM’s second quarter performance report.
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InFocus

Hewitt|EnnisKnupp Mgr. Research Head Preps For Merger

Ian Peart is a busy man these days. As head of global manager research at Hewitt Associates, he is responsible for overseeing the manager research for an organization that advises to more than 120 clients. He is also responsible for preparing the firm for the integration of the manager research efforts of recentlyacquired Ennis Knupp + Associates, which provides advice to 167 clients.
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Michigan Municipal Discusses EM Program

The Municipal Employees Retirement System of Michigan has launched a new Web site for emerging managers interested in being considered for the plan’s emerging manager program.
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Marketing

Perritt Sees Big Opportunities In Micro-Cap For Institutions

Institutions can always look back at a year and generally pinpoint the moment when a particular investment strategy went from a niche play to a common part of a well-diversified portfolio.
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Stux Adds Marketing Director

Meredith Genova has been named director of marketing and client relations at Stux Capital Management. Genova, previously a director at AllianceBernstein, will be responsible for leading Stux’s marketing and sales efforts for new clients and servicing existing clients.
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Launches

Pacific Ridge Capital Looks To Return To Benson Associates Roots

A former investment team from Wells Capital Management and Benson Associates has reunited to launch Pacific Ridge Capital Partners, a domestic small-cap value equity firm.
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New Value Equity Firm Linde, Hansen Not Afraid To Avoid Index

Linde, Hansen & Co. is looking to shed the “box” mentality of the institutional world and provide the one thing that all investors really want–returns.
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Searches

Maryland Eyes Alternatives

The $33.7 billion Maryland State Retirement & Pension System has issued RFIs for one or more managers to develop emerging manager private equity, hedge fund and real estate programs.
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ISBI Issues Bond RFP

The $9.9 billion Illinois State Board of Investment has issued its RFP for emerging intermediate government credit fixed-income managers. The RFP is available on the plan’s Web site (www.isbi.illinois.gov) and proposals are due Aug. 16.
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Alternatives

Albourne To Launch Real Assets Advisory Service In Q4

Investment consulting firm Albourne will launch an expanded real assets advisory service during the fourth quarter of 2010, said David Harmston, partner and global head of the client group at the firm.
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Fund-of-Funds Palmer Square Looks To Build Out Emerging Fund

Palmer Square Funds has received a $25 million anchor investment from the Omaha (Neb.) School Employees Retirement System for a new emerging manager fund.
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Little Black Book

MassPRIM Names Exec. Director

Michael Trotsky was named the new executive director of the $41.3 billion Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board at a board meeting yesterday, said Catherine Gropp, spokeswoman for State Treasurer and Trustee Timothy Cahill.
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Sacramento City CIO Departs

Thomas Berke, cio of the $307 million Sacramento (Calif.) City Employees Retirement System, left the city in March, confirmed City Treasurer Russell Fehr.
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Industry News

GSO Names Institutional Marketing Heads

Eric Storch and John Cashwell have joined GSO Capital Partners from Seix Investment Advisors to serve as managing directors and co-heads of institutional marketing for GSO’s customized credit strategies group, the credit arm of The Blackstone Group announced.
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Putnam Names Director of Investment Retirement Solutions

W. Van Harlow has been named director of investment retirement solutions at Putnam Investments, the firm announced.
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Conference Coverage

Emerging Managers Get Put Through ‘Bootcamp’

The following is a recap from the 1st Annual Bootcamp put on by RG & Associates prior to the 7th Annual Plan Sponsor & Minority Manager Consortium held last month in New York. 
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‘Marketing Never Ends’

Marketing may never end, as the first panel at the Bootcamp said, but knowing where it begins is sometimes even harder to discern.
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Letter To The Editor

Greycourt Adds Research Staff

Greycourt & Co. has hired Matt Litwin as a director to its alternative manager research team, the firm announced.
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Management Team Buys Back Thomson, Horstmann & Bryant

Investment management firm Thomson, Horstmann & Bryant will become 100% employee-owned following a management-led buyout from parent company Old Mutual Asset Management.
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Expert Advice

Best Practice and Common Practice Not One and the Same

Separating what is done out of convention, habit and convenience from what is actually well thought out and meaningful is crucial in making decisions about managers.
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Picking The Right Manager, A 3PM Critique

Steve Rubenstein of third party marketing firm Arrow Partners provides insight into how 3PMs evaluate investment managers 
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What's In A Name?

What’s In A Name?

It probably wouldn’t surprise many Americans if the London-based Bedlam Asset Management ’s name came from the word’s literal definition, especially when thinking back to all those videos of soccer hooligans taking over the streets.
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Through My Eyes

The Case For Trend Following

There was a time when investors could place their faith in the fact that stocks generally tended to rise. To capture the returns available in the stock market, one could simply buy and hold a mutual fund or index fund to realize the goal of long term capital appreciation. The approach worked for so long that pension funds, endowments and millions of Americans are still holding on, even as gains from the previous twelve years evaporate in a relative instant.
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